Book Review: 'Home Brewed Evangelism'
Book News
So … a Catholic walks into a bar and orders a beer.
Don’t wait for a punch line; there isn’t one. Instead, there is a wonderful story of home-brewed evangelism, which happens to be the title of the new book by Sarah Vabulas, known in the blogosphere as “Catholic Drinkie.”
In “Home Brewed Evangelism,” Vabulas relates the story of meeting a man old enough to be her dad in an Atlanta-area bar she frequents, and discovering he was the dad of a guy she knew in college. He went to Notre Dame, she to St. Mary’s. Seems the poor guy was working on drowning his sorrows over a failed marriage, estrangement from his children and feelings of same-sex attraction.
During their conversation, she asked him why he wasn’t going to Mass – and he answered that he needed to go to Confession first. When she probed further, he admitted that he was too embarrassed to confess to a priest. “A priest friend of mine had recently told me that priests have heard it all,” she writes, “and we should never allow fear to keep us from receiving the grace of the sacrament.” She passed along that information – with her parish’s Confession and Mass times – and bid him good evening. She also kept him in her prayers.
Six months passed before Vabulas ran into the man again – at church. He had just been to Confession, and told her he had reconciled with his kids and was back in church because of the talk they had over some cold ones. “He thanked me for showing him love and care that night,” she writes in the book. She met that struggling fellow in the bar where he was, not where she was – well, except for the fact that she was and is passionate about “all things beer,” and she probably wouldn’t have been in the bar otherwise.
This all occurred before Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio became Pope Francis, but you’d think Vabulas knew our Holy Father and his mind … the way he asks all of us to encounter people where they are and witness the joy of the Gospel.
In “Home Brewed Evangelism,” Vabulas teams up with Missouri-based Ligouri Publications to serve up a high-quality 12 pack … in print. I say that because the book has 11 chapters plus an appendix, which includes Church blessings of beer and wine.
Vabulas works as a social-media and technology consultant, and it’s easy to see that her savvy colored her approach to the book. “You can pick up the book and read from the beginning,” she says in the introduction, “or you can jump around and find the sections that appeal to you the most.”
I’ll say it another way. I believe you will enjoy “Home Brewed Evangelism” regardless of your attention span.
Seriously – you will learn, from this single volume:
- That we Catholics have a patron saint of beer brewers – St. Arnulf of Metz – and that the miracle that led to his canonization is a “loaves and fishes” story that involves a single pint of beer.
- That a Doctor of the Church, beloved St. August of Hippo, is also a patron saint of brewers.
- That St. Brigid of Kildare, patron saint of Ireland and brewers, is credited with a prayer from the 10th Century that begins, “I’d like to give a lake of beer to God. I’d like the Heavenly Host to be tippling there for all eternity.”
- That there are at least 10 monasteries – nine in Europe and one in Massachusetts – that are well known for the beers their monks brew.
You’ll also find recipes for home brews and recipes for evangelizing through social media – and on a barstool.
Full disclosure – Vabulas and I worked together for a short time in 2010. I didn’t think it was possible that she could learn more about beer, social media or evangelizing than she knew back then.
I was wrong. “Home Brewed Evangelism” is as filling and satisfying as a Trappist ale. I suspect they actually go well together.
