A book recommendation

If you are considering giving a gift to a priest or deacon for Christmas or another occasion, let me recommend to you The Gospel of Matthew by Curtis Mitch and Edward Sri. Published by Baker Academic, the volume is part of the Catholic Commentary on Scripture series (though, curiously, the volume is not currently listed on the web site).

Released just in time for the beginning of the new liturgical year, the book is bound to be a great resource for the preparation of homilies during the coming year when the Gospel accounts (on Sundays, at least) are largely taken from Saint Matthew's Gospel.

Previously, I have found Mary Healy's volume on The Gospel of Mark of tremendous value, both because of its academic aspects and because of its spiritual insights. The Gospel of Matthew promises to be just as fruitful.

Two new books you should get

Friday I stopped in Effingham for dinner with several friends and stopped by the local Christian bookstore before hand on my way from a meeting in Mattoon.

I was looking for Francis Cardinal George's new book, The Difference God Makes and found two recently released books from Baker Academic in their Catholic Commentary on Scripture series: II Corinthians and Ephesians. I've used the volume on Mark extensively and highly recommend it.

If you haven't looked at this series yet, be sure to do so.

An excellent resource

If you're looking for a great book to help with a Bible Study - both for a group or for you individually - let me recommend to you the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series. I'd seen it advertised in jounals like First Things and decided to order the volume on The Gospel of Mark by Mary Healy.

Dr. Healy provides an introduction to the Gospel of Mark, and then procedes to comment on the text of the Gospel, giving both an historical and spiritual background.

The evidence of her research is seen clearly through the excellent connections between the Gospel and the Old Testament.

The volume provides the places in the Lectionary where a particular passage is found, as well as Old Testament foreshadowings and New Testament parallels, and commentaries in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

I used this volume to help prepare my homily for this weekend (the text of which I have abandoned in light of the auto accident, for which reason there is no homily post this week); this may be the best Scripture commentary I've seen.

You can read an excert from the book here. I look forward to seeing other volumes in this series.