Review: Habits for Holiness

 

Fr. Mark-Mary Ames is a monk in the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, the order Fr. Benedict Groeschel helped start.  Fr. Ames and the order’s other monks live in a poor area of the Bronx, New York.  I recall how Fr Groeschel had only one monk’s habit and just repaired all the tears.  These monks live with little to help their neighbors who have nothing.  This book shows (with great examples) how we can take small steps, little changes, to become more holy.

Fr. Ames writes about a topic, prayer, family, culture, simplicity, love for the poor, and general priorities we’ve all learned on keeping ourselves healthy.  The he stops and asks:  What if …?  He doesn’t say what we should do, he asks us to think.  Then, if we agree to take a step, he gives a nudge: How will you do that, and not fall back?  He helps us see and consider changing our behaviors which will have major impacts on our spiritual well-being, and on those around us in need.

When Fr. Ames wrote about Christian culture, he wrote this Question For Reflection:  If someone who had only read about Christianity visited my home or looked at my playlist or my bank statement, would that person see a reflection of what they had read?  When he talks about simplicity: Do I feel an internal pressure and desire to own things, which pushes me?  At one point he asks: If we invited a refugee or a struggling mother of four who didn’t know where their next meal was coming from into our homes, would we be embarrassed by what they saw?  And at another point Fr. Ames asks:  Do I hesitate to love others because “they don’t deserve it”?  All these questions basically ask us to reflect on a much bigger question:  How much do we REALLY love our neighbor, AND: You DO remember that is a commandment… right?

This is a great book; it makes you look at yourself in a mirror to consider if you are really living a Christian life, the one Jesus said we needed to live in order to enter His kingdom.  Fr. Ames seems to basically ask: Am I making a difference in this world, as Jesus did?  The book’s sub-title is: Small Steps for Making Big Spiritual Progress.  Those words seem to say that this book is for those who want to make spiritual progress, but I assure you, if you read this book you WILL want to make progress, and you’ll see how easy it is.