Disclaimer: This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Seek First the Kingdom: Challenging the Culture. They are also a great source for First Communion gifts.

Cardinal Wuerl's book on being "in" the world without being "of" the world!

Scary, huh?

Thank goodness Cardinal Wuerl (Cardinal-Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.) has penned a little book that helps guide me through the waters. Seek First the Kingdom: Challenging the Culture is a well-written guide book that synthesizes Church teachings and helps the laity find their place in this world. Published earlier this year, Wuerl’s book is particularly timely for Catholics to understand how best to deal with the HHS mandate, Obamacare, the upcoming election and further, how to generally live our day-to-day lives.

Over the course of 19 chapters, Wuerl explains the Catholic’s role in seeking the Kingdom (and just what exactly is the “Kingdom”), how to best bring the Kingdom into the public square, how to evangelize through re-proposing the Gospel message, how to co-exist with politics and the secular, and how to educate ourselves and others.

The Cardinal-Archbishop than describes the clergy’s role in comparison to the laity’s role. He explains:

The task of the Church’s clergy is to proclaim the Gospel and to help the Catholic faithful understand the meaning of Christian doctrine. The translation of the Gospel into the temporal order, on the other hand, is the task of the laity.

He goes on to explain that God has given us food for the journey: the great graces we can obtain through reception of the sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist.

Wuerl’s book is a highly readable treatise that every Catholic layperson should read. This is a guidebook to steer the laity through the often muddy waters of secular existence in order that we may inherit the Kingdom. Through his gentle words, words that ask all Catholics to evangelize with charity, Wuerl’s premise that we must all seek the Kingdom becomes a doable, attractive goal.

What the Catholic Church brings to the world, to our society, is Jesus Christ, his Gospel, his vision, his way of life, and his promise of a kingdom abounding in truth, justice, compassion, kindness, understanding, peace and love.

I highly recommend this book!

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