Reading Catholic

Reading Catholic and catholic

Nancy Piccione

Discouraged? Books Offer Hope for Flourishing in Faith

by

Following is my August column from this weekend’s print edition of The Catholic Post.  Note my update at the end–I finished this column some time ago, and posting it made me think of how I am so inspired and buoyed in spirit by the Holy Father.

Lately, the news appears bad about how our Catholic faith intersects with … everything, it seems. I confess that I’ve lacked hope and sometimes even the desire, to engage in the culture, whether online or in person.

How is best to share a Catholic vision of the human person? Social media memes and various encounters recently have left me drained and even skeptical that it is possible in modern life to share the faith in a realistic and loving way. Sometimes it seems either to either avoid engagement entirely, rather than to win an argument’s battle, but at the same time lose the war, by alienating a friend or loved one.

I’ve found peace in my renewed resolution to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, especially the Scripture-rich Office of Readings, which I pray using  “Universalis”, a much-used App on my iPhone.

Of course, it is not surprising that I have also found solace, and even a return of hope, in reading and pondering several books. Here are two that have been particularly helpful for me recently:

UnknownHow to Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice: Civil Responses to Catholic Hot Button Issues by Austen Ivereigh, is a rare book: a kind and at the same time robust defense of Catholic beliefs on the “tough” issues.

The book came out of a series of training groups set up by Ivereigh, a well-respected British journalist and author, and others, to train Catholics in England to speak to the media at the time of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to England back in 2010.

The structure of each chapter is what makes this book so unique for a reader not only to understand church teaching, but to explain it to others in a loving way.

For each topic, Ivereigh begins with “challenging questions” asked about the faith. So, for instance, in the chapter, “women and the church,” one of four challenging questions is “Why does the Church think women aren’t good enough to be priests?”

Kind of gets you annoyed and ready to fight? But instead of giving an immediate “when they say, you say” response, Ivereigh describes what he calls the “positive intention” behind each question. So rather than being adversarial, he brings us alongside someone who objects to church teaching, and helps us see the good impulse in their question.

Here’s what is so healthy about this: even if a person is not arguing from a point of good will, it is better to assume that a person is. That offers a way to approach the encounter with love and good will. That’s a good idea in any conversation, whether it is about the faith or not.

Each chapter continues with a longer explanation of what the Church teaches on the topic from an historical, theological and cultural perspective; an “existing frame” for how the debate is often couched, and a ”reframe” to see things from a Catholic point of view. Only after all this is covered does Ivereigh share “key messages” to these tough questions.

Put together, the framework of How to Defend the Faith offers a great way to both understand and explain Church teaching. That perspective will help anyone interested in a flourishing Catholic life and witness.

Unknown-1

Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life by the super smart and passionately Catholic Elizabeth Scalia, is a challenging read, but it is a good challenge.  Scalia (no relation to the Supreme Court justice) has long blogged as “The Anchoress;” she is also managing editor of the Catholic channel at the popular website Patheos.com.

I resisted beginning Strange Gods because I feared that it might read as judgmental, implying, “you’re bad for being on Facebook” or “everything fun is bad.”

But it’s not like that at all. Instead, Scalia shows that our Catholic faith offers a healthy alternative to current trends, from the “idols” of, among other things: technology, prosperity, and plans.  “Strange Gods” is meandering and thought-provoking, as one might when having a far-ranging discussion with a very smart and articulate friend over coffee.

The book’s cover is fascinating iconography of its own, capturing the spirit of the book beautifully. It’s an image of church windows filled with phone or app –yes, notice they are called–icons that show all that can keep us from a fully engaged life.

Reading Strange Gods invites one to ponder how so much of modern life holds the potential for great good or great danger, and how living our Catholic faith fully provides the answer.

This is a post-publication update to my column.  I must admit I’m still struggling with a sense of sadness about the state of the world, which is why I’m clinging to Universalis, times of adoration when I can slip away, and also trying to see the positive out there, such as the terrific news from World Youth Day and the crowds there.  Also, I just want to say how much seeing Pope Francis interact with people (and yes, the media) has been restorative for me.

