Catholic Dads

Book Review: The Catholic Briefcase by Randy Hain

November 18th, 2011

I recently had the opportunity to review a preview copy of The Catholic Briefcase by Randy Hain. I would highly recommend this book to Catholic dads or any Catholic who has to balance the demands of work with their faith.

The balancing act we often walk is not easy, and we often take on the task alone with little support. If we are honest, most of us would not give ourselves passing grades at doing this either. We tend to compartmentalize, worry over offending others, and end up making our faith a private affair – a distinctly unbalanced situation when we look at what our faith requires. If this sounds familiar to you, and if like me, it does, then this book is for you.

Randy takes the issue head on confronting our misconceptions and pointing to how we are called to more. He does this without being pedantic in an easy to read style (e.g., he does not use words like pedantic). Like an effective business person, Randy dissects the issue into constituent parts and addresses each with the idea of providing a solution. The chapters are full of inspiring examples, much upon which to reflect, and specific advice.

In my own reading, I experienced an immediate change. I was on a business trip meeting with clients. Such meetings are typically over a meal. Even though I will pray grace aloud with my family in front of strangers, I would not do so with clients. I would typically say grace quietly to myself without making the sign of the cross. This book was a direct challenge to that – while I did not get to Randy’s point of inviting my clients to pray with me, I did make my prayer more obvious by making the sign of the cross. I may have more to travel, but this pointed that out to me. And this is only one of many points well worth considering.

The book is great for individual business people, but could also be used in small groups. The end of each chapter has reflection and discussion questions which would make this ideal for men’s groups, Cursillo groupings, or even gathering together a few Catholics in your workplace.

I encourage you to find the right balance between faith and work. This book can help.
The official publication date is November 21, but you can pre-order it at Amazon today.

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