PopeStNick5: Swimming with Scapulars

Addendum. Forewarning: This book contains some off-color language and in the discussion of purity some graphic descriptions of intimate acts.

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Title: Swimming with Scapulars: True Confessions of a Young Catholic
Author: Matthew Lickona
Publisher: Loyola Press
Date Published: April 2005
ISBN: 082942072X
Price: 19.95
Comments: Simply put, it's an enjoyable read.

From amazon.com:
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. As personal faith stories go, Lickona's is a breath of fresh air, thoughtfully written and happily absent of platitudes and pious moralizing. A 30-year-old husband, father of four and writer for the San Diego Reader, an alternative weekly, Lickona lives a Catholicism that is orthodox, but also dynamic and relevant to modern culture. He reads Salon and the Onion and gleans life lessons from contemporary film and fiction even as he embraces beliefs and traditions rejected by his parents' generation. He admits to being a virgin when he married, and he and his wife practice natural family planning in keeping with their church's ban on artificial birth control. Lickona also wears a scapular, fasts during Lent and has a statue of St. Joseph in his front yard. In writing about these beliefs and practices, he explains how he came to accept them, often after a period of questioning. As he navigates the realm of Catholic faith in the 21st century, Lickona reflects candidly on his failures, foibles and doubts. He confesses to "parish-hopping" in search of a Mass that will not disturb his peace of soul, to personal struggles with "constant wanting" and anger and to his weakness in communicating his faith. Most readers will disagree with Lickona's assessment that he is a poor communicator and will find themselves captivated by this winsome story of a soul. (Apr.)
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Book Description
Dave Eggers meets G. K. Chesterton in this funny, wise, and acutely perceptive memoir by a precocious young Catholic. For a wine connoisseur and fan of Nine Inch Nails, 30-year-old Matthew Lickona lives an unusual inner life. He is a Catholic of a decidedly traditional bent.

About the Author
Matthew Lickona is a staff writer and sometime cartoonist for the San Diego Reader, a weekly newspaper. Born and raised in upstate New York, he attended Thomas Aquinas College in California. He lives in La Mesa, California, with his wife Deirdre and their four children.