Sometimes you read a book that is not only a page turner, but you feel compelled to highlight, star, circle and underline not just sentences, but one paragraph after another.  Then you can’t contain your excitement with just making line art in the book so you wake your husband from his restful sleep (very) late at night by poking him in his side and politely ask demand that he listen to just one more paragraph.

Raising Chaste Catholic Men: Practical Advice, Mom to Mom by popular Catholic blogger, Leila Miller, is a book I recently had the privilege to read. It got my pen moving, kept my eyes open during late night readings and filled my heart and soul with truth and gratitude.  I am so grateful Miller took on this project about issues that are so counter cultural and I’m happy to share my thoughts on it.

There's so much I love about Miller's book that I really could just skip writing a review and just yell “READ IT!”

 

But, if I was to write a longer review I’d first say that Miller opens her book with a chapter “What This Book Is Not”. After she lays out some disclaimers she concludes the chapter by admitting her book is not a scholarly work, but rather “this book is the equivalent of one Catholic mom sitting down over a cup of tea with another mom in my kitchen, to talk informally but quite seriously about navigating this culture with your boys’ morality and chastity intact-and to give you the confidence you need to do just that.” (pg. 8) I enjoyed how her first chapter set the mood and tone of her book and throughout the book it definitely felt like a casual conversation about topics that many hold dear to their hearts.

Miller’s book will bring truth, clarity and guidance to parents who seek to raise chaste, virtuous, masculine men so our young men will be equipped to put on their armor to fight the spiritual battle that rages against them in our secular world. But, don’t let the title fool you.  This book is not just for mothers, but also fathers, priests, religious, youth ministers, grandparents and realistically anyone who raises boys or teaches them can benefit from the wealth of information and solid advice that Miller gives succinctly and charitably.

Some of the chapter titles include:

* Be His Parent and His Friend
* When They Are Little
* The Two Big Accusations
* The Gay "Marriage" Juggernaut
* Chastity Before and After Marriage
* Straight Talk About Masturbation
* Fear Has a Place
* Navigating Pop Culture
* Training Men Out of Manhood
* Advice From Chaste Young Men
* When Things Go Wrong

As a busy homeschool mother of 4 daughters and a teen son, I appreciated that Miller’s book was short (just 126 pages long) and you knew that Miller, being a busy mother (and grandmother) herself, understood that time is limited for everyone, especially mothers.

Despite the short chapters, Miller has a gift of making her point with as few words as possible, but she explains the most complicated subjects with clarity and charity. For example, this is one of many paragraphs that I have highlighted, underlined and starred that resonated with me especially, not only because of it's message, but because Miller gets her point across simply and eloquently.

"The Catholic Church is the one voice lovingly, carefully, firmly proclaiming, whether anyone listens or not, that sex has a meaning and purpose that cannot be discarded without violating our human dignity.  Even when certain members of the Church violate her teaching on human sexuality, including some of the very clergy sworn to holiness, the evil fallout and devastation wreaked upon the innocent is not a negation of but rather an excruciating confirmation of the moral law and the good of chastity." (page 38)

Miller informs and encourages the reader with wisdom and sincerity and as a mother, I felt her book gave the boost of confidence I needed to continue the long journey of raising a chaste Catholic son.   Reading Miller’s book will give you the encouragement you need even when things go wrong and the young men in your life make choices that are contrary to what God and your heart and soul desires.   If this does happen, Miller’s Rule #1 is “Do not freak out!” I love this rule because there’s a lot to freak out about when raising chaste Catholic men. Miller’s book will leave you with less and less freak out sessions and much more confidence to tackle subject areas that Miller herself has faced as she and her husband have successfully raised some of their own chaste Catholic men.

If you don’t remember anything else from my review here, remember this…Buy it, share it, borrow it, love it, live it, but most importantly “READ IT!”  I think you will be happy you did.


If you are interested in hearing more about Leila Miller's book and hear her talk about it, be sure to click over and listen to these radio interviews that she did and you can tell she had so much fun being interviewed!

Catholic Conversations with Steve and Becky Greene on 10/4/16
Ready To Stand: Pro-Life Radio, with Cullen Herout on 10/716
Relevant Radio on 10/20/16 (Interview begins at the 12:00 mark)

I recently "interviewed" Leila Miller via email and asked her a few questions as a way for readers to gain some more insight about Miller and her amazing, highly recommended book.

 Leila Miller