This may be old news to most, but since I’ve been on vacation I only discovered it early this morning.  I’m sharing because I found it so moving and beautiful.  Read the story here to get the background of a nine-year-old boy who, St. Therese-style, jumped a barrier at WYD to cling to Pope Francis and share his desire to be a priest.  Be sure to watch to the end and see the boy, as he walks away towards his family, bury his face in his hands.

Meet a Reader: Jane Walsh

by

Following is this month’s “reader” featured in the current issue of The Catholic Post.  Each month, I ask someone in the Peoria diocese to share the love of reading and books with four simple questions.

IMG_0581How you know me:  I am a member of St. Matthew parish in Champaign. I co-founded, with Fr. Johndamaseni Zilimu (recently been Assistant Pastor at St. Matthew), a group called Children of Hope and Faith (COHF). We help orphans and needy children in Tanzania, Africa receive a Catholic education. COHF also supports Angel Home Orphanage and funds specific projects to assist schools where children are sponsored. We are celebrating our 10th Anniversary this year and were very fortunate to be able to travel to Tanzania last November. It was such a pleasure to visit with all the children who are helped through our organization.

My husband, Michael, and I have been married for 28 years, and we have two grown children, Kathleen and Andrew, who grew up in Champaign and attended Holy Cross grade school and The High School of St. Thomas More. They both have lived at St. John Catholic Newman Center while attending the University of Illinois.

I also work part-time at C&A Inspirations, which is a Catholic book and gift store in Champaign.

Why I love reading: I love to read because it broadens my ideas and I am able to learn new things. I read mostly books on the spiritual life that inspire me to grow in my relationship with God and appreciate more fully our Catholic faith.

What I’m reading now: I am currently reading “Loved, Lost, Found: 17 Divine Mercy Conversions” by Felix Carroll. I like books on the Divine Mercy based on the Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska. I am also reading “The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux” by Father Jacques Philippe.

My favorite books: My favorite books are “The Return of the Prodigal Son” by Henri Nouwen, “I Believe in Love” by Father Jean C.J. d’Elbee and “Searching for and Maintaining Peace” by Father Jacques Philippe. Books on the Eucharist (such as “7 Secrets of the Eucharist” by Vinny Flynn”) are also inspiring to me.

Worth a Listen: Tshotsholoza

by

(Sharing great songs that are inspiring, uplifting and/or are otherwise “worth a listen”).   Read here for a short explanation of this feature.

Our oldest daughter attended an excellent weeklong choral camp at Eureka College.  We were amazed at the high quality of music the high school students sang at the concert at the end of the week.  Here they performed “Tshosoloza,” a popular South African song. Enjoy!

[This song prompted our family to host a teenage movie night to view Invictus, an extremely well-made film from 2009, about part of Nelson Mandela’s tenure as president of South Africa. What a great movie–Clint Eastwood really is a fantastic director.  That’s also worth a watch.)

College Bound? Here’s a Realistic, Relevant Resource

by

Here is my column that appears in this weekend’s print edition of The Catholic Post. I invite your feedback.

A box surfaced recently of old letters that my parents wrote to me while I was in college. I treasure them all the more because my parents are gone now.

My mom’s letters often signed off with “be good.” Perhaps that’s not really surprising, as she had sent off four older siblings to college (and one after me), so it’s pretty likely she knew the challenges I might face. I imagine she wanted to give me extra encouragement to do the right thing.

If you are sending a recent grad off to college, or even if you’ve done so in the last few years, doubtless you have concerns about the competing influences and lures of college life. And you’ve probably wondered, as I have, how to get across that simple message of “be good.”

A word to the wise: it takes a village. While our family is still a few years away from this transition, I realize that it’s not just what mom and dad say or model to our children that will have impact, but a plethora of other voices:

*other family members

*your friