Reading Catholic

Reading Catholic and catholic

Nancy Piccione

Renewal, and Books {Lent Book Series}

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I had the great good fortune last weekend to go to the University of Notre Dame for a Catholic women’s blogging conference.

I have been scheduled and registered to attend at least three other blogging conferences in past years, but one thing or and another and another forced me to cancel plans.

So I was super grateful when local friend Bonnie of A Knotted Life invited me to attend, and even more grateful that I got a chance to ride along with Bonnie and Katie of Look to Him and Be Radiant.

I wish I could say this Lent has been all about renewal, but instead it’s more like the Lent you are given. Those are often the most fruitful Lents, but at the time it can feel like hard, hard work.

The opportunity to be with other Catholic women for an entire day, pray with them, learn from them, and just enjoy fellowship and great food, was a gift and a grace.

I must confess I enjoyed being the oldest at the conference, often by several decades.  But best is that I was the learner, and I’m still soaking up super helpful and encouraging presentations by Nell of Whole Parenting Family and Rhonda Ortiz of Real Housekeeping. I also loved the general conversations and input by the other bloggers, and getting to visit the Grotto, however briefly, and eat dinner with the group at this delicious restaurant.

As shared here before, I’ve been in blogging burnout, off and on, for several years.  I hoped the conference would help inspire and encourage.  It’s done that and more–here’s hoping that will be reflected here a Reading Catholic in coming months.  Baby steps.

No one will be surprised to learn that I spent much of my time in conversations with the other women suggesting … books.    And so, as part of the Mid-Lent Reset, I’m going to share books chosen specifically for the Catholic Women’s Blogging Conference.FullSizeRender

Some books are ones I individually recommended to women last weekend, and others struck me (on a scan of several bookshelves)  as apropos of last weekend’s the group.  I wanted to pick a range of non-obvious books perhaps off the radar of younger women, but are worthwhile reads.

Ralph McInerny’s memoir is a good fit since the conference was at the University of Notre Dame, and he was a longtime professor there. I wrote about it briefly here (and talk about what he thought about my chocolate cake).

This one just jumped out at me. So good.  Here’s my review. 

I’m only about halfway through this one–one of my sisters suggested it, and I am in tears about every other page. I want to be a Jesuit when I grow up.  Very good Lenten reading.

It turns out this book was updated several years ago as G-Dog and the Homeboys: Father Greg Boyle and the Gangs of East Los Angeles.  Adding that to the TBR list.

I mentioned this book as several “background reading” ideas to one of the bloggers who’s working on  a book. I’m not sure if her book plans are public, so I won’t name her or the topic, but I am very excited to read and review it when it does come out. Here’s my review of Gawande’s book.

Mary Eberstadt wrote what is one of the best, if not the best, retellings of C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. I re-read  The Loser Letters a few months back when my older teen was reading it, and I still loved it.   I reviewed the book here and interviewed Mary Eberstadt here.
I read this book in late 2013 or early 2014, and my younger teen and I did a modified version of her “seven” during last year’s Lent (seven foods, seven articles of clothing, etc.).  I was reminded that I still have not written about this terrific book and its impact on us yet when our family recently discovered re-runs of her home renovation show on HGTV.  Someday…

Good Reads from Pope Francis’ Bookshelf {Lent Book Series}

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This post is part of the 2015 {Lent Book Series}.
FullSizeRenderLooking for some Lenten spiritual reading inspired by or recommended by Pope Francis?

First, begin with the Holy Father’s Message for Lent 2015. Every year, the pope releases a message for Lent, and it begins and is based on a Scripture verse. This year, the Scripture verse is James 5:8: “Make your hearts firm.” Pope Francis’ theme is overcoming indifference, whether the Church as a whole, parishes or small communities, or individual Christians.

The Lenten messages are always short (this year’s is under 2,000 words—just a few pages) and reader-friendly. It is well worth taking 10-12 minutes to read and reflect on it.

Once you’ve finished that, now you’re ready for some of the Holy Father’s favorite books to jump-start your Lenten journey, here are some of the more familiar titles among his spiritual and literary favorites.

