Arriving at Amen

by Leah Libresco, Mark P. Shea (Introduction)

In 2012, media outlets from CNN to EWTN announced that Leah Libresco, a gifted young intellectual, columnist, and prolific blogger on the Atheist channel on Patheos, was converting to Catholicism. In Arriving at Amen, Libresco uses the rigorous rationality that defined her Atheism to tell the story behind that very personal journey and to describe the seven forms of Catholic prayer that guided her to embrace a joyful life of faith.

As a Yale graduate, Libresco launched her writing career by blogging about science, literature, mathematics, and morality from a distinctively secular perspective. Over time, encounters with friends and associates caused her to concede the reasonableness of belief in God in theory, though not yet in practice.

In Arriving at Amen, Libresco uniquely describes the second part of her spiritual journey, in which she encountered God through seven classic Catholic forms of prayer—Liturgy of the Hours, lectio divina, examen, intercessory prayer, the Rosary, confession, and the Mass. Examining each practice through the intellectual lens of literature, math, and art, Libresco reveals unexpected glimpses of beauty and truth in the Catholic Church that will be appreciated by the curious and convinced alike.

Genres: Catholic, Religion, Nonfiction, Christianity, Theology, Spirituality, Memoir

157 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2015

About the author

I grew up as an atheist on Long Island. When I went to college, I picked fights with the most interesting wrong people I could find — which turned out to be the campus Catholics.

After reading an awful lot of books, years of late-night debates (the kinds that tended to include sentences like “Ok, imagine for the moment that God is a cylinder…”), and a fair amount of blogging, I was surprised but pleased to find out that I’d been wrong about religion, generally, and Catholicism in particular, and I was received into the Catholic Church in the winter of 2012.

My first book, Arriving at Amen is a tour through seven Catholic prayer practices, all of which (as a convert) I had to pick up as I would a second language -- so I cobbled together a creole out of my first languages and loves: math, musicals, and medical oddities in order to find a way into spiritual life.

My newest book, Building the Benedict Option is a guide to opening your home, inviting people in, and praying together. It's a book I hope you put down before you're finished, because you're already planning to have people over to sing hymns, have their kids babysat, etc.

I live in New York City, and I've worked as a statistics professor, a data journalist, and assorted other unusual jobs. You can keep up with my writing and speaking at leahlibresco.com

Reviews

[Jeff Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

One book I have been meaning to get to is Arriving at Amen: Seven Catholic Prayers That Even I Can Offer by Leah Libresco since I was sure it would be interesting. So finally got around to buying it and totally enjoyed the whole book. Just stunningly good.

For those unaware of Leah Libresco, she was previously an atheist blogger at Patheos. Her blog “Unequally Yoked” originally had the tagline “a geeky atheist picks fights with her Catholic boyfriend." In June of 2012 she posted about her decision to become Catholic.

The title of her book, which came from her publisher, in part describes this book. When you come to the Catholic faith from an atheist background and never having believed in the existence of God, there is a big “what next”. This was certainly my experience where there was some intellectual understanding of the faith and a submission of intellect and will, but actually praying was totally alien to my experience.

This has to be one of the most unique books regarding prayer I have read. She takes to prayer methodologically as she works to integrate prayer in her life. What I really enjoyed is how she describes these struggles and the methods she used to start to overcome problems. This is not really a “how to” book on prayer with suggestions that will work for everybody. More of an approach to praying and being attentive to your own difficulties and seeking solutions that will work for you personally. Just like “Life hacking” has become a term used, I think “Prayer hacking” kind of fits in describing this approach. There is a wealth of devotional practices within the Church along with guidance in prayer and contemplation. Yet each individual must also discover what suits them best.

The most wonderful aspect of this book is the analogies as they are so rich and explanatory. She takes examples from across the spectrum of culture, science, fiction, math, etc. One thing I always appreciated about Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin is his geeky analogies from multiple fields of discipline. Leah Libresco has that same ability to help you understand something more deeply using these analogies. While some of her analogies are quite obscure, she explains them well. So you get the double-advantage of learning something knew while also coming to understand something more. Her chapter on confession was phenomenal with her relating of the “folk ballad of “Tam Lin” in regards to holding on to sin and how it shifts as you examine your conscience. This example is something I doubt I will ever forget. It explained my own experience succinctly and helped me to understand it better with a helpful visualization. This book is just chock-full of insights.

