Last December I had the opportunity to review Anthony DeStefano's children's book Little Star. DeStefano is one of my favorite authors so I was delighted to receive his newest book, The Invisible World, to review.
This book is a short and simple read. That is one reason I enjoy DeStefano's writing so much- he doesn't get overly complicated. You don't have to be a theology or philosophy major to understand what what he is trying to explain.
DeStefano dives into the unseen world of spiritual realities. Now this isn't some New Age-y, pie-in-the-sky, doing-yoga-on-a-mountaintop spirituality. He uses Scripture and tradition to back up his claims. This is the real, nitty gritty stuff.
He starts off by explaining we all have a "haunt detector"- that feeling you get when you know something other-worldly is going on about you. That makes us a little more in tune to the spiritual happenings going on around us.
What spiritual realities does DeStefano write about? First and foremost- God. He is invisible, and is so for a reason. He is so vastly outside our realm of understanding, yet he is our Creator and Father. Our God is indeed an awesome God.
He then writes about the nature of angels and demons and our very own souls. This leads up to his chapter of the invisible battle for our souls. The stuff he writes about is real and scary, but he presents it in a way that doesn't scare the bejesus out of you; it really makes you think.
He then writes about the gift of grace and how that helps us in our everyday life.
My favorite chapter was about our final destination- heaven or hell. He writes about judgement, the end of times and the resurrection of the body. It is really fascinating how he presents our afterlife.
DeStefano uses a lot of personal stories and humor to really explain his points. There are many things that he wrote that just made me stop and and be in wonderment at our God. Somethings he wrote about just boggled my mind and really made me think. I wish he would have reached a little more into Catholic theology-Purgatory, sacraments, community of saints, for example, but he wrote this book for all Christian denominations to enjoy, so he kept the view pretty open theologically.
I really enjoyed this book. It definitely made me want to go to confession!
Mr. DeStefano has been generous enough to give me TWO autographed copies to give away to you fabulous readers! To qualify you can do two things:
1. Leave a comment- easy peasy!
and
2. Follow my blog and leave a comment letting me know you did so. If you already follow my blog leave a comment telling me that you are a follower!
Do this by 1:00 p.m. (CST) on Friday, August 5 and I will announce the winners later that afternoon!!
If you'd like to read more about Anthony DeStefano and his other books, you can visit his website here.
13 comments:
I would love to receive a copy, and I am very interested in spiritual warfare and unseen realities! It sounds really great!
Sounds interesting!
I've already been following your blog! And thanks so much for the giveaway! This looks like a fabulous book!
Done and Done!
I would love to get a copy of this book. Spiritual warfare is something I am becoming increasingly aware of and I'd like to learn more
Oh yeah and I'm a follower, too. :)
I am looking for my next book to read and it has been far too long since reading something distinctly Catholic! I'd love to win!
I'm a follower via Google!
Yay for such a great and useful giveaway! Here's a-hopin'!
and I most certainly DO follow your blog :).
-Alzbeta
I already follow your blog. :) This book sounds really interesting!
Looks like a really interesting book!
This is Sandy Dean - I think the tag will say anonymous.
Follower... Stalker... :-) Since I have to read your blog from work I can't actually sign up as a follower, so I think that makes me a stalker, not in a bad way though. And I am always looking for my next read. Still need to have you guys over, let me know what your calendar looks like.
Post a Comment