The Sinner's Return To God: The Prodigal Son (Abridged) by Michael Müller

The Sinner's Return To God: The Prodigal Son (Abridged) Reviews

• 
  Stephen Heiner

  Fr. Michael Mueller was a 19th century Redemptorist priest who spent most of his life in the United States after being born in Germany. In his mid 20s he was sent to the US by the request of the American Provincial of the order. He was a prolific author and his zeal comes through in those books.
  
  This text is primarily focused on the Sacrament of Confession. In part it is an apologetic for both the human and divine reasons for its institution, but it also has its fair share of stories of those who repented too late or just in time. The final chapters of the book focus on leading an upright life after Confession and reliance on the Blessed Virgin Mary on that path.
  
  "The unchaste become like the vulture that waits to be killed by the fowler, rather than abandon the rottenness of the dead bodies on which it feeds." (p. 26)
  
  "We are bound to love our neighbor. Our neighbor may be a Turk, a Mormon, or an infidel, but we must love him." (p. 49)
  
  "To fall into a precipice, it is not necessary that the last step taken be longer than the preceding steps - it may be much shorter; nevertheless, it is enough to cause the fall." (p. 81)
  
  (quoting St. John Chrysostom) "How can you be astonished if I say that few will be saved when you see so many wicked in youth, and so many others negligent and lukewarm in old age?" (p. 97)
  
  "Is it so very agreeable, so very honorable, to be a slave of the devil, to be bound by the chains of the most shameful sins, the most degrading passions?" (p. 99)
  
  "This accounts for the well-known fact that during a drunken or crazy fit...many, unable to endure the remorse of conscience, have delivered themselves up to justice and confessed their sins publicly." (p. 117)
  
  (quoting St. Anthony of Padua) "Remark that through many chambers can the demon have access to the house of our conscience...but that only through one door can he be expelled, that is, through the mouth, by confession. He can enter by the five senses, but only by our lips can he be ejected." (p. 138)
  
  "The sign of a good confession is not the multitude of words, but the sorrow of the heart..." (p. 171)
  
  (the effects of a good general confession) "[T]he source of sin is greatly weakened; temptation ceases, or is altogether tempered; grace is considerably increased; the mind is unusually strengthened; and the demon is enervated and confused." (p. 184)
• 
  Howardstein

  Wipe your screens! Rub your eyes! Smite your faces, and douse them with waters of ice! Ye do not dream, nor behold ye an apparition! For behold, truly it readeth: Howardstein Hath Read!
  
  Despite this book being written by a Heterodox (Roman Catholic) author, the ideas, inspirations, anecdotes, consolations, and prescriptions therein bear good fruit, for the vast majority of them you can apply within the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, known colloquially as the Orthodox Church.
  
  This book is structured bad news first, good news second, and it spares no drama to show the utter depths of the sin, the bad news, and heights of the redemption, the good news. Do not be comforted in your sin, but neither despair.
  
  The first half of this book deals with certain prevalent sins:
  >Impurity - of the lustful sort
  >Drunkenness
  >Bad books - the slippery slope of poor choice of reading material, even seemingly neutral
  >Misapprehension of God's mercy - delay of conversion. In this section there is contained a piece of Roman Catholic nonsense: that at some point in our continual sinning, God's graces run out, and He ceases to grant the grace for a sinner to repent and turn to Him, and we can never know when that last permitted sin will be until it's too late. That's total BS, never lose hope.
  
  The second half of this book deals with remedies and redemptions for sin:
  >Confession, the Holy sacrament instituted by God Himself for the absolution of a person's sins - its necessity, and how to do it right: do not willfully withhold any sins, be heartily sorry about them, and resolve to never sin again
  >The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, swift intercessor for our souls - how she hears our pleas, and makes them heard to her beloved Son, who does not deny His Mother, as He heeded her instruction to turn water to wine at the wedding. So she asks Christ to turn the waters of pain and sorrow of His servant into the cheering wine of joy and gladness.
  
  
  As I have written previously, this book will put both the fear of God in you, as well as Faith in Him. Again, mind the bits of heterodox nonsense that can be fairly easily spotted even by me, a poor reader.
  
  It is with great emphasis, assurety, and drama that the author of the mid 19th century writes. The consistently enjoyable and riveting tone will not tire but rather energize you.
  
  God bless.