EWTN host Marcus Grodi offers insights learned in rural life

Simplicity, detachment, nature, and the Creator themes of new book “Life from Our Land”
 
Marcus Grodi, EWTN TV host of the popular show The Journey Home, never imagined that he would move from the city to twenty-five acres of Ohio farmland. Yet one day, Marcus and his wife found themselves to be the proud owners of a large piece of rural property, inherited from a relative, and decided to make the drastic move.
 
In his new book, Life from Our Land, Grodi discusses what he and his family discovered, mostly by surprise, after moving to the country. This move involved a radical shift in priorities for all of them, but mostly it helped them to discover some critical truths about humanity’s relationship to nature and to nature’s Creator that apply regardless of where a person lives. He offers wonderful, often humorous, reflections on his going-back-to-the-land experience as a metaphor for drawing closer to God.
 
Grodi points out that in today’s consumerist culture, voices from every direction beckon us, even push us, toward better and faster technology, with the promise of more wealth, more pleasure, and, consequently, more happiness.
 
But have we become so bewitched by the siren song of material progress that we’ve lost the ability not just to achieve, but to discern what true happiness is? What criteria do we use to plan for the future, for retirement? Has our culture’s enticement to always look for an easier, labor saving means to do everything left us a flabby, flaccid culture? At the end of our earthly lives, how will we measure our fruitfulness? These are some of the questions that Marcus Grodi ponders, and answers, in Life from Our Land. This unique book includes many photos of the land and nature that complement the reflections in the book.
 
Paul Thigpen, author of the Manual for Spiritual Warfare, says, “If we ponder carefully the insights in this book, we can learn how to grow in detachment, simplicity, holiness, and humility.”
 
“This is not an idealized ‘back-to-the-land’ manual. Rather it is about simplifying our lives and rooting ourselves in the good soil of the world even as we reach upward to heaven—the ultimate Real,” says Michael D. O'Brien, author of Father Elijah.
 
Joseph Pearce, author of Catholic Literary Giants, advises, “Read this book and you will receive the riches Mammon cannot provide and reap the harvest of hope and wisdom.”
 
“This book is a hymn of gratitude for the wonder that is creation, which manifests the deep purpose of things,” says Dr. Timothy O’Donnell, President of Christendom College.
 
John Cuddeback, Ph.D., author of True Friendship: Where Virtue Becomes Happiness, explains, “Charming anecdotes, a good dose of common sense, and a wealth of scriptural references grace a book that will inspire and guide us to a more human and more Christian way of life.”
 
Fr. Dwight Longenecker, author of The Romance of Religion claims, “Marcus Grodi is turning out to be the Catholic Thoreau of our day. He calls all of us to reexamine our fast-paced, high-tech lives to find a simpler, purer way.”
 
“Grodi not only offers a critique of our materialist American society, but what is rarer, suggests some practical steps by way of solutions,” says Thomas Storck, author of The Catholic Milieu.
 
About the Author:
Marcus Grodi, a native of Ohio, studied polymer science at Case Western Reserve University and worked as an engineer before receiving his Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. After many years in ministry, he founded the Coming Home Network International. He hosts The Journey Home television series on EWTN.
 
Marcus Grodi, the author of Life from Our Land, is available for interviews about this book.

To request a review copy or an interview with Marcus Grodi, please contact: Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press at (239) 867-4180 or [email protected]
 
Product Facts:
Title: LIFE FROM OUR LAND
The Search for a Simpler Life in a Complex World
Author: Marcus Grodi
Release Date: September 2015
Length: 206 pages, Illustrated
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-62164-023-3 • Softcover
Order: 1-800-651-1531 • www.ignatius.com