Book Review

Dominic Grassi
171 pages
Loyola Press, 1999
$15.95
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From the Publisher
A natural storyteller, Dominic Grassi invites readers to share his warm memories of life in Chicago over the past five decades. He shows how God is reflected in the people we meet every day: a butcher, a bookstore owner, a short-order cook. With rich and often funny descriptions of human triumphs and struggles, laughter and tears, youthful pranks and quiet maturity, Grassi uncovers grace in the most unexpected places, and help us see times when we too have unexpectedly bumped into God.

About the Author
Dominic Grassi is pastor of St. Josaphat Parish on the north side of Chicago, where for the past eleven years he has been making its motto, “A church to come home to,” a reality for thousands of parishioners. A lifelong Chicagoan, he has served as an educator, counselor, athletic coach, retreat and vocation director, inspirational speaker, editor, writer, and friend. In his spare time he enjoys reading, writing, and cooking.

Review
Dominic Grassi has a refreshing perspective for humanizing grace in his Bumping into God. The 35 short stories about everyday life from Grassi's experience of growing up in an Italian, Catholic, immigrant family in Chicago are funny, sad, and, at times, painfully honest. Simply written, Grassi creatively shows to his readers the universal truths about God's presence in everyday life through his storytelling.

Grassi's style is interesting because it gives lay people an inside glimpse at the workings of a Chicago parish priest's mind. Every vignette offers a reflection on the mystery of faith. Grassi makes church mysteries less distant from common experience by not separating the sacred from the profane in his daily life, thus offering to the reader a unique perspective. The eternal questions of life and faith become a little easier to accept because of the way that Grassi makes the presence of God ordinary rather than extraordinary.

Grassi's humanity shines through most when describing situations that many people are faced with, at one time or another, which have caused confusion and bewilderment. The Christmas Tree and the Easter Cross is a story demonstrating how Grassi has grappled with embracing the joy of Christmas while simultaneously being confronted by the pain of the cross. He is skilled at noting both the complexity and the ordinariness of the unanswerable theological questions, and how paying attention to ordinary moments is an excellent

Sara Ryan is a graduate of Notre Dame in theology and sociology. Presently, she is working at an agency in San Francisco that serves the recently
arrived immigrants from Latin Countries.

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