Moms at Mass are heroes--not unlike the soldiers who landed at Iwo Jima. Children open us up to radical charity--the kind lived by martyrs. Obscure priests in backwoods France can change the world--not by debating, but by loving God. And a little bottle of holy water--available for free at any Catholic church--proves that the most precious things in life have no price.

These are just a few of the extraordinary everyday insights of philosopher Michael Pakaluk, who attests that Christian sanctity is far nearer and far more beautiful than we think. With erudition and intellectual rigor, Professor Pakaluk sets his sights on some of the simplest truths of the Catholic faith and discovers that they are truly electrifying: the grace of infant Baptism, the earth-shaking event of transubstantiation, the extreme love of the saints, the surrendered fatherhood of Joseph, and the romance of chastity.

"Behold," calls Jesus, "I make all things new." Guided by both faith and reason, readers of The Shock of Holiness can see this newness with their own eyes.