These are taken from the back-of-book page titled, “Bergoglio’s Bookshelf,” at the end of The Great Reformer, Austen Ivereigh’s recent biography of Pope Francis (click the link for my review of that book).  All are easy for readers to obtain at local Catholic bookstores. Some of the “classics” are available as free or almost-free e-books.

The Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of the Little Flower, by St. Therese of Lisieux. Many have read this classic by “The Little Flower,” but it’s worth a careful read any year. Something to ponder as you read or re-read this book: What does it mean that it is one of Pope Francis’ favorite books?


The Lord by Romano Guardini. Perhaps the best-known work of Romano Guardini, an Italian priest and 20th century intellectual giant, it influenced countless priests from the 1940s on, including Pope Francis as a young Jesuit. Another Guardini option is to read the accessible Learning the Virtues: That Lead You to God
a recent Sophia Institute Press re-publication.

If novels are more for you, here are two ideas from Pope Francis’ favorites:
The Betrothed: I Promessi Sposi, Alessandro Manzoni’s 1827 novel that’s the first historical fiction written in Italian. It was a favorite novel of Pope Francis’ grandmother, and he knew of it from a young age. It cover the heroism, holiness, and lack those, in priests and the faithful in 19th century Europe.

Lord of the World by English priest-author Robert Hugh Benson. Lord of the World was written in 1907 as a futuristic end-of-the-world novel. It was a dystopian novel before the genre existed, but with more depth than most of the current crop.

Have you read any of these?  I’ve read Story of a Soul several times, and years ago read Lord of the World after it was suggested by a priest friend, but I don’t remember it at all.  I think I tried to read The Betrothed some years back, but never got any traction on it.  Maybe I need to give it another try.

{Lent Book Series} 2015: Books to Reset Lent

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At Mass on Sunday, I actually said to a friend, well, Easter is just a few weeks away!

Turns out it’s nearly five weeks away.  That is not my definition of “few,” so clearly, I am ready for Lent to be over.  As I shared,  I am missing chocolate something terrible.

(And, yes, I know I’m not supposed to give up chocolate but instead do great things.  I use “chocolate” as a shorthand for all my Lenten practices.  I do admit, however, to giving up actual chocolate every year because it’s hard). 

Are you feeling the same way?  Feeling like a failure already at your Lenten practices and promises? Need a boost or a mid-Lent re-set?

Me, too.

So, over the next few weeks, I and some other local writers will be sharing books to reset your Lent.

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This will end up being the 2015 edition of {Lent Book Series}.  If I can be totally honest, I had really planned for this to be a full-fledged book series, running all Lent long.  However, several things–mostly the busyness of life and my neglect of this space.  First, I got a late start in asking writers to join in.  A bunch responded. And then I  just dropped the ball;  life getting in the way, too.  And then Lent started and I still hadn’t begun.

So, operating on the principle of better late than never, and knowing that I and many others need a Lent “reset” after a few weeks, I reframed the series.  I hope you’ll find some of the ideas helpful in making your Lent fruitful.

Check back here on Friday, when I’ll share some of Pope Francis’ favorite books, and why they might make good reads on your Lenten journey.   Several times a week, I or others will be sharing good reads, and before you know it, we really will be just a few weeks from Easter.

Memento Mori, or We Are All Going to Die {My March column @ The Catholic Post}

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Following is my March column, that appears in this weekend’s print edition of The Catholic Post.

While listening to a radio story recently reporting the “death rate” for those who exercise was reduced by some very high percentage, I actually laughed out loud—what could the reporter possibly mean? 

Even I, an avid runner, am unconvinced.  Everyone, whether the person perfects couch-potato status or completes Ironman triathlons, is going to die.  We are all called to be good stewards of life, but there is no way to reduce the 100 percent death rate among humans.

It may seem like a downer, but memento mori —basically, “remember you are going to die”— is not something to fear, but something to embrace, especially during this season of Lent. “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” we are told as we receive ashes on Ash Wednesday. 

Many people today— with good reason—are concerned about, and even fear, the dying process and what can be highly-medicalized end-of-life care. An excellent new book, Atal Gawande’s Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, offers much food for thought to understanding the way we die in our current culture, and what we should change about it.

Gawande is a surgeon who’s written several popular books, including the acclaimed The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right that posited how airline checklists could be successfully applied to health care and other fields, with great success.

