Fr. Larry Richards is certainly one of the most dynamic teachers in the Catholic Church (watch this video and see what I mean.) His preaching is electric and fiery and his blunt aphorisms often provide a needed spiritual shock therapy. His unique style bled through the pages of his first book, Be A Man!: Becoming the Man God Created You to Be, which challenged men to pursue heroic sanctity and Godly manhood. I think that title is the best Catholic book out there on masculine spirituality.
Fr. Richards’ newest book, Surrender! The Life-Changing Power of Doing God’s Will (Our Sunday Visitor, paperback, 155 pages), packs a similar punch. In the book, Fr. Richards explains that the first step to discovering God’s will is obvious: converse with Him daily through prayer and ask Him what He wants. But after we discover God’s will, which in many cases is the easy part, we’re faced with the difficult question of whether we surrender to it or not.
“It’s as simple as that,” says Fr. Richards. “Are we going to do God’s will, even if we don’t want to? That’s the real question, isn’t it? It goes beyond knowing what God wants us to do—to being willing to carry through and do it.”
Reading Surrender! is like having a wise spiritual director walk you through one of Christianity’s murkiest questions: “what is God’s will for my life?” Fr. Richards provides sharp advice to help cut through our paralyzing fears and stubborn self-wills, the resistances we build to carrying out God’s plan. Surrender! would be an especially good book for young Christians who are discerning their path in life, but all can benefit from Fr. Richards’ powerful advice.