"When's God Gonna Show Up?"
by Marge Fenelon
Marge Fenelon will tell you she doesn't know when God is going to pop into every-day life, but she has a knack for finding the divine in just about every aspect of human existence.
Fenelon's brief, two- and three-page stories come from the things that happen in her home, in the ophthalmologist's office, as the van starts making a funny noise, you-name-it. They're often funny, mostly poignant slices of the life of a 21st-century wife and mom, and they're not unlike the incidents in your home and mine.
What Fenelon does, though, is find God lurking in the corner, creeping into mind, finding a way to influence her thinking and her actions in all those every-day moments.
Great conversation starter
Fenelon suggests you don't read this book from cover to cover but one scoop at a time -- a story a week. There is a lesson in each chapter/story, and each is worth savoring, processing, reflecting on. And those book follows the church year chronologically, with a special back section on feast days.
Each story ends with two elements to help readers get to that reflective end: They are questions -- "What does Scripture say?" and "What does my heart say?" -- that teach (the Scripture piece) and force readers to internalize the lesson.
I can see how a formal faith-sharing group could use a chapter as an easy way to get a discussion started, especially a moms' group.
But I also can see spouses sharing this book -- "Honey, you've got to read this and tell me what you think!" -- and finding their communication blossoming.
Fenelon writes a regular column for the Catholic Herald, the Milwaukee archdiocesan newspaper, and thanks go to Liguori for getting this 163-page paperback into circulation.
The best thing about "When's God Gonna Show Up?" is that reading Marge Fenelon's wonderful book, you're going to start finding God in your life, too. -- bz
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