As many of you know, Pope Benedict has, in his Wednesday General Audiences, been giving brief addresses on the leadership of early Christianity. He began last year with the Apostles. Such things naturally lend themselves to be collected in book form, and a couple of months ago, OSV obtained rights to publish an edition in the US (a British version has already been published).

As the editor was working his way through the text (cleaning up footnotes, clarifying puzzling translations, etc), it occurred to me that this would lend itself to the needs of an adult religious ed program. It’s short, the chapters are relatively brief, and of course, it’s Pope Benedict writing, so the content is rich and clearly presented, with at least one thought-provoking, made-for-reflection sentence on every page.

(I was also thinking about Jesus of Nazareth and thinking that Doubleday should have done a study/discussion guide for that. Still do.)

So, I opened my big mouth, and here I am with one more project to do before the end of the month.

Anyone who does religious ed in a parish setting – consider this. There will be twelve sessions, each with questions for study and questions for reflection, as well as opening and closing prayers.

I’m not telling you this because I’ll make money off of sales – I won’t. It’s a work-for-hire type thing. Only the Pope will get royalties!

No, I’m telling you because as you know, I really, really believe in what Pope Benedict is doing – he is a master catechist, he understands the problems and challenges of the way of discipleship, of the way of simply being human, and he brings all of that into what he writes. On Peter:

The school of faith is not a triumphal march but a journey makred daily by suffering and love, trials and faithfulness. Peter, who promised absolute fidelity, knew the bitterness and humilation of denial: the arrogant man learns the costly lesson of humility. Peter, too, must learn that he is weak and in need of forgiveness. Once his attitude changes and he understands the truth of his weak heart of a believing sinner, he weeps in a fit of liberating repentance. After this weeping he is finally ready for his mission.

and

In Greek, the word "fileo" means the love of friendship, tender but not all-encompassing; instead, the word "agapao" means love without reserve, total and unconditional. Jesus asks Peter the first time: "Simon…do you love me (agapas-me)" with this total and unconditional love?

Prior to the experience of betrayal, the Apostles certainly would have said, "I love you (agapo-se) unconditionally." Now that he has know the bitter sadness of infidelity, the drama of his own weakness, he says with humility: "Lord; you know that I love you (filo-se)," that is, "I love you with my poor human love." Christ insists:"Simon do you love me with this total love that I want?" And Peter repeats the response of his humble human love: "Kyrie, filo-se," Lord, I love you as I am able to love you." the third time Jesus only says to Simon: "Fileis-me?" — "Do you love me?"

Simon understands that his poor love is enough for Jesus, it is the only one of which he is capable, nonetheless he is grieved that the Lord spoke to him in this way. He thus replies: "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you (filos-se)."

This is to say that Jesus has put himself on the level of Peter, rather than Peter on Jesus’ level! It is exactly this deivine conformity that gives hope to the Disciple, who experienced the pain of infidelity. From here is born the trust that makes him able to follow [Christ] to the end: "This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God. And after this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’"

From that day, Peter "followed" the Master with the precise awareness of his own fragility; but this understanding did not discourage him. INdeed he knew that he could count on the presence of the Risen One beside him.

From the naive enthusiasm of initial acceptance, passing through the sorrowful experience of denial and the weeping of conversion, Peter succeeded in entrusting himself to that Jesus who adapted himself to his poor capacity of love. And in this way he shows us the way, notwithstanding all of our weakness. We know that Jesus adapts himself to this weakness of ours.

There is just so much here, not only on the nature of individual faith, but on the nature of Church, which is so terribly misunderstood today. It would be a great adult ed resource, properly led (and I will be providing hints to assist in leading good and fruitful adult education sessions.) – combining really sound content with just the right amount (aka not too much) of opportunity for faith sharing, if a group wants to go in that direction.

The book is hardbound and very reasonably priced, at 14.95. There is, of course, a parish discount, as well. I think the study guides will be free and available on the OSV website, as well as printed up.

. The Amazon listing is here (and it’s already up to around 6,000!). They have July 20 listed as a publication date, which sounds about right. The discount is steep, and, to tell the truth even for parishes – especially with the free shipping – it’s even cheaper to order from Amazon than directly from the company. A sore point, but there it is. I’m just sayin’.  The study guide, however, will need to be obtained from OSV directly, either online or in a printed form (I think – I’ll let you know when I know more.) Update: It will indeed, be online in some form for free, and they will have printed booklets available in bulk for ordering for a reasonable price.

Aquinas and More, the great Catholic online (and brick-and-mortar) bookstore out of Colorado has it listed as well It’s here, available for pre-order. And your local Catholic bookstore can get it for you as well, of course, and they all offer parish discounts.

As I said, my real interest is in encouraging parishes to consider using this as a focus for an adult ed program. If you work in a parish or diocese, please think about passing the word along. There is so little programming out there for Catholic adult ed – a few (very good) Bible studies, Renew, etc…and that’s it. What DRE’s and pastors need is something that’s as easy as possible to implement, and I really think that Pope Benedict’s book on the Apostles, along with the study guide, will help in that regard. At least I hope and pray it will!