I also really enjoyed her clarity of thought and the natural way she teaches. She is obviously brilliant, but you never feel talked-down-to. More like you are joining her on a journey in discovering and integrating prayer.

I immensely enjoyed every moment I was reading this book and the fresh way it opens up avenues to pursue in my own prayer life.

I really hope we will be seeing more books from Leah Libresco in the future. I would certainly purchase anything she wrote on any topic and so look forward to her next book. There is a well-known (but totally false) story about how Queen Victoria, charmed by Alice in Wonderland, wanted to receive the author’s next work and received an inscribed copy of An Elementary Treatise on Determinants. Well if her next book was on math, I would read that.

[Julie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I'm lucky, I live like the disciples in the boat in the storm—prone to fear and doubt but held safely. Frequently, though, I wind up like Peter, overextended and floundering. Once he is stuck, Peter doesn't try to take charge and undo his mistake; he keeps flailing his way toward Christ. My prayer life often feels like this kind of thrashing in Christ's general direction, waiting and trusting that he'll reach across the gap I can't close on my own.

Leah Libresco was a public atheist, blogging on Patheos. And then she converted to Catholicism. This book, though, isn't really the story of her conversion to faith, although that is briefly included.

It is a different sort of conversion story. It's the story of someone learning to live her faith, of Libresco's "what next" after taking that big step of belief.

And that involves prayer, seven types of prayer, to be specific. Ranging from Confession to the Divine Office to the Mass and beyond, we get a good look at the prayer type and her own struggles with it. I often found really helpful reminders that my responsibility is to show up and pray, not to provide the fireworks (which are up to God, Libresco tells us).

Picking up the beads and following the structure of the prayer puts me in the presence of Mary and Christ. And, really, that is the extent of my responsibility when I'm praying. It's not for me to compel their intercession or force myself to achieve an insight into their lives. I just have to keep the rhythm so that I can follow without stumbling if anyone takes my hand.

Part of the delight of this book — yes I liked it that much, it is a delight — is the way Libresco's mind connects all sorts of things that would never occur to me. Shakespeare (a lot of it), folk ballads like Tam Lin, mathematics and science, Javert from Les Mis - all are wound together to help her (and us) make sense of the way God calls us to him through prayer.

This came out in 2015 so I am coming to it late, but don't miss it. It is wonderful Lenten reading and would be good for any time of the liturgical year.

[Amanda Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are seven chapters in this book, each chapter dealing with a different type of prayer. As I was writing this review, I realized that it became a review and reflection all in one. I hope you all don’t mind. :-)

Chapter 1 is “Petition.” Leah Libresco begins this chapter noting that “petition may be the most common type of prayer.” In prayers of petition we ask God for the things we need. Prayers of petition help us to pray for others which in turn brings our attention to God Himself.

On the topic of petitionary prayer, Leah brings up something that I think we all think of at some point. “Even if I conceded the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent being, that second ‘omni’ seemed enough to guarantee that the whole project was futile.” In other words, if God knows everything, He would know what we need and want before we even ask. The thing is that God does know what we need and want. By offering petitionary prayer, we are letting God know what is bothering us and at the same time it reminds us that God is with us through everything.

The second chapter is called “Confession.” Confession is the beautiful sacrament where we tell Jesus (in the person of the priest) our sins and ask for His forgiveness. God is always ready to forgive us if only we ask. Leah shares her own thoughts on Confession saying, “Soon after my conversion, once Confession became something I did not just something I theorized about, I was surprised to find that it was my favorite sacrament.” Confession is one of those hard things to talk about. It is a very private sacrament happening between an individual and a priest acting in persona Christi. For me, the sacrament really helps me to be honest about my faults and helps give me a means to change.

Chapter 3 is entitled “Examen” wherein Leah talks about the five part Ignatian Examen. “The first step of the Examen is reviewing the past day, looking for moments of joy and expressing gratitude to God.” This part can be a bit difficult if we are not attuned to remembering the specifics of our day. “Next comes praying to God for light and clear vision to aid in reflection and judgment.” We ask God to help us see clearly the events of our day. “Only then does the Examen get to the review of errors and sins that looks more like a standard examination of conscience.” This practice helps us see a pattern in our faults and failings that are not always present when doing an examination of conscience before Confession. “The fourth step is asking for forgiveness, and the final step is asking for guidance and help in doing better the next day.” The whole point of the Examen as I see it is to cultivate a spirit of attentiveness to our actions as we try to do better every day.

