Fleeting Glimpses of the Silly, Sentimental and Sublime - A Review


 
Here’s the latest review from award winning author, Karen Kelly Boyce.

 
This book is still available for only $.99. What are you waiting for? Get your copy HERE!


In this fascinating collection of short stories and essays, author Michael Seagriff, leads the reader into a multi-generational world view that includes humor, common sense, and a sense of the eternal. He looks back in time to his beloved father and introduces the reader to a man who put his family before himself and depended on God for all things.


"You never acquired the power, property, and prestige that so many in this world admire, value, seek and equate with success and greatness. You saw those items as `fool's gold' and chose to live a more simple but difficult life - a life of quiet dignity, hard work, good example, perseverance, loving concern, and faith in the Almighty."

We, while sharing some of Seagriff's memories, are introduced to the family that made him the author he is today. And yet Seagriff doesn't limit himself to past generations. He shares with us his love of the Eucharist. His devotion to Christ in the form of Bread is evident in his words of devotion and his despair over the neglect of other believers.

"How can that be for a Church and its members who are called to make the Eucharist, the source, center and summit of their lives? How can Love Himself be in our midst and so few care to be in His Presence?"

For me the highlight of this collection of works is when the author likens the neglect of Jesus in his Eucharistic form to that of a prisoner and extorts us to follow Christ's instructions `to visit the prisoner.' I had never thought of the tabernacle in quite this way - as God held prisoner in the form of bread for me. I will now never forget this insight into the Love of Jesus. Each of this author's tales touched me deeply, each building on the previous and deepening my understanding of how the past, the present, and the future are connected. Not all the short essays are so serious, interspersed between profound tales are tales of humor that made me laugh out loud. Yet, each story reminded me that those who love us and those whom we love are connected by the ever present Love of God, especially as he visits us in His Eucharistic form. While reaching into the past, Seagriff keeps his eye on the future - his own children - and completes the circle of this faith-filled love with words such as:

"Please do me one more favor. Every now and then, ponder the following truths and live your lives accordingly: "God made me. God loves me. God wishes to spend eternity with me!"

I found this collection easy to read and easy to understand, but profound in its message. I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy short stories and love stories of faith and courage.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Monday Musings - What If?

  My all time favorite one sentence sermon by Father Francis Hudson, S.C.J.   : What if God loved you, only as much as you loved Him? Now th...

PRAYER TO BE PRESERVED FROM SUDDEN DEATH

MOST AMIABLE JESUS "I humbly implore Thee by Thy ignominious Scourging, The Crowning with Thorns, Thy Holy Cross, and by all Thy Goodness, not to permit me to pass out of this world without having received Thy most holy Sacraments." -Prayer of St. Vincent Ferrer

PRAYER OF ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA

"Eternal Father, all things are possible for You. Although You created us without our assistance, You will not save us unless we help. Therefore, I pray You re-create their wills so that they wish for what they do not wish for: I ask this of Your infinite mercy. You have created us out of nothing. Now that we exist have mercy on us. Re-make the vessel which You created in Your own image and likeness. Bring them back to Your grace through the grace and blood of You Son, the beloved Jesus Christ."

The Fatima Chaplet of Adoration and Reparation