Reads 2014: Hiking the Camino

I wrote this back in the very beginning of the year and I am now finally hitting publish.  Pardon me for my tardiness.  

Another year means another book list.  I hope anyone who stumbles upon this blog or reads it regularly (bless your little hearts) isn't completely bored by my reviews.  I do it more for myself to keep a list of books I have read but I only write reviews of books I actually enjoyed and encourage others to read, otherwise I just list them in my list.  Enough of the chit chat.

 If you couldn't pick up from the title Hiking the Camino is Fr. Dave Pivonka's story of hiking 500 miles of the Camino de Santigo, also known as the Way of St. James,  a pilgrimage in Spain to the Church where St. Jame's the apostle is buried. The book makes you feel like you are having a conversation with Fr. Dave about his joys, struggles, and spiritual insights while hiking.  I am not going to even pretend to tell you how good this book is but let some of the quotes speak for itself. 

"I have heard it said that purgatory is full of people who did more than God asked of them."

boom.

"I realized that I had been going after what God wanted rather than going after God.  Christ was inviting me to surrender what I wanted to know and simply seek him, seek his face, listen to his voice.  Jesus was inviting me to a deeper union with him.  And it was there, nearer to his heart, that I would discover his will for me."

boom.

"The goal of every Christian ought to be to love more perfectly-and ultimately to get to heaven.  I want to be clear:  We are  not going to just fall into heaven.  It is literally harder than hell to get to heaven.  It cost Jesus his life to open the gates and it will cost us the same."

boom.

" 'Normal' Christian living just isn't going to cut it; it never has, and it never will.  Lukewarm Christianity nauseates God (see Revelation 3:15-16)!  Our response to Christ's call-and we each have a call-must be total, and it must be radical.  WE have to be willing to offer everything we are to God."

boom.

I actually got this book for my dad for Chirstmas and I am so glad that I did.  Read it.