The fourth chapter is titled “Rosary.” The Rosary is one of my favorite prayers ever. Leah says, “The Rosary is a storytelling prayer. It moves along the arc of Jesus and Mary’s experience and offers many points of access into their lives.” I think that may be why I like the Rosary so much. I feel it helps me grow closer to Jesus and Mary each time I meditate upon their lives.

Chapter 5 is “Divine Office.” The Divine Office is also known as the Liturgy of the Hours. “The Liturgy of the Hours, which predates many of the splits and schisms in the Body of Christ, is a cycle of psalms and prayers,” Leah explains. I love the Liturgy of the Hours for it speaks to me everyday. The psalms cover so much of human experience and the Liturgy of the Hours imitates that through the use of the psalms and prayers inspired by them.

The sixth chapter is “Lectio Divina.” Lectio divina is the prayerful reading of the Scriptures. “Classically, the four stages of lectio divina are lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio (read, meditate, pray, and contemplate).” My lectio divina typically involves my journal as I find my focus is better when I write.

Chapter 7 is “Mass.” I rather like Leah’s short description of the Mass: “The readings from the Old and New Testaments shows us how to to live, and the crowning moment of the Mass, the Eucharist, is our lesson in why we want to live in union with God.”

Overall, I loved this book. It was a great reminder why I love being Catholic. I think this book could be for anyone, Catholics looking to grow in their faith and for those interesting in Catholicism.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley for review consideration. This in no way affects my opinion of the title or the content of this review.

This review first appeared at Orandi et Legendi.

[Pedro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a five star book. But I confess that I've struggled for some days to find the words to make a proper review, and even now I'm not sure if I got it.
I don't know personally Ms. Libresco and odds are I'll never will but I've been following her blog since 2012, when she announced her conversion. Three years later the book Arriving at Amen: Seven Catholic Prayers That Even I Can Offer is much better than I thought it would be. Ms. Libresco's blog is wonderful but the book shows us a spiritual maturity one would not expect in a three-year Catholic.
Ms. Libresco dropped Javert as a role model for Mary, Our Lady, and the reflections she share with the readers in the book are an important help for new Catholics as it is for people who are living their faith for many years. The chapter on confession is specially touching.
I've read many conversion stories, from Scott and Kimberly Hahn to Holly Ordway and Jennifer Fulwiler but Ms. Libresco's book is not just a conversion story but a great guide to improve our life of relationship with God.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was provided with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love conversion stories and Leah's is no exception. Her book explores her journey from Javert-inspired Stoicism to a grace-seeking Catholic through seven types of prayers. Her story and reflections are often accompanied by "This reminds me of..." and a creative example I have never heard deployed as a metaphor for prayer: Ballroom dancing! Mellified men! Pottery technique! I also personally liked the shout out to Catholic mommy bloggers, who played a major part in my own Tiber-swimming. It's a testimony to the clarity of her prose that her prodigious use of math was (mostly) intelligible to this reader who has avoided math since topping out at Calculus in high school. All of her examples demonstrate how universal prayer really is, even when it seems a foreign language, and set her book apart from a lot of other devotional literature with her unique perspective.

The highlight for me was the epilogue, which serves as a great bookend to the introduction about law-bound Javert. Leah's spin on Peter's "failing in fortissimo" is original and communicated what's so wonderful about God's grace. The epilogue also made me want to put into practice all the ways I was inspired in my prayer life by the rest of the book without falling prey to fear of failure that often holds me back from starting at all.

This book is useful for converts, cradle Catholics, and seekers wondering how one can become fluent in the language of prayer. I would absolutely recommend it.

[Lindsay Wilcox · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. I would not describe this as a conversion story. That's selling it too short. Conversion stories are more like memoirs: chronological, systematic, almost novelistic in their foreshadowing and storytelling. This book is defined by its intellectual heft and raw honesty. I am a fairly intellectual person, but my tendency to understand by concrete analogy, find role models in literature, and meta-cognitively examine my spiritual life are child's play compared to Libresco's baby steps toward the faith. If you're looking for a storyline from atheism to Catholicism, you won't find it. If, however, you are facing similar hurdles wrapping your well-educated, mathematical mind around Catholic concepts like the Eucharist, the rosary, or the Mass, this is the perfect book for you. I found myself alternately identifying with Libresco's struggles and wondering how anyone could "math up" the faith so thoroughly. I'm excited to read more of her writing in the future.

