If you are looking for a book that will make you sit down and think twice, then look no further because ‘Awake Catholics‘is a book that hits you right between the eyes.
‘Awakened Catholics’ by Marino Restrepo is a book with profound insights into the state of the Catholic Church today and in this Book and with characteristic love, Marino calls the Church to repentance and renewal. From a personal point of view I can usually read a book in a day and take most of it in, however with ‘Catholics Awake’ I have to put the book down on almost every page because there is something so deep and profound that I can read it. don’t take it all at once. It’s like a complete soul food instead of a quick snack that is unsatisfying and too superficial. That is why I am doing this Review at this time, to convey the message of how powerful and meaningful this Book really is for Catholics around the world and for non-Catholics to understand what is happening in the Church right now.
Marino Restrepo is a man who went through a profound mystical experience during which he was taken to Hell and Heaven and received many revelations about the afterlife. During his experience, Marino was literally brought to the gates of hell, but his life was “redeemed from the grave” by Jesus and he has been called to proclaim the powerful truths he was privileged to see and experience.
Marino’s powerful and life-changing testimony and teachings serve as a genuine warning to souls that hell exists and sin, pride, and lack of love lead souls there! It is an important and instructive message for our times and one that comes straight from the heart.
The insightful book ‘Catholics Awake’ is the fruit of Marino’s ten-year global ministry from Australia to Venezuela to the Catholic Church, where he has witnessed firsthand the divisions and mediocrity in the Church. He calls in this Book for Catholics to wake up from their sleep because the night is already far away from us and to take a quantum leap back to our faith and to the light.
Marino is blowing the trumpet to Catholics everywhere in this Book telling us that, ‘The time has come to go out and preach it (the Gospel) as it is, with a non-negotiable goal that only strives to glorify the Lord and proclaim his kingdom. between us’ (p. 77).
‘Awakened Catholics’ seeks to awaken in Catholics a sense of the importance and power of the Church’s sacraments, which are often forgotten, denied or even abused. Marino reminds Catholics that they need to reclaim their heritage, not be ashamed of it and protect themselves from the weak forms of Christianity that are becoming more popular these days that ignore the cross of Calvary and focus on a prosperity Gospel.
For example, regarding the Sacrament of Baptism, Marino reminds us in this Book of its efficacy, ‘By baptism, one is enlisted from above in the army of the Kingdom of God and is given the legitimacy of citizenship in the City of Light , the New Jerusalem’ (page 131). Baptism is a very powerful privilege that many Christians are completely unaware of and do not live up to ‘Christians, know your dignity’.
Marino also reminds Christians that in the sacrament of baptism we are “fully exorcised from the past, from the sins of our ancestors, beginning with the sin of all sins: original sin” (page 131). Baptism, becoming a member of the mystical body of Christ on earth, is a high but hidden vocation and one that we must live every day of our lives.
‘Awakened Catholics’ is a ‘must read’ for all those who wish to deepen their knowledge of the Christian and Catholic faith and the power of the sacraments or even for those who wish to know the great depths of the treasures and riches of the Church. he has deposited within him, riches that are guarded by ‘clay vessels’ but that are great truths and jewels of wisdom, nonetheless.
