By 
If you are looking for a book that will make you sit back and think twice, look no further because ‘Catholics awake‘is a book that hits you between the eyes.
‘Catholics Awake’ by Marino Restrepo is a book with profound insights on 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 one day and take in most of it, however with ‘Awake Catholics’ I have to put the book on almost every page as there is something so deep and profound that I can ”. Take it all at once. It’s like a complete soul food rather than a quick snack that is unsatisfying and too superficial. That is why I am doing this Review right now, to spread the word about how powerful and meaningful this Book is to Catholics around the world and for non-Catholics to understand what is happening in the Church right now!
Marino Restrepo is a man who lived a profound mystical experience during which he was taken to hell, to 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 life-transforming and powerful testimony and teachings serve as a genuine warning to souls that hell exists and that sin, pride, and lack of love lead souls there. It is an important and instructive message for our time and it comes straight from the heart.
The insightful book ‘Awakened Catholics’ is a fruit of Marino’s ten-year global ministry from Australia to Venezuela to the Catholic Church, where he has witnessed first-hand divisions and mediocrity in the Church. In this Book, he asks Catholics to wake up from their sleep because the night is already far from us and to take a quantum leap back to our faith and light.
Marino is blowing the trumpet to Catholics throughout this Book telling us that, ‘The time has come to go out and preach (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 take back their heritage, not be ashamed of it, and protect themselves from the weak forms of Christianity that are gaining popularity these days and 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, ‘Through baptism, one is enlisted from above into the army of the Kingdom of God and given the legitimacy of a citizenship in the City of the 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 “completely exorcised from the past, from the sins of the 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 calling and one that we must live every day of our life.
‘Catholics Awake’ 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 in it riches that are guarded by “clay pots”, but which, nevertheless, are great truths and jewels of wisdom.