In Being Mortal,  Gawande uses stories, statistics, and history, to get at why and how we die in the 21st century.  It is both fascinating and a little frightening.  He shares stories of his own patients and family members, and of how he, as a physician, has gotten it right and wrong with patients and loved ones about their end-of-life journeys, not just from a medical, but a human perspective.

He shares what he has learned from others in medicine, bioethics, hospice, and philosophy, and offers not so much a how-to, but a blueprint for people to begin discussions about how they’d like to live at the end of life.

Gawande is not Catholic, but in many ways Being Mortal  is a deeply Catholic (and catholic) book.  He is a gifted writer, and reflects on the nature of dying and of living well, chiefly through the concept of ars moriendi, or “the art of dying.”  (Ars moriendi was first popularized in a series of books about dying well written by late medieval Catholic monks.)  Gawande applies this beautifully when he stresses, over and over again, the interconnectedness of human life:

“Our lives are inherently dependent upon others and subject to forces and circumstances well beyond our control.  Having more freedom seems better than having less.  But to what end?  The amount of freedom you have in your life is not the measure of the worth of your life.  Just as safety is an empty and even self-defeating goal to live for, so ultimately is autonomy.”

Being Mortal is not a perfect book, nor is it fully Catholic—Gawande implies a qualified support of doctors writing prescriptions to terminally ill patients, but he calls that “not a measure of success… it is a measure of failure.”  His support of this is so uncharacteristic, since the vast majority of the book is respectful and life-affirming on the value of living and dying well, compatible with a Catholic vision of the truth and infinite worth of human lives.

For a more explicitly Catholic perspective on death and dying, consider Susan Windley-Daoust’s Theology of the Body, Extended: The Spiritual Signs of Birth, Impairment and Dying. 

Windley-Daoust, a professor at St. Mary’s University in Wenona, Minnesota, has written a careful and wide-ranging analysis of how St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body” relates to birth (she writes of childbirth, “it is charged with the Holy Spirit”), those who encounter or experience disability, and those in a dying process.  She, too, shares how the Catholic vision of ars moriendi can shape a spiritually healthy and integrated life.

Yes, it’s theology, but very accessible to mere mortal readers (like me!).  She shares stories and practical applications about how we live our faith through our bodies.

Clearly, Being Mortal and Theology of the Body, Extended were not written together, but they can be read as companion books.  Both books reflect, from somewhat different, but complementary, approaches, on the immense value of human life and human connection, even and especially in our most vulnerable moments.

Read both books this Lent, and start some great discussions with your loved ones about memento mori.

Meet a Reader: Katie Race {The Catholic Post}

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Following is the monthly feature that appears in the print edition of The Catholic Post, featuring a Peoria diocese reader.

KRace

How you know me:

I teach Spanish at The High School of St. Thomas More in Champaign, and I teach first-year CCD at my parish, St. Matthew’s in Champaign. 

Why I love reading:

For me, reading is like traveling (which I also love!).  I can learn about new ideas and perspectives, get to know interesting individuals, enjoy beautiful language, and unwind.  Above all, I love reading, particularly spiritual reading, because I can get to know Jesus better and His Church.  I love pondering over a passage before the Blessed Sacrament and asking Jesus what He wants me to know.    

What I’m reading now:


Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul by St. Faustina. My friend and colleague Sr. M. Mercedes Diaz suggested I read this book and I’m so grateful she did.  I’m fascinated by St. Faustina’s encounters with Jesus and all the graces and mercy He pours out to us.  A coworker is also reading this and so it is fun to discuss it with her.

My favorite books:


Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux, by St. Therese of Lisieux: I’ve been intrigued by St. Therese ever since I was a child.  Her child-like simplicity and approach to our Lord inspires me.  Reading it really kick-started my spiritual journey.  I find myself rereading many parts.


Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence: The Secret of Peace and Happiness by Fr. Jean-Baptiste Saint-Jure and St. Claude La Colombiere: This is a small yet mighty book.  It opened my eyes to what surrendering entails and how one can go about that.  God always provides!


When I Was Puerto Rican: A Memoir by Esmerelda Santiago.  This is a coming of age and American dream story of a girl who grows up in primitive conditions in Puerto Rico and later graduates from Harvard University.  Her storytelling is captivating and full of emotion, taking you in the “in between” of two cultures.

