Marian Helper Winter 2012-2013

THE ‘ONE THING’ IS THREE H OW THE M OST H OLY T RINITY E XPLAINS E VERYTHING B Y M ICHAEL E. G AITLEY , MIC (F R . J OSEPH , MIC) M ARIAN P RESS , 390 PP ., $14.95, A VAILABLE N OV . 15 P RODUCT C ODE : B17-ONE I f you’re like my brother and sister, The ‘One Thing’ Is Three may make ideal reading for the Year of Faith. My sister has seven kids, homeschools, and doesn’t have a lot of time to study theology. My brother also has a family and a demanding job — he, too, can’t delve deeply into theology. So, I wrote this book in a style that’s easy to understand, as a kind of “crash course” in Catholic theology for busy people. The heart of the book is my search for the “one thing” that could bring together everything I learned in my more than 15 years of theology studies. During those many years of listening to lectures, reading numerous books, and writing hundreds of papers, I was always looking for the one thing that could provide a key to the Church’s wisdom. Now, having written this book as a recently ordained priest, I believe I’ve found it. It’s the greatest mystery of our faith and not really a thing at all but rather three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — the Most Holy Trinity. Unfortunately, the Trinity is often seen as esoteric, obscure, and outside of normal life. The ‘One Thing’ Is Three is meant to change that. It’s meant to bring the Trinity home to our hearts, to make diffi- cult theology easier to understand, and to share the highlights of my 15-year search for the one thing. Let me share a highlight that changed the way I view heaven. As a child, I figured heaven was a spectator sport: all the saints and us watching God do what He does. Now, I know that heaven is our participation in the very life and love of the Trinity. We get in on the action, which should make us incredibly happy. Learn more about how we get in on the action by reading my book. MY BROTHER, THE POPE B Y G EORG R ATZINGER AS T OLD TO M ICHAEL H ESEMANN I GNATIUS P RESS , H ARDCOVER WITH PHOTOS OF THE R ATZINGER F AMILY , 270 PP ., $24.95 P RODUCT C ODE : B17-MBTP I f you want an inspiring example of how a strong Catholic family can nurture vocations to the priesthood and even give us a Pope, I highly recommend this book. In this memoir on Pope Benedict XVI, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, the Pope’s older brother, starts by sharing about their parents’ strong character and the family’s deep Catholic roots in Bavaria. He recalls with fondness how their family life centered on the liturgical year at home and in the parish, enriched by many Bavarian customs. The family’s Catholic faith sustained them through the horrors of World War II and helped foster in both Georg and Joseph (the future Pope) their vocations to the priesthood. As Georg writes poignantly of his reunion with his family after the war ended: Even before I said anything, I sat right down at the piano and played the Te Deum : “Holy God, we praise Thy Name.” To me, it was no coincidence that we could all be together again but, rather, a providential arrangement … . The fact that we had come through so many trying situations during the war unscathed confirmed us both, my brother and me, in our conviction that God had plans for us. …We literally looked death in the face. That brought with it a certain new orientation and caused us to suddenly treasure many things we had previously taken for granted. Yet it confirmed us all the more in our intention to try to become priests. Georg also shares insights into how particular qualities from each of their parents helped form Joseph’s character to give us the Pope we know today: My brother “inherited” a lot from our mother. Like her, he is very tenderhearted; he loves animals and flowers. … He got that from our mother, and from our father somehow his rational side. These two qualities of our parents combined in him in a special way. Online at www.marian.org/catalog/b17 o r call 1-800-462-7426. 6 M ARIAN H ELPER • W INTER 2012-13 • www.marian.org