Thursday, May 27, 2010

Never Give Up


Never Give Up: My Life and God's Mercy was written by John Janaro a professor at Christendom College. John has suffered from depression, anxiety and OCD since childhood and then ten years ago began struggling with the debilitating pain associated with untreated Lyme's disease. On top of all that, his youngest child was born prematurely and was hospitalized for months and endured multiple surgeries.

John is one that has experienced a great deal of suffering in his life but he has not turned his back on God. His pain from Lyme's disease can keep him confined to bed or he can go into remission and go about life as usual; but John never knows when the pain will strike again. Through it all John relies on his Faith to get through each day. He encourages others that suffer to rely on God through prayer, the Eucharist and His Mother Mary. In addition, he has a loving family that is there with him by his side during the good times and bad; it's evident that he and his wife fully understand the vows of marriage.

This book was a quick read for me because I have to admit I skipped sections. Throughout the book, John intersperses many prayers that are written in poetic form. I do most of my reading on the treadmill and I just can't focus on that style of writing while walking; I do plan to go back and read the prayers at a later time.

One thing that particularly struck me was when John talked about being there for a depressed person. He encourages us to not give up even if we don't see a difference because we are showing love through our time spent together and we all need love.

This review was written as part of the Catholic books reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Never Give Up - My Life and God's Mercy .

2 comments:

RAnn said...

you are on a roll--with all the books you are reading you must be cranking out miles on the treadmill

Renee said...

In just under 2.5 wks, I've been on 13 mornings for about 30-35 minutes. Haven't seen any weight loss but I'm being healthy and doing lots of reading