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For Immediate Release Contact: Barb Roy 408-286-8505 barb@rpinet.com www.rpinet.com

RPI releases latest book in What Every Catholic Needs to Know series

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 18, 2002 – Resource Publications, Inc. has announced the release of Kevin McGloin’s latest book, What Every Catholic Needs to Know about Advent and Christmas.

McGloin wrote the book to help his Catholic readers prepare themselves for Christmas by understanding Advent, the season that precedes it.

“The commercialization and secularization of Christmas is alive and well and all around us – trees to be decorated, lights to be hung, cookies to be baked, holiday parties to attend, and presents to be wrapped and shipped and yet the church calls us to something different,” McGloin writes in the introduction to his book.

“The season of Advent calls all Catholics to transformation and conversion in Jesus Christ. The Advent-Christmas season is an exciting and busy time, but one that calls us into a deeper relationship with Jesus and the Catholic community,” McGloin continues.

The book lists Scripture readings for Advent as well as the season’s saints and feastdays. It also traces the historical development of the Christmas and Advent seasons. Interesting historical nuggets explain the origin of certain traditional symbols such as Advent wreaths, candy canes, Christmas trees and mistletoes.

J. Doug Dale, parochial vicar at the Diocese of Orange, Calif., says the book is “an excellent catechetical resource for use with adults, teens and children. … Advent and Christmas have taken on new meaning for the many parishioners with whom I minister, thanks to this book.”

“McGloin leads his readers through a clear, concise and understandable overview of the Advent and Christmas seasons. This must-have resource will educate and enable Catholic families to treasure the Advent time of spiritual preparation and the Christmas season,” says Maggie Seliga, director of Christian formation at the Diocese of Phoenix.

This is the third book in the best-selling What Every Catholic Needs to Know series. The first two were What Every Catholic Needs to Know about the Mass and What Every Catholic Needs to Know about Lent, Triduum and Easter. McGloin is a liturgy director at St. Patrick Parish in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Kevin McGloin is director of liturgy and middle-school coordinator at St. Patrick Parish in Scottsdale, Ariz. He has a degree in broadcasting from Arizona State University and master’s degrees in divinity from St. John’s Seminary in Calif. and in professional counseling from Ottawa University in Phoenix.

WHAT EVERY CATHOLIC NEEDS TO KNOW
ABOUT ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS
A Parish Guide to the Incarnation Season
Kevin McGloin
Paper, $6.95
48 pages, 5 ½" x 8 ½"
ISBN 0-89390-549-6

To order WHAT EVERY CATHOLIC NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS, call Resource Publications, Inc. at 888-273-7782. For interviews, speaking engagements and writing assignments, call 408-286-8505 or send e-mail to Barb@rpinet.com.