Read my full review at Austin CNM.

[Mike Moody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full Disclosure: I do not know the author and I paid for this book with my own hard-earned* money. I am familiar with Ms. Libresco and her writing style, having been a fairly regular reader of her blog since before her conversion, so I had some idea what to expect before reading. This is not a conversion story per se, although that subject is covered, but more of an examination of Catholic prayer practices from the perspective of a new convert with no religious experience and an extremely analytical mind.

Each chapter contains an exploration of various prayers and uses helpful, interesting, and somewhat geeky analogies (such as computer programming, musical theater, and Japanese pottery) to illuminate them in unexpected and fascinating ways. You’ll probably also come away with a new appreciation for St. Peter, one of the best and most interesting parts of the book.

If you are afraid you aren't nerdy/geeky enough to enjoy the book, don’t be. You’ll learn something new as the author makes her points clearly and concisely and then moves on. If I can power through the parts on Les Miserables, you can do the same for Cartesian coordinates. There is also a thought provoking study guide at the end, which was a nice bonus.

For all the excellent nerdy meditation, what I loved most about the book is that it contains practical, useful suggestions for better and deeper prayer. This is what ultimately got it a 5-star rating.

*Fuller Disclosure: The money wasn't really that hard-earned.

[Pam Cipkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leah Libresco is an atheist turned Catholic--and she is a better Catholic than I am, or ever could be. In Arriving at Amen, she goes into seven methods of prayer that have helped her along her Catholic journey: petitionary prayer, confession, the examen, the rosary, divine office (or the Liturgy of the Hours), lectio divina, and the Mass.

I found Leah’s journey by turns interesting, fascinating, and comforting, yet also a bit annoying and unapproachable for the casual layman or believer. Through all her philosophical postulations and mathematical algorithms, she sees God, and this gives me hope. She shows the proof, and I admire her power of reasoning. On the other hand, her reasoning is far beyond what I believe the typical person struggling with their faith beliefs could use to strengthen their relationship with God. Ballroom dancing, cartesian equations, studying lectio divina by using sign language and foreign languages...finding God should not be as difficult as she seems to make it--at least for me.

I did learn a lot from her book, though. The rosary is much more complex and rich than I thought, and I had just recently discovered the Liturgy of the Hours, so her insights were helpful. I’ve often wondered whether I was praying right, or praying properly, and I wondered how other people went about it. If being a good Catholic requires the thought complexity of a Leah Libresco, I’ll never make it to Heaven. But every little bit of insight helps.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leah Libresco's first book, Arriving at Amen: Seven Catholic Prayers That Even I Can Offer, is a quirky and brainy mix of popular culture, literature, philosophy, and Church doctrine, that’s both enjoyable to read and a challenge to live out one’s Catholic faith more fully and intentionally.

Read more of my review here:

http://readingcatholic.com/young-auth...

[Jeremy Keong · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brilliant. I first came across Leah Libresco years ago when she was a big Atheist blogger; she has since converted to Catholicism. This book isn't about her conversion per se though. It is about how, as a new Catholic, she found herself in a real way "in over her head" with all the prayer traditions - or rather, she would have been, if she hadn't had the foresight and maturity to really understand that, as St. Augustine once wrote, "Grace builds on nature."

Far from using what some might call "secular" loves to push down and make sense of her newfound faith, throughout the book, Libresco organically shows how nothing of what she loved and nothing of who she was, was lost when she converted. On the contrary, what made sense before, now made even more sense, and allowed her to "play" with her prayer, as she grew in a relationship with Christ and the Church. She organically shows how her thought processes and ideas about Shakespeare, computer programming, Lord of the Rings, Ballroom Dancing, and much more, all aided her in having authentic experiences of prayer. Her insights are amazing; they are at once simple, and yet profound.

