By Kent Jackson
Standard-Speaker, Hazleton, Pa.
(TNS)
John Nonnemacher set aside 10 minutes a day to write a book.
After 2½ years, he finished.
“Everybody says they’re going to write a book and regrets that they didn’t. I did it,” Nonnemacher said.
His book “Sixty-six Days on the Road to Emmaus” helps readers develop the same discipline for studying scriptures that he gained while writing.
From about a 2009 study by Phillippa Lally at University College in London that looked at time required to develop a habit, he learned that participants needed from 18 to 254 days.
But, he said, “the number 66 kept coming up,” which gave him the book’s title.
On the Road to Emmaus after Jesus had just risen from the dead, He appeared to two disciples who didn’t recognize him and explained the scriptures about Himself as they walked.
“They talked with Jesus, and so can you,” Nonnemacher writes.
To help readers along, Nonnemacher selected 66 scriptures that they can read each day while making Bible study their habit.
After each passage, he shares his own reflections and poses three questions for readers to ask of themselves. Under the heading of “Extra Graces” he offers a thought exercise for readers to try and closes each page with one of his own quotes.
He started by writing his reflections on the 66 verses, which are in the back of the book. Then he wrote the start of the book, which contains encouragement from scriptures and practical advice from him to help readers communicate with God and avoid procrastinating.
A Hazleton resident and certified public accountant for 39 years with Snyder and Clemente in Sugarloaf Twp., Nonnemacher worships at Ss. Cyril and Methodius Parish in Hazleton, PA.
Before publishing, he asked for the Diocese of Scranton to review his book for errors in Catholic Doctrine.
The Rev. Brian Clark, the censor for the diocese, read all 261 pages and suggested adding just two words before giving the Nihil Obstat, Latin for let it move forward, to Bishop Joseph Bambera, who issued an imprimatur to allow the book to be printed.
Nonnemacher didn’t have to go through the process but he wanted to.
“It lends credibility. There is so much false doctrine,” he said.
Nonnemacher said God has taught him through the process of writing and sharing his book with others.
For example Luke 6:21 when Jesus says, “Blessed are you who hunger now for you will be satisfied,” is one of Nonnemacher’s favorite scriptures. He always interpreted the verse to mean those who hunger now will be filled later in Heaven.
“I thought I knew that one inside and out,” he said, adding that he has the verse on a license plate.
Then he heard his pastor, the Rev. Michael Piccola, now retired, preach on the verse and say those who are hungry already are blessed because they are more sensitive to someone else’s sufferings.
“I could have skipped out of church that day,” said Nonnemacher, who was 62 when he felt inspired to write the book. “It’s never too late for God to start talking to us.”
Nonnemacher’s book is available on Amazon.
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© 2026 the Standard-Speaker (Hazleton, Pa.). Visit standardspeaker.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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Tags: accountant, author, book, Catholicism, religion
