Saturday 9 July 2011

Cooper O'Boyle, Donna-Marie "The Domestic Church"


Cooper O'Boyle, Donna-Marie "The Domestic Church: Room by Room" - 2008

Another church read. A study guide for mothers. The title goes back to the writings of Pope John Paul II who compared the home to a little domestic church. The author here tries to go through the home, one room after the other, and offers reflections and thoughts on the different topics of family life and education of children. Sounded very exciting.

This is probably a good introduction if you haven't done any religious reading and would like some ideas but we were not really that enthusiastic about it. We had mothers of children of all ages and a lot of the advice given was not very practicable, we didn't always agree with the author, no, we often didn't agree with the author. We especially didn't like the way she portrayed the work of a mother as sacrifice, almost like a saint. All of us raise our children differently, in different countries, different kind of schools but nobody could even remotely think about this the same way the author does.

This is one of the more disappointing books we approached.

From the back cover:
"Don t cry over spilled milk. Transcend it. Pope John Paul II wrote that the little domestic Church, like the greater Church, needs to be constantly and intensely evangelized: hence its duty regarding permanent education in the faith. That s a tall order for busy Catholic mothers. You might even say it s as big as a house. You wouldn t want to clean the whole thing in one fell swoop, but if you take it one room at a time you ll get the job done. In a systematic course that s equally useful for groups as for individuals, this talented author shows how to remodel a home and form a family after the spiritual design of Holy Mother Church."

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