The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic

Matthew Kelly shows what differentiates engaged Catholics from the rest, and it s quite simple: Prayer, spiritual reading, generosity, and evangelization. It all starts with prayer, regular daily prayer.

I loved this book! It gives practical, easy to follow advice on how to become more engaged in your faith and faith community as well as helping others to do the same. I would encourage every Catholic to read this book and then pass it on.

Matthew Kelly is sitting in my living room with a cup of coffee and some Christmas cookies as I read the words of this wonderful book. This style of talking about our faith is very appealing and welcoming. I pray that many more readers agree.
PAL

Kelly researched what attributes faithful, dynamic Catholics had in common. (In Evangelical parlance, these would be those people who were "on fire" for Christ.) He came up with four main ones: prayer, study, generosity, and evangelization.

He spends the bulk of the book explaining what these attributes are and how anyone can start to do them. It's a very quick read because Kelly writes in a straightforward style that includes lots of anecdotes, both from his own life and from people he has known.

With the section on prayer, instead of talking about all the different ways and modes of prayer-contemplative, meditative, lectio divina, spontaneous, memorized, and so on-he offers a simple formula for how to structure a prayer time with God. Then he offers practical advice for how to carve out a few minutes of your day for prayer.

I like Kelly because he's an "a-b-c" kind of guy. He gets how most people operate. We tend to be lazy, to fall off the wagon, to never get started in the first place. And he targets his advice to helping us regular Joes overcome those obstacles so we can draw closer to our Lord.

The "study" chapter is similar: start small with just reading a few pages of a good Catholic book each day and go from there. As I read, I asked myself whether I was doing the prayer and studying he recommended, and I found that I was fairly lackluster with both. I read the Bible in the evenings...sometimes, when I feel like it, but not every night. I pray for more than a few minutes...when my wife suggests we pray the Rosary or I've already committed the time during a Holy Hour.

Generosity includes money and non-monetary aspects. And here, too, he has good tips. There's a lot of Joe Biden Catholics out there who pitch a dollar or five in the collection plate. Who don't see all that they have as God's, who generously lets them keep 90%! Even so, I realized my tithing had fallen from 10% in the past few years, due to laziness in large part, and I needed to beef it up again.

Kelly's approach at times can seem a bit mechanical, as if doing a bunch of research and quantifying data to develop "the program" for people to follow will lead to conversions to Christ. He doesn't come out and say that but there's an implication of it at times, even in the subtitle: "How engaging 1% of Catholics could change the world." The idea is that, if we could just raise the number of active Catholics from 7% to 8%, the Church would be so much better at her mission, so let's go for that (reachable) goal. Well, I'm not sure how such math translates into evangelization on the personal level, but okay.

That said, the book is perfect for cultural or nominal Catholics, and for people raised Catholic who no longer go to Church or even believe in God. I can see, by God's grace, that many such people would take the book's message to heart and turn to Christ again. He shared stories of this happening with his other book, Rediscover Catholicism. And I believe him. That book is another great one to hand out to Joe Whatever Catholic that could help him to truly see how great the Church is, in spite of the failures of many of her members.

Kelly is a great gift to the Church, focusing on re-evangelizing Catholics in the pews in the most simple, basic way possible.

The best thing about this book is its brevity. I worry about authors who seem to think that to be a good Catholic the path is simple: pray, study, be generous and evangelize. Although Kelly does give a lot of examples of how these four aspects are under utilized in society, most of the examples are simple in nature and do not take into consideration the complexity of a faith filled life in today's society. I give the author kudos for trying to get people to live faith filled lives but being a good person (which might be more important than being a good Catholic-I am a lay eclessial minister of the Catholic Church) is challenging. Being faithful has more to do with relationships than a set of structured guidelines. However, Kelly is the Catholic author of the day and gives people some hope - let's just try to clean up the institution before we worry about being dynamic.

This is a very practical book offering sensible spiritual direction to help Catholics (and other interested Christians) on their pilgrimage of faith. It is inherently Christ-centered, so while people of non-Christian traditions could benefit from this direction, it becomes most effective in light of the Grace of God. It is hard to build good faith habits, and probably harder to break bad ones, so Grace is central to our pilgrimage. (Do all people--including non Christians--benefit from Grace? Check out the Catechism of the Catholic Church, para 1196 ff. Kind of exciting, this free and great gift.)

In any event, the four signs of a dynamic Catholic according to Kelly are: 1) prayer, 2) study, 3) generosity, 4) evangelization. Try building a life based on these four signs, and you will advance on your pilgrimage. Try it and you will see the importance of Grace. But try it. The practical and easily-understood points of this book are a sure guide for you on your pilgrimage. It is possible to live a dynamic Catholic life!

This is a very readable book. I recommend it highly.

Inspiring book that blends quantitative research, real life anecdotes, and Catholic Spirituality. Kelly's words leap off the page and speak straight to the heart, and he paints a compelling picture for action in today's society. His message challenges all of us to step up our game in our prayer life, in our study of the faith, in our generosity, and in the way we evangelize to others. He also illustrates how these are all connected and makes progress something that need not be intimidating by showing how incremental steps along the way can make a big difference over time.

"A World Without Truth" in Chapter Three is great...his discussion of the fallacy of relativism and the fear of being considered intolerant was where the book really started for me. His advice on writing books and the dynamic transformation needed in the Catholic Church are compelling.

Matthew Kelly is open and frank that the status quo in many Catholic parishes is failing to win people for Christ and His Church. He gives real advice for bucking the trend and unleashing the beauty of Catholicism. My favorite part of this book is the last chapter. The tenacity of his passion comes through so boldly and unapologetically in the last chapter that You can taste it. A worthwhile read for any Catholic.

Contains facts I didn't know about. The main stream media is shaping the worlds thoughts on Catholics and they are lying. There is genius in catholic thought and teaching and a rich and deep culture. I highly recommend this book to those on a journey to discover what true Catholicism is.

Once again a Matthew Kelly book has given inspiration and direction in an honest, straightforward and helpful way. He challenges with sincerity and honesty and as always, great wisdom . His books always inspire me to be a better person/catholic and he leaves me with a road map for the destiny. Another great Matthew Kelly book to add to my collection !

Great information for the entire Body of Christ! Easy to read and understand. Full of useful facts as well as challenges to become a better Christian and a better Catholic. The entire Church will benefit from it's members having a set prayer time, studying more about the faith, being more generous with their time, talent and money and tell others the Good News of Jesus Christ

Matthew Kelly is right on target with this book. Reading this will result in growth of one's faith and the ability and desire to share that faith with others.........taking one small step at a time....