The title of the book is VITAMINS OF ANOTHER KIND, and the subtitle, Notes on Christian Spirituality. Vitamins of Another Kind: vitamins directly for our soul, and indirectly for our body, too: spiritual-ethical vitamins, if taken according to prescription, obtain harmony in our lives. Notes on Christian Spirituality: the different texts, generally newspapers columns, are just notes, light comments of a pilgrim on his journey of life. These notes are a special kind of notes: notes on Christian spirituality. They cover the whole life of a follower of Christ, and focus on Christian life, that is, spiritual and ethical life. The book tries to answer two radical questions: Who am I? How should I live as a follower of Christ?
The book is divided in eight chapters (I-VIII). Each chapterpart is subdivided into eight subtitles. Each subtitle covers one, at times two related topics. The connection among the many themes is a bit loose because the book is a collection of columns published on different days and months and years (most, from 2017 to 2024). This fact explains also the inevitable repetition of ideas, arguments, quotes and stories of Christian spirituality, under the umbrella of spiritual and ethical Christian life.
The author of this minor, but thick work invites the readers, his brothers and sisters in Christ, to journey with him as co-pilgrims, and to make together the needed stops to rest, converse, reflect and meditate on the goal of life and the means required to reach it. The final goal of our earthly pilgrimage is perfect happiness hereafter, and the mediating goal - or means - is imperfect but real happiness here now. The book underlines the way to reach the final goal (God himself in the afterlife) by the only way that takes us there, namely, Jesus Christ and his teachings. The book, centers on following Christ by witnessing a true Christian life - humbly, prayerfully, compassionately, and even joyfully.
The author of Vitamins of Another Kind is Fr. Fausto Gomez Berlana OP, former professor of the University of Santo Tomas (Manila) and of the University of Saint Joseph (Macau).
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