Book Review

Local young adult author searches for meaning

By Rebecca Bostic
The Catholic Sun

“Cultural Catholics,” “cradle Catholics” and “cafeteria Catholics” fill the pews of churches every Sunday. They fight for the closest parking spot and then for the farthest seat from the altar.

These are the Catholics Mark Hart writes about and hopes to reach in his most recent book “Blessed are the Bored in Spirit.”

Catholic young adults, as Hart describes them, are getting further and further away from a true understanding of the Church and he is hoping to bring them closer.

“Young people especially, lacking any systematic understanding of Catholic faith and doctrine, easily fall pretty to an ‘enlightened’ worldview that emphasizes personal fulfillment,” Hart writes in “Blessed are the Bored in Spirit.” “We try to make sense of our adolescent ‘formation’ and end up being merely culturally Catholic.”

Hart’s remedy: practical and measurable suggestions to help young adults rediscover their faith at a deeper level. He recommends getting to Mass early, studying the Scripture readings for Mass before walking into the doors of the church and learning the meaning behind the parts of the Mass.

“Until you stop running, you’re not going to realize that God’s been running faster than you the whole time,” Hart said. “You’re not going to lose anything by taking 15 minutes, an hour, two hours out of your life to just slow down and let God reveal himself to you.”

The author of “Ask the Bible Geek: Answers to Questions from Catholic Teens,” Hart, vice president of Life Teen International, a ministry to high school students,  previously focused exclusively on Catholic teenagers.

He wrote “Blessed are the Bored in Spirit” for an older audience, from mature teens to young adults into their 30s and 40s.

“I wanted to write it for people like my own family,” Hart said, “who are wonderful people and go to church every Sunday, but were never really given the opportunity to really connect the personal faith walk with the communal faith walk.”

Hart brings stories of his family into the book as part of the self-deprecating comic relief that permeates the pages of the light read.

“I was so fearful of anybody reading the book, closing it and feeling indicted or unloved,” he said. “So that’s why in any place in the book where I’m putting forth any kind of challenging notion, or making people uncomfortable, I usually do myself first. Not because I was feeling self-centered, but just like St. Paul said, ‘If I’m going to boast, I’ll boast of weakness.’”

Structured around the Trinity, the first three chapters of “Blessed are the Bored in Spirit” focus on God, the next three Jesus Christ and the final three the Holy Spirit.

Sitting down to write the book, Hart did not have a clear vision of what it was going be about.

“I was just pouring out a lot of the conversations I’d had on countless college campuses, high school campuses, parish missions and things like that,” Hart said, “conversations and themes that just kept resurfacing.

“My hope was not that this would become a book that everyone would want to hang on to, but a book that maybe they would read once and it would elicit a conversation with a good priest,” he said. “That might get them into a chapel for no reason at all. Just take it and give to somebody else and act as a springboard.”

When writing and editing the book, Hart tried to avoid “speaking in nice platitudes or clichés, trying to be practical” and convey an unassuming tone.

“It’s not a long read, it’s not a hard read,” he said. “I tried to write it in such a way that from the very first page it’s unobtrusive. It’s kind of going to where someone else is and saying that it’s O.K.”

That said many of the messages in “Blessed are the Bored in Spirit” are also straightforward and challenging.

“If you want something you’ve never had you have to be willing to do something you’ve never done,” Hart said. “If we really want something, if it’s a relationship with God, a better marriage, a happier home life, a more fulfilling job, whatever it is, if you want those things — and this sounds like Tony Robbins — what are you willing to do?”