Book Review: A Year with the Church Fathers by Mike Aquilina

 A Year with the Church Fathers: Patristic Wisdom for Daily Living by Mike Aquilina

This book sets a great template for devotional books. It's set up for reading in one year. Each of the 365 devotions is limited to one page in the book, so the volume is not bulky and each devotion is easily done in under ten minutes. Each page has a title, a quick explanation of the text by Aquilina, an excerpt from one of the Church Fathers, a question or two for meditating about the important theme of the excerpt, and a short prayer. 

The Church Fathers are the theologians (mostly bishops, but not all bishops) who lived during the first four hundred years of the Christianity. Saint Augustine is generally considered the last of the Church Fathers; he died in AD 430. Even though they all lived over 1500 years ago, their insights on human nature, human relationships, God's love, and God's mercy, are universal truths. Those insights are applicable to us today. Their wisdom touches the human heart. That's why their writings have survived so long.

I started out reading this one page each morning but did not maintain my discipline. Now that I've finished, it took me three and a half years but was well worth it. I will hunt around for more books like this.

Highly recommended.