Welcome to episode 24 of the Behind the Catholic Counter Podcast. I'm Ian Rutherford, President of Aquinasnandmore.com. I interview Catholic authors, publishers and manufacturers to give you the latest news about great new Catholic books and gifts. You can listen to this and past episodes at aquinasandmore.com/podcast.

This week, I interviewed Margaret Realy, an oblate of Saint Benedict, an avid gardener and the author of the new book, A Catholic Gardener's Spiritual Almanac. We have some great giveways and a special pre-release sale that we'll talk about at the end of the show.

A few news notes in the Catholic retailing world.

If you have children going through First Communion prep, you probably need to make a banner. Instead of agonizing over a design, finding parts at Hobby Lobby and cutting everything out, I have the stress-free solution for you. Our First Communion banner kits come in several styles and two different sizes with all the parts pre-cut out. Check the show notes for a link to our kits and be sure to watch the video of my daughter assembling one of the kits for her First Communion three years ago.

 

 

Following on the success of the Son of God miniseries, NBC hired the producers to make a followup, twelve part series about the Acts of the Apostles. It premiers on Easter Sunday. Sophia Institute Press has produced two companion books to go along with the series, one of which was written by Mike Aquilina, Church Fathers expert. Stay tuned in two weeks for my podcast about the new series. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

 

 

Several years ago, the Benedictines of Mary made big news with their chart-topping Advent at Ephesus CD. This year, they have a new album out, Easter at Ephesus featuring twenty seven Easter classics. I've put a link to the CD in the show notes.

 

 

Be sure to visit the Catholic Book Blogger over at Patheos this week for his interview with Joseph Pearce and also for a giveaway of Lenten books.

Okay, let's get on to the interview.

Ian: Today, I'm interviewing Margaret Realy about her new book, A Catholic Gardener's Spiritual Almanac. Margaret is an oblate of Saint Benedict, she's a blogger and retreat master and she's here to talk us about working on a spiritual garden. Welcome to the show Margaret!

Margaret: Thank you so much!

Ian: How did you come up with the idea for this book? And I've seen gardening books before but this is a very different type of gardening book.

Margaret: Well about 6 years ago, when my first book came out, which is A Garden of Visible Prayer which, is now on its second edition. But when that first book it was being produced by Circle Media, Father Bartunek and Claudia Volkman had asked me to write something in a Gardening theme for Catholics to take it away from the new age perspective of nature and God, so it was with their input the book began.

Ian: That's great! So, this book is something close to your heart, right? You've enjoyed gardening a lot.

Margaret: Yes, I was born into it pretty much.