“The Great Reformer” is the Definitive Pope Francis Biography {My February Column @The Catholic Post}

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Following is my February column that appears in this week’s print edition of The Catholic Post.

 

No doubt, nearly every one reading this has had a “wow” moment in reading something Pope Francis has said in his nearly two years as Holy Father. You know, that moment of “did he really just say that?” Much has been written about his candor, his impromptu and unscripted interviews and statements.

The latest, and definitive, biography of Pope Francis, Austen Ivereigh’s The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope, helps explain Pope Francis’s style in a sweeping, absorbing, and ultimately inspiring book.

First, Pope Francis is more interested in reaching out to people individually than being quoted exactly or precisely. He has a “missionary, pastoral approach, whose object is to speak to the heart of the other.”

Second, from the moment he was elected, Pope Francis said he felt “a great sense of inner peace and freedom come over me, which has never left me…I believe the Holy Spirit has changed me.”

But it wasn’t just the Holy Spirit’s inspiration to reach out to the fallen away or non-religious in so many varied ways. The Great Reformer covers the influences and biographical details that make Pope Francis such a captivating leader.

It’s an understatement to say that Ivereigh is qualified to write a biography of Pope Francis. Ivereigh (pronounced “ivory”), a British Catholic writer and advisor, has lived in and written about South America since he spent the early 1990s in Argentina, when he worked on his doctoral thesis on the Church and politics in Argentina.

As he writes in the prologue, “As a foreigner who had long grappled with Argentina’s complexities, and knew the Jesuits, perhaps I was well placed to help outsiders understand the Francis enigma.” He has absolutely succeeded in this, having written a fascinating, sweeping, and highly readable biography and history book.

Some highlights of what makes The Great Reformer such a major work:

*Argentina. the book is a primer in Argentina’s political and church history, how they interact, in South and America and the wider world.

*his family life & upbringing. Jorge Bergoglio’s extended family and life as immigrants, as well as the ups and downs of life, considerably influences his life, and this book explains how.

*Jesuit life. Ivereigh explains the importance of the Jesuit’s discernment of spirits, and how this has been a major theme in the life and spiritual path of Pope Francis. From the time he first felt the call to religious life in his teens, to his decision to take the name “Francis” when elected pope, to his decisions during his life as a priest and his first two years of being pope, Jesuit philosophy has been at the forefront.

*politics. The Great Reformer covers how much of how Pope Francis has been for decades an adroit politician, both through years of experience in church and politics, as well as his sincere interest in people and their needs. He’s a “chess player,” he “understands power and how to use it,” but importantly, he uses those skills to serve the greater good of those most vulnerable.

*love for the poor. Much of this has been covered elsewhere, but Pope Francis’ simplicity of life and care for the downtrodden, often personally, throughout his priesthood, stands out.

*prayer. I found this the most inspiring theme of “The Great Reformer.” Pope Francis, for decades, has had a deep and constant prayer life, and it informs all his decisions. In recent years, he has “risen at 4 a.m. to pray, and, as Ivereigh writes, “this was the time, his mind alert and heart open—when he made the most important decisions.”

“He genuinely governed, say those who worked with him, by seeing everything in the light of God’s will. His dawn discernments made him decisive, yet experiences in prayer also led him to reconsider. He was instinctively hostile to the idea of deacons, for example, seeing them as clericalized laity, but told three of them who had trained for the role: ‘I really don’t like deacons. But the Virgin came to me last night and asked for three deacons for Buenos Aires.’”

The Great Reformer reminds me very much of Witness to Hope, George Weigel’s biography of Pope John Paul II. “Witness to Hope” was written in 1999, and updated in 2009, that is the authoritative biography of Pope John Paul II, at almost 900 pages.

Even more so, The Great Reformer (at a more manageable under-400 pages) will be considered the definitive biography of Pope Francis years  from now. Ivereigh’s scope of knowledge about Argentina and the Church, his range of sources, and his sharp and comprehensive writing, make this a highly recommended book for anyone who wishes to understand Pope Francis better. I found this book not just highly readable and informative, but very inspiring.

The Great Reformer is a great gift to the Church, as well any reader who wants to know more about one of the most fascinating and holy leaders of our time.