Well this weekend I had time to read two books! Both books were gifts and I enjoyed them immensely! I could recommend both to you without reservations. Just a warning to you though, you might come away knowing you need to do some deep thinking.

The first was a "gift" from my son on Father's Day. He "re-gifted" me a school book. He put a lot of thought into it, and he made a good choice. I read his fourth grade book called Saint Dominic by Mary Fabyan Windeatt. Wow, he was a giant of a man in the life of the church, and is credited with providing us the rosary after receiving a vision from Mary. I knew his story in general, but not enough to be inspired by St Dominic. Well I am now inspired. It inspired me so much that my wife and I said the rosary tonight..and I think this will be a more common occurrence. Actually we'll also be learning the Latin version as well to help the children with schoolwork. (This will be hard on me...as all my foreign language teachers will tell you I was very hard on them!)

The other book was a fabulous book called The Pope and the CEO by Andreas Widmer. In it Widmer describes his encounters with Saint John Paul the Great while he served two years with the Swiss Guard in the 1980's. When I looked at the title I initially thought, "Ah huh?" When I started reading the book I realized it was exactly what I needed at this point in my life, and I did not put it down. What makes the book special is the format. He tells a story to explain his leadership lesson, then he sets a list of activities for you to do using that lesson, and finally asks you to reflect on your life experiences in the view point of the lesson. As I began the exercises, I must say I find myself changing a little here and there because I am now looking through leadership more in line with God's intent not mine. I'd encourage anyone to read this book, and do the most important action it recommends....PRAY and then PRAY SOME MORE!

So there you have it. Two books with potentially life altering ideas. Well I am off to pray a bit more. With this much reading in one weekend, I definitely need to think it through some more.

-ehw