Each chapter of the book focuses on one type of prayer, and Libresco writes on how she struggled with each one, and how she has since come to a greater appreciation of that prayer: The Rosary, The Liturgy of the Hours, Petitionary Prayer, The Mass, Confession, The Examen, and Lectio Divina are all given new depth and insight as Libresco shares her experiences (her relating the Rosary to Ballroom Dancing, and her using the Liturgy of the Hours as a 'framing' for her day, are a couple of my favourites).

Libresco is brilliant, you can tell she is well-read, but she does not make the reading lofty. It's practical and humorous, and this book helped me with prayer more than any other book has in a long time.

[Jennifer Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. This was a basic overview to a variety of Catholic spiritual practices. It was a great introduction for those who want an introduction or more breadth, but probably not the best for established Catholics who want to go deeper, or people who prefer source material. The questions at the end make it good for a women's group. This book was recommended to me by a dear friend who thought it might be good for those coming from an atheist background, namely my husband, but the idea of it doesn't resonate with him. It kind of feels like "former atheist Catholic mommy blogger" is becoming a subgenre, and this is a good example. As a former atheist Catholic NOT mommy blogger, I feel like I'd rather spend my time reading St. Francis de Sales or actually praying the rosary.

[Sarah Duggan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A refreshingly realistic, smart, and funny take on how prayer can enhance your life. Rather than the usual conversion story, Leah Libresco tells the story of what happened after she decided to believe in God. She presents faith as a learning process without resorting to sappy aphorisms. I loved all the references to pop culture and science. Rather than pearl-clutching about The Culture, Libresco connects her wonder at and enjoyment of the world with its Creator.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This unconventional conversion story is refreshing for its lack of apologetics and its emphasis on Catholic devotional life. The author’s unique analogies bring new light to traditional forms of prayer.

This is the perfect book to share with new Catholics, or with those open to learning more about the Catholic faith — especially for avid readers and sci-fi geek‘s, since Leah is both of these, in addition to being brilliant and simple in her whole-hearted pursuit and embrace of the truth.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the book, Leah mentions how acquired languages can shed light on shared meanings by forcing you to really think about the roots and shades of communication tied into words. Reading this book is also kind of like that.

[antony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arriving at Amen

If I should overthink everything like the Author I believe I should go crazy.

The first chapter of the book is filled with way too much complication for me. It is as if each new paragraph sped off in a different direction.

As soon as the book proper began things settled down to an acceptable roar and he insights into the authors prayer life come thick and fast.

This is not light reading by any means but it is filled with an honesty that I like.

I enjoyed hearing about the authors experiences with the various forms of prayer and me a better appreciation for them. I find it inspiring reading about someone else’s prayer life it always gives a boost to my own.

This book is a no holds barrred, tag team wrestling match within the authors own mind about how to approach the Lord through prayer.

[Melodie Roschman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Methodical, rich with analogies and metaphors, but a little too distant and dry to me. I'm guessing, as someone from a more evangelical background, that high Catholicism is just not my thing. Writers like Rachel Held Evans and Nadia Bolz-Weber romanticize the sacraments; Libresco makes them feel more like processes, or tools, with steps and equations and variables. I was fond of a couple of her analogies - her discussion of apophatic theology was especially helpful - but I was never particularly engaged in the book, as evidenced by the fact that it took me more than three months to get through the slim volume.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I disagree with many of the doctrines discussed in this book (hence, why I am not Catholic), I found Libresco's insights on faith, and, in particular, prayer, to be helpful and refreshing. She gave me a good number of practical tools and ideas to incorporate into my own prayer life, and for that, I'm grateful.

[Ashley Stangl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't the deepest religious book, but it may be the most relatable. A lot of her errors are my errors, a lot of her interests are my interests, a lot of her struggles with specific prayers are my struggles with those specific prayers, so I found a lot of her analogies and tips to be very helpful.

[Becca Crooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've loved the essays I've found online by Leah Libresco Sargeant so I purchased this book. I enjoyed reading her thoughts on some of the common practices of the Catholic faith during and after her conversion to Catholicism- helps me look at them in a new way.

