Swimming With Scapulars: True Confessions of a Young Catholic

For a wine connoisseur and fan of Nine Inch Nails, thirtysomething Matthew Lickona lives an unusual inner life. He is a Catholic of a decidedly traditional bent ("I believe the same things as my pious old grandmother"). He wears a scapular, a medieval talisman believed to secure God's protection. He fasts during Lent. He and his wife shun birth control--they waited four nights after their wedding to consummate their marriage. But he is also a writer of prodigious talent, which is on full display in Swimming with Scapulars, a story of a premodern faith lived with a postmodern sensibility. Lickona's "true confessions" are his painfully honest chronicles of his fitful starts and ongoing efforts to live the faith he is so proud of. ("I believe my faith to be a gift, though the gift may sometimes feel like a cross to be borne.") Yet his life as a Catholic is one of great joy, particularly his joy in being intimately connected with God through the sacrament of the Eucharist.