Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Mission: 5 Steps to Winning the War Within You is a five-step guide to finding the saint within you. The world doesn’t need you to be a great saint like John Paul II or Mother Teresa. The world needs you to be unique; the ordinary life you lead has an extraordinary purpose. This book helps you find it. This book, which is only six chapters long and 191 pages, will appeal to Catholics, but it should be classified as a self-help book that appeals to everyone. Would you find a book like this helpful?
Summary of Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Mission
The main argument of Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Mission: 5 Steps to Winning the War Within argues that these are difficult times for the Catholic Church and the United States of America. There is only one solution to the problems we face, argues James Wood we must become saints.
Becoming a saint, Wood says in Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Mission: 5 Steps to Winning the War Within, is a choice, and we can begin by finding the saint within each of us. The biggest crisis of any time is not economic, health care, or vocations, but an identity crisis. We must focus on self-improvement to improve the world.
Wood says, that we have forgotten our mission to become saints. This is the real crisis in the world today. People must rediscover that mission and people must hold each other accountable to accept responsibility for that mission.
Wood writes, in Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Mission: 5 Steps to Winning the War Within that we need to be heroic in everything we do. We must stop talking and start doing. We need to stop defining ourselves by our sins and start realizing we are saints in the making. The Catholic Church believes and teaches that.
The Catholic Church and Mental Health
Mental health is very important to the Catholic Church, and it is well-known that meditation (which is similar to prayer) is good for us. There is no question that the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church caused significant anxiety, but the Catholic Church has a long history of supporting mental health.
As Pope St. John Paul II so said in 1996, “Christ took all suffering on himself, even mental illness. Whoever suffers from mental illness always bears God’s image and likeness in himself, as does every human being. In addition, he always has the inalienable right not only to be considered as an image of God and therefore as a person, but also to be treated as such.”
A powerful stigma persists around mental health care, clearly affecting all of humanity. While some people believe mental health is incompatible with a life of faith or Church teaching, that is false. The last three popes have spoken openly about mental health challenges such as depression, anxiety, mood disorders, and substance use disorder.
Also, it is well known that many holy women and men have had mental health challenges before us. Some examples include St. Benedict Labre, who struggled with scrupulosity, a form of OCD; St. Jane Frances de Chantal, who dealt with depression; St. Mark Ji Tian Xiang with addiction, and many more. The saints are examples for us.
Conclusion
Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Mission: 5 Steps to Winning the War Within You is an easy-to-read book that is full of great insights. This book is written from a catholic perspective but should be considered a self-help book. One does not have to be a saint to be a better person. Self-improvement is important for everyone, whether they are Catholic or they are not.