[Analisa Roche · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love

Even though I'm a cradle Catholic, I found this book so helpful. It let me revisit the devotions learned when younger with new enthusiasm, and look at them in new ways. I'm so grateful 🙏

[Duncan Swann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not really what I was expecting, but provided really good insight into how to think about religious practices. Quite easy to read but still some deeper theological questions were posed and answered.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leah Libresco is a gem of a writer that merits a place in the company of our greatest contemporary Catholic authors. Arriving at Amen does not pretend to offer any provocative or new theological insight. Instead, it is a vulnerable and deep look into the heart of her prayer life, a terrifying feat that would humble even the meekest of us. She presents over the course of seven chapters her quirky, charming, and ultimately brilliant solutions to overcoming barriers to authentic prayer: fear, pride, apathy, even boredom. Peppered with the most unusual cultural references (kintsugi? Joss Whedon? Twelfth Night?), she weaves in and out of narrative and prose with a skillful ease that transforms Arriving at Amen into so much more than a book about prayer. In a way, I felt like this book was a prayer itself. It is an invitation to vulnerability, honesty, and sincere, hard work.

As a convert myself, I can certainly relate to the perception of prayer as an elitist practice, a special, intimate dance with the Trinity that only the most pious are invited to participate in. Leah so swiftly dismantles such bastions and instead presents prayer as something much more gutsy, earthy, and repetitive. Prayer isn’t a five-course dinner. It’s much more like playing in the sandbox, building a castle, knocking it down, and making it again. It’s about persevering when your shoes are filled with sand, and your formations look much more like amorphous blobs than a structure fit for a King. Sometimes showing up is the best you can do. And fortunately, the Church has given us an endless fodder of prayers to help us along the way.

Many conversion stories end at Confirmation, and the reader is left with a definitive sense of resolution. Leah unapologetically shares the “after,” after the Confirmation, after first Eucharist, after RCIA. What happens when we settle into our Catholic shoes, and start breaking them in a bit? How could one ever possibly begin to contemplate and assimilate the Mystery of Truth? Arriving at Amen reminded me of St. Josemaria Escriva’s signature phrase, “saint of ordinary life.” It is about ordering ourselves vertically towards the divine, while simultaneously being pulled horizontally in a world of train stops, lazy Friday nights, and office gossip. The divine truly is at our fingertips, ready to be grasped through prayer.

I can’t recommend this book enough – it is a perfect read for a Catholic at any point in their faith journey.

[Matt Cavedon · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to know a convert, know the sinner who came first. St. Peter: rock of faith because perpetual questioner. Leah Libresco: humble servant because stubborn Stoic.

Leah's chapter on the Liturgy of the Hours features a subheading that reads "Freedom through Limitation." It might as well be the subtitle of the entire book. Organized as a discussion of different forms of prayer, this is primarily the story of ethical awakening through faith.

It has been said that St. Augustine's conversion was as metaphysical as dogmatic, as he abandoned Manichaean dualism between good and evil for a vision of the universe as integrated by God's love. Leah's conversion was as anthropological as theological. She says that she used to understand herself as an impenetrable rock, striving for total freedom from the insults of others and frustrations of life through total self-mastery. Meanwhile, she viewed others as beyond her control and so beyond the reach of her care, obstacles to be minimized but never allowed undue influence over her heart.

"Prayer is the school of love," Dostoyevsky wrote, and it was Leah's entry into prayer that taught her humanity. Her own humanity, in that she realized that her self-mastery was a lie. Prayer showed Leah that her own limitations opened onto the horizons of God's gracious love, instead of being unsightly contradictions best left unseen. The humanity of others, in that she began to see each person "under the aspect of eternity." Prayer showed Leah that each person is *someone* with God's love, and deserves to be treated as such in spite of every evident evil. Leah, then, came to see humanity as mysterious, irreducible to what she could control or detect.

Much more could be said about Arriving at Amen - about Leah's refreshing candor regarding spiritual shortcomings and her wit in drawing analogies from Shakespeare and computer programming. Leah's honesty and accessibility mean I'll be using Arriving at Amen for friends looking for good introductory literature on Catholicism.

But its greatest achievement is chronicling Leah's discovery of the human mystery by way of the divine. Adorned with more narrative detail, it could even be the skeleton of a spiritual autobiography.

