Book Reviews and More: Union with God Living the Christ Life - Father David Vincent Meconi

Union with God:

Living the Christ Life

Deeper Christianity Series

Father David Vincent Meconi

Catholic Truth Society
ISBN 9781860823602

eISBN 9781784693107

ASIN B072XNXD54

CTS Booklet SP12

Union with God Living the Christ Life - Father David Vincent Meconi - CTS Deeper Christianity Series

I have been focusing on this series and CTS books by Pope Benedict XVI lately, I have been tracking down as many of each as I can find. This is another excellent volume in a great series. Over the last several years, I have read many books from the Catholic Truth Society, over 440 of them in fact; many read more than once; this all since the spring of 2018. Most were good reads; some were great reads; and a few are exceptional. This was the nineteenth in the Deeper Christianity Series that I have read; many of them have been read twice. This is the first I have read by Father David Vincent Meconi, and I believe the only one of his published by the CTS. This series one is very different than many of the others, and to be honest one I will need to read again soon. This booklet was originally published 2006 and the eBook was released in 2017. The description of this volume is:

“St Athanasius famously said that 'the Son of God became man so that we might become God.' This ebooklet delves into what it means for a Christian to not only have a relationship with God but become so united with Him that we take part in his divinity. The Deeper Christianity Series delves into the mysteries of Christianity, opening up the spiritual treasures of the Church.”

About the author we are informed:

“Fr David Vincent Meconi SJ is a member of the Chicago Province (USA) of the Society of Jesus, currently residing at Campion Hall, Oxford. Apart from his many pastoral duties, his academic specialty is the thought of St Augustine of Hippo as well as the place of prayer and the emergence of a Christian culture in the early Church.”

The chapters in the book are:

The Divine Plan of Salvation

The Great Exchange

New Creatures in the Spirit of Holiness

Seeking the Grace of Union

Prayer for Union with God

Futher Reading

I really enjoyed the prayer at the end of the volume, and added a few volumes that were mentioned in this work to my ‘to be read list’. I highlighted a few passages while reading this volume, some of them are:

“The hidden beauty of Jesus Christ is not only that he longs to live for you, it is not even that he lives with you or through you, but that he actually desires to live in you and, we might dare to say, as you!”

“This little book sets out to explore the Catholic Church’s teaching on divine union. Living the Christ life is the consummation of the Christian promise: that we are to become one with God.”

“As splendid as the gifts of this world and our natural lives are, they are infinitely outmatched by the divine life God desires to pour into our souls.”

“This is what this Deeper Christianity series is all about: being drawn into the life of the Lord ever deeper by allowing him to be drawn into our life more intimately.”

“Our lives have been instilled with and directed toward a particular purpose.”

“It is therefore of the utmost importance that Christians today be able to articulate why God has brought every human person into being.”

“Can you honestly say that intimacy with God is your life’s ultimate aim which guides all of your activities and provides you with an absolute target from which all your other (penultimate) goals are measured?”

“Once we are resolute on becoming saints, only then does it make sense to begin to make plans regarding all the “other things on the face of the earth”.”

“Upon joining religious life, many imagined I quit my job because I was too holy when, in fact, I left because I knew myself too weak.”

“As mentioned, God created man and woman for no other reason than his very own self.”

“Through Mary’s fiat-her ‘yes’ to God-and in Mary’s womb, Jesus Christ became the perfect human. The only begotten Son of God attached our human nature to his divine personhood, and in so doing, deified all of humanity.”

“Whenever we love with true charity or forgive as the Father has forgiven us, we partake of his divinity which is never really ‘ours’ by nature but which has been made accessible to us in Jesus Christ’s becoming one of us.”

“The deification taught by the ancient Church points us to nothing other than the divine intimacy available in Christ’s sacred humanity, to the only one in whom we are invited to place all of our desires and experiences.”

“At the Annunciation two marvellous events took place. First, when Mary spoke her total ‘yes’ to God, divinity was united with humanity.”

“Not only does Christ now unite his eternal divinity with his newly-acquired humanity in Mary, he makes his own divinity available to all of human persons.”

“Let us all arise! We have been made for neither hell nor earth, but for heaven. Let us all arise and begin to live there now. In our thoughts and in our actions, let us live as the pilgrims we are: men and women made for eternal beatitude in Christ. Let us live as Christ!”

“If we are going to become ‘other Christs’ we must possess the same Spirit as Christ. Becoming a child of God can be done only in God’s Spirit.”

“Have you ever noticed for whom Christ reserves his strongest words? He never speaks sharply to sinners, he never glares at tax collectors or prostitutes. He is never harsh to the weak and struggling. Rather, he saves his fiercest words for the hypocrites-the professional religious-who think and act as if they are not in need of a Saviour.”

“Although the genetic makeup is different-Christ being Son by nature and we children by grace-we are no less son or daughter. Furthermore, God has seen to it that we need not belong to a ‘single parent’ family. In this adoption process he has provided the best of all possible mothers, his own!”

“What happens to us in the Holy Spirit is that we are made not begotten children of God.”

“To be ‘sanctified’ comes from the Latin, ‘to be made holy’, and forms the core of our teaching on the Christ life: we are made into holy temples of God’s Spirit. Because of his love for us, God does not will that we go on struggling and stumbling in our sinfulness and confusion. So he not only releases us from evil, he continues to make us more and more like himself. He loves us enough to change us!”

“Holiness is realisable only when we enter into this Great Exchange: allowing God to possess our life fully so he can give us his life in return.”

“As we grow into God’s family we come to understand how the Holy Spirit is the permanent seal on our certificates of adoption, signed by the Father in the life-giving blood of his only Son!”

“Church is the arena where these changes are brought about, the place where we become one with Christ.”

The quotes in this volume are shorter than I normally take in this series, but still they were very impactful for me. I hope those quotes give you a feel for this booklet. I highlighted less than I though and most of them were shorter sections. This surprised me when I went back through the book. It is definitely a volume I will need to read again. There is a lot of great material in this volume, but it was more of stretch for me.

This book is a great read and one any Catholic would benefit from reading. The CTS Deeper Christianity Series of books is written in such a way that they can easily be read in any order. Pick and choose the ones that interest you, read them in order, or jump around. I have been blessed by the entire series that I have read and can highly recommend this book and the series.

Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2025 Catholic Reading Plan! For other reviews of books from the Catholic Truth Society click here.

For reviews of other books in the CTS Deeper Christianity Series click here.

Books in the Deeper Christianity Series:

7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit
8 Deadly Sins Learning to Defend the Life of Grace

Art and Prayer

Catholic Architecture
Christian Fasting Disciplining the Body, Awakening the Spirit

Christian Meaning of Time

Deepening Prayer Life Defined by Prayer

Depths of Scripture
Desire & Delight
Faith, Hope and Love The Theological Virtues
Fruits of the Holy Spirit Living a Happy Life
Icons
Lectio Divina Spiritual Reading of the Bible
Kingdom of God