Book Reviews and More: How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist

Wednesday, 19 June 2019

How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist - Michael Dubruiel with Amy Welborn

How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist
Michael Dubruiel
Amy Welborn (Editor)
Our Sunday Visitor
ISBN 9781592761395
eSIBN 9781306068253
ASIN B07MFVYDQ6

I remember Michael from my early days of blogging and reviewing books. For some reason I thought I had read more of his works than in fact I had. For going through my list of books read this appears to only be the fourth book of his I have read going back to 2008. This book was originally published in 2005. Michael passed away in 2009. There is a new eBook edition of this volume available and it is very reasonable priced. In fact, I think it is underpriced. It is an excellent little volume. It comes in at 165 pages. The sections in this volume are:

Getting The Most Out Of The Eucharist
Serve The Lord
Adore God With Praise And Thanksgiving
Confess Your Belief In God
Respond By Participating
Incline Your Ear To The Lord
Fast In Anticipation
Invite The Lord To Come
Commune: Receive The Eucharist
Evangelize: Share The Good News!
Appendix
Notes
Acknowledgments

Michael uses the word Sacrifice as and acronym as a memory tool for the lessons in the volume. They are:

S - Sacrifice
A - Adore
C - Confess
R - Respond
I - Incline
F - Fast
I - Invite
C - Commune
E - Evangelize

Michael also outlines five attitudes and actions, that can help us when we apply them to the celebration of the Eucharist. The five appear at the end of each chapter they are:

1. Keep Your Focus on Jesus
2. Learn from the Blessed Virgin Mary
3. Attitude to Foster
4. Developing a Eucharistic Spirituality
5. A Prayer for Today offers

These five make me think of my time in higher education. I spent 20 years as an undergrad, my second time in university I used a book called How To Get Better grades and Have More Fun by Al Janssen and Steve Douglass. What that book taught me was being prepared and engaged at school, every class. And no matter how good or bad a lecturer you get out of the course what you put into it. This book does the same thing for the Mass. By using the acronym and 5 attitudes we can always come to mass prepared and expectant. And Michael does a wonderful job of showing us how.

But Michael does not only write about theory. He shares many personal stories. Stories from his own experience. Many examples of stuff he observed and learned through his then three year old son. Two of the passages that I highlighted my first time through this book were:

“Inclining our ears to the Lord is one way of offering the sacrifice of our thoughts in order to first listen to what God has to say. It puts us into a posture of readiness. When we hear “A reading from” we raise our level of attention because the God who created the universe is about to speak to us through his Word.”

“I’ve been to hundreds of Catholic Churches and heard as many homilies as Masses I’ve attended. I could count on one hand how many times I have been satiated by a great homily in my forty-six years.Yet how many times have I not been fed at Mass? Only those times when all my hopes were in the preacher and not in the Lord.

Catholics need to remember that the Lord feeds us with his Body and Blood. The bishop, priest, or deacon who preaches is not the meal, but instead is like a waiter at a restaurant, reading the menu. In this case today’s special is the “same yesterday, today and tomorrow” — it is Our Lord.

A great Catholic homily should leave us famished,unsatisfied, and wanting something more. It should lead us to feel the gnawing hunger for God that only God can fill. We should see ourselves as blessed if we find the preaching of the preacher not enough, for the homilist is doing us a great service by pointing us to Christ and not at himself.”

This book was a wonderful read. It is one I know I will return to again, and one I look forward to reading with my children as they get a little older. This is an excellent read that I give a solid 5/5 stars to!

Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2019 Catholic Reading Plan!

Books by Michael's Dubruiel:

John Paul II's Biblical Way of the Cross - with Amy Welborn
A Pocket Guide to Confession - 2009 Review

A Pocket Guide to Confession - 2025 Review
A Pocket Guide to the Mass
The How-to Book of the Mass: Everything You Need to Know but No One Ever Taught You
The Church's Most Powerful Novenas
How To Get The Most Out Of The Eucharist
Praying the Rosary: With the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries - with Amy Welborn
The Power of the Cross: Applying the Passion of Christ to Your Life
Praying the Rosary: With the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, & Glorious Mysteries - with Amy Welborn
Praying in the Presence of Our Lord with Fulton J. Sheen

Wonders of His Love: Family Devotions and Activities for Advent

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Books by Amy Welborn: