Since the days of the Amazing Grace book series, Patti Maguire Armstrong, author of Holy Hacks: Everyday Ways to Live Your Faith and Get to Heaven, has been one of my favorite authors. I admire her wisdom, casual style and thorough presentation. I recognize that much of that comes from her journalism background and much from her steadfast Catholic faith.
Originally, hack meant ”a quick job that produces what is needed, but not well.” Secondarily, it means “An incredibly good, and perhaps very time-consuming, piece of work that produces exactly what is needed.” In today’s jargon it can mean either of these but usually denotes a quick shortcut that cuts to the core of the problem or need and produces practical results.
In Holy Hacks, Patti skillfully combines practicality with backstory insight. She gives the reader a brief introductory commentary on the kind of hack – humility, relationships, spiritual protection – and then dives into those little things we can make a habit of doing to persevere in faith and become the person we aspire to be, which is the purpose of the book.
As an evangelist, I devoured Chapter 6: Holy Hacks for Evangelizing, and learned a few holy hacks:
- What an effective witness the little things can be like flashing a smile, wearing a crucifix or saying, “God bless you” to those who serve us.
- At school, using assignments to express your beliefs or showing love to a student sitting alone at lunch.
- Ask people where they are in their faith. Without criticizing, share what you believe.
- Be on the lookout for opportunities as you go about life. Have your radar up, and make deliberate intentional efforts.
- Don’t tell people what they should do. For instance, don’t say, “You should believe in God.” Instead, say, “This is why I believe.”
Patti Maguire Armstrong is an award-winning Catholic journalist and award-winning and bestselling author who is a correspondent for Our Sunday Visitor and the National Catholic Register and a contributing writer for Legatus. She also works in marketing for Teresa Tomeo Communications. Armstrong’s books include the Amazing Grace series, Big Hearted, and Dear God, You Can’t Be Serious. She has appeared on EWTN, CatholicTV, Fox & Friends, and numerous local and national radio programs. Her work has also appeared at CatholicMom.com, Epic Pew, Catholic Lane, Integrated Catholic Life, and Catholic Exchange. She and her husband, Mark, met in the Peace Corps in the Marshall Islands, Micronesia. They now live in North Dakota where they are raising the youngest of their ten children.
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Copyright 2019 Nancy HC Ward This article contains Amazon affiliate links; your purchases through these links benefit the author.
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