CHARLOTTE — A new book on the sacraments entitled “Spirit and Life: The Holy Sacraments of the Catholic Church” by Sophia Institute Press features two local authors.
Kelly Henson and Jason Craig contribute to the moving reflections from Catholics of different voices and ages — bishops, priests, deacons, and laypeople — all sharing their love for the sacraments and their healing experiences with them.
The book also features words from the Fathers of the Church as well as passages from Sacred Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The original photography and refreshing meditations invite readers into the mysteries of the sacraments.
Henson says she has worked with Sophia Institute’s editor, Rose Rea, for several years.
“She is an amazing editor and always challenges her writers to delve deeply into their own spiritual journey to express the Catholic faith with relevance and honesty,” Henson says.
“Her vision for ‘Spirit and Life’ was a unique answer to the clerical scandals of the last year. Appealing to her wounded audience, she wove together stunning photography with ancient and modern reflections on each sacrament. The contemporary writers each spoke to the lived experience of the sacraments in their own lives.
Henson says Rea’s hope was that Catholics would be encouraged to remember that even when people in the Church are weak, being Catholic means more than following the leaders of the Church.
“We are Catholic because only the Catholic Church has the sacraments and the fullness of teaching and authority that Christ left His Church,” Henson asserts.
When she was contacted last fall to be the female contributor for the chapter on the Eucharist, she recalls, her first reaction was, “No way was I worthy to be writing alongside St. Ambrose on the sacrament that is the ‘source and summit’ of Christian life!”
But as she continued to pray about the request, she felt a different question tugging on her heart: “Have I not shown you My love in the Eucharist? All you need to do is testify to that love.”
She said, “‘OK, Lord. I’ll do it’. I titled my piece, ‘Heart Speaks unto Heart.’”
Henson explains that the image of the Sacred Heart was meaningful for her during her family’s conversion to the Catholic faith when she was young.
“As a uniquely Catholic portrayal of Christ, that devotion to His Heart is inextricably bound in my mind to my understanding of His gift to us in the Eucharist,” she notes.
The following excerpts from her reflection in the book center on the link she sees between the pure, selfless love of the Sacred Heart and the experience of God’s love in the Eucharist.
“In both devotions, every time I try to encompass God with my mind, I discover that my concept of the possibilities within one personality is entirely too narrow to describe the ardor of the Divine Heart that reaches out to me.
“He shatters my expectations and strides through my heart with His own flame of love to illuminate every corner and reveal my misguided attempts to achieve happiness and fulfillment on my own.”
Henson believes this knowledge of God is completed in the Eucharist.
“We need help to bring us out of the doldrums of ordinary life and into the realm of the spirit,” she says.
“Every culture germinates from this desire to remember who we are and what we are made for. The comforting discipline of ritual accomplishes this transformation through words more ancient and profound than our own. But what sets the Catholic Mass apart from every secular ritual or hopeful devotion, every appeal for life-giving rain and every lullaby against the dark, is the Liturgy of the Eucharist where we encounter a living Person who is both the source and summit of our lives,” Henson emphasizes.
Henson and Craig join two other North Carolina writers in the book: Brittany Makely and Father Philip Tighe of the Raleigh diocese.
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
For more info
At www.sophiainstitutepress.com: View sample sections or order a copy of “Spirit and Life: The Holy Sacraments of the Catholic Church.”