[Patricia Mckenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always found conversion stories to be fascinating, but an atheist converting to Catholicism is the most interesting story of them all. I am especially attracted to the intellectual thought process laid out by Libresco in Arriving at Amen. Libresco takes the reader from Javert in Les Miserables to Peter, the rock on which the church is built. The author starts with treating faith and proof of God like a mathematical proof and ends with the beauty of the Eucharist.
Arriving at Amen is organized by different types of prayer such as petition, confession, examen, rosary, divine office, lectio divina, and mass. For all the readers who have wondered how to start praying and am I doing it right, this book is a refreshing comfortable reinforcement of faith and your growing relationship with God. Libresco has a fresh approach to learning about praying with the perspective of a new Catholic. The use of humor makes the book very conversational and easily approachable and digestible.
My favorite quote is “For me, this is the resolution to the ancient paradox of Theseus: the grace present in the Eucharist alters me, but it does so by making me more myself. Like a mellified man, I find that I am changed by what I consume, but the holy food distributed at mass brings me healing and eternal life, not just sweetness in death.” This gives you a flavor for the book and is a beautiful sentiment of what the Eucharist can mean to you.
I would definitely recommend this book to you. I thoroughly enjoyed the format and the voice of the author. Arriving at Amen is a different kind of prayer book that gave me many new ideas of how to begin different types of prayer that I was previously not familiar. Libresco’s conversion story is overarching throughout the story but the reader can also feel confident in the author’s knowledge and leadership with strong Catholic prayer details.

[Andra Ivanyi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful, articulately written ... and very dense. The author is a mathematician and approached questions of morality using a mathematician's love of precision and logic. It takes some getting used to. The truth is that I am not familiar with Catholicism to this degree, and it would be very helpful if I had been, if only to better grasp the vocabulary here.

Arriving at Amen is the kind of book I will have to read several more times before I'm able to fully understand the author's spiritual trajectory. I was fascinated by her origins as an atheist and her conversion to Catholicism after years of blogging on an atheist website. But Arriving at Amen doesn't spend much time on either part of her past. It briefly describes the night she realized that "morality" had an active, searching element to it, and how this led her to the only conclusion she thought was logical: there is a God, and He loves me. The book's subtitle, Prayers Even I Can Offer, gives you an idea of the contents. Ms. Libresco dissects and discusses seven traditional Catholic prayers and how she, submerging herself in her new faith, has come to love and embody them.

Her writing is concise and intelligent. She is honest about her own failings and merciless in her attempts to understand both herself and what God expects. I was moved and enlightened by the book ... and I look forward to reading it again.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to this book as a sporadic reader of the author's Unequally Yoked blog. What I'd read there pointed toward a very analytical, intellectual style, which I expected would make for dry reading. How pleasantly wrong I turned out to be! Libresco has the same facility as G.K. Chesterton for turning a theological issue "on its head" and finding a unique angle from which to approach it. Considering the Rosary as it relates to ballroom dancing, or Confession in light of the Japanese art of kintsugi made me look at them in a whole new light, even twelve years into my life as a Catholic. And her fluency with popular culture provides interesting insights as well (I wonder how surprised Randall Munroe, Terry Pratchett, and Joss Whedon would be to know that they and their work is referenced to illustrate points in a book of Catholic apologetics!). A great book for anyone, Catholic or not, who wishes to better understand why we do what we do, and how we could do it even better.

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for anyone who has a curiosity about prayer - the how, the why, and all that jazz. Leah made the transition from atheist to Catholic a year before I did and I used her journey as a lamp for my own. Written in a scholarly style, she focuses on the discomfort she had coming from a church-free background into the overwhelming and sometimes confusing liturgy of the Catholic faith. For those who have a scientific background, who weren't' raised in a church, or who just have a curiosity about faith, this makes a great read. Very quick and to the point.

[Lapsed Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can see someone loving this book. Some of her analogies are pretty interesting. I went a long while between starting and finishing so I may not remember everything accurately, but I seem to recall never feeling like the book had a clear goal or thesis or story or anything like that. It read to me like Leah Libresco's Thoughts on Catholicism Before and Especially After Her Conversion, which is fine. I do think many readers would want a little more structure, a clearer purpose, something that reads less like a monologue.

[Andrew Fallows · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight into Catholicism for me (a Protestant) and a great reminder, not just of the supernatural power of prayer, but also of the more 'mundane' impact that a regular prayer life can have on us. I hope Leah writes many more books; I will read them all.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leah Libresco's brain is a delight to see in action, as she spins a dazzling web of faith out of math, musicals, computer programming, and ASL, all of it coalescing in robust practical advice for your prayer life.