Butterfly in Brazil
Butterfly in Brazil: How Your Life Can Make a World of Difference
By Glenn Packiam
Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2007
Review by Carl McColman
I don’t know about you, but I suffer from what I can only call “supersize-fatigue.” By this I mean that I’m tired of our cultural idolatry by which we are forever worshiping the bigger, the better, the newer, the faster, the richer, the thinner, the sexier, the more outrageous… you get the drift. Our society bows down at the cult of the greater-than. We worship at that altar because we all want to be the bigger/better/greater in our own way. And I, for one, am weary of it all. Which is why I love the Trappists and their single-minded insistence that asceticism still matters in our world; and why I love Julian of Norwich, who wrote a world-shattering book while living in a tiny church in a provincial city in a backwater country in the middle of the middle ages; and why I adore Thérèse of Lisieux despite her florid prose and Victorian piety, because she stood for the sanctity of littleness. Now I can add to this countercultural list Butterfly in Brazil, a gentle and unassuming book which explores the spirituality of making a big difference in very small ways.
Author Glenn Packiam is an associate pastor at Colorado Springs’ New Life Church. Yes, that’s the church where Ted Haggard used to be the pastor, but don’t let that color your judgment of this book. Butterfly in Brazil is hardly your garden-variety evangelical bestseller — it’s got nary a whiff of Joel Osteen’s or Rick Warren’s cheerleading; it’s not preachy, nor explicitly right-wing, nor drenched in circular Biblespeak, although over the course of the book Packiam does a pretty nice job at bringing the story of Nehemiah to life. Like its overall message, this book is humble, honest, and down to earth. And for that reason, I like it a lot. (more…)
Dream Devotion
Last night I dreamt that I was instructed to offer a brief devotion to Mary four times a day whenever I was unable to pray the full Daily Office. When I woke up, I couldn’t remember all the details, although I knew that the Memorare and the Salve Regina were two of the four prayers. In reflecting on the dream, I recalled that the Magnificat is typically prayed in early evening and the Angelus at noon, so perhaps those two prayers ought to be included as well. In Cistercian spirituality the Salve Regina is the final prayer of the day, so that one ought to be prayed before going to bed, which leaves the Memorare for first thing in the morning.
So, here is a brief devotion to Mary for throughout the day, courtesy of my dreams. (more…)
