The Essential Catholic Handbook: A Summary of Beliefs, Practices, and Prayers Revised and Updated

I own other Essential Handbooks (Lenten, Mary) and they are all great! I found this one interesting in its portrayal of how to be Catholic, even though I grew up Catholic! The book's version is quite warm and fuzzy, stressing helping others and so forth. Growing up in Catholic schools, I lived being Catholic but I never read a book about how to be Catholic. A lot of the things in the glossary and explained in the book I knew about to a degree from hearing them somewhere as a child, without knowing their full meaning or the reasoning behind the practice. I found the book very uplifting, and a good reminder for adults on what's important in life: the simplicity of being a good person.

I received this book as a gift when I converted to the Church and I can't even express how helpful it was. It has definitions of Church terms, basic prayers, and a lot more to help someone still learning the faith. I would imagine this would be equally helpful to a cradle Catholic who has perhaps forgotten (or never learned) some of the foundations of their beliefs.

I'm actually on my second copy of this fantastic work because I wore the cover off the first one. This book is an essential for any Catholic wanting a comprehensive but easy-to-read guide to the faith and is an ideal companion to the full Catechism. Of particular help to me was the extensive glossary which covers not only "tradiitonal" Catholic terms but also basic teachings on several issues of faith and morals. It also contains cross references to the Catechism which I found most helpful. Also the prayers were wonderful. HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

As an Evangelical all of my life and a former Bob Jones University student, I knew nothing about Catholicism except what I was told by Evangelical pastors--and that usually was negative, well always. When I found that the Evangelical way of life was not meeting my spiritual needs, I began to search for another way. After a serious suicide attempt, I knew that I needed a faith that would sustain me through much more than what the Evangelical churches had provided. I had lost my daughter and there was not as much as a card from my church of over 2500. I needed ot know that God loved me and I wasn't finding that in my church.In my search I read Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic--an excellent book which lead to believe that the Catholic Church is really the true Church of Christ. I had many questions about terminolgy and why Catholics did this or that in a service. This book answered many of those questions. It also helped to dispell many of the negativities that I was lead to believe in the Evangelical churches. It seemed to talk about everything. The prayers, the Saints, the Holy Days, the Rosary, and has a wonderful dictionary in the back that has been very useful to me in reading other books.I am glad that I purchased this book and recommend to everyone. It is a wonderful handbook to the new and the old Catholic.

This book is very informative and easy to read! I am a baptized Catholic who never received further sacraments, and I wanted to join RCIA. This book gave me all the knowledge I needed to start my journey. The first section gives you the basic background and beliefs of Catholicism. The second part gives you the everyday knowledge of Catholics, prayers, rosarys, saints, the order of mass. The third part is a glossary of sorts that gives the layperson definitions of Catholic terms. Altogether, this was a fantastic book. My personal copy is worn out, and has been passed from person to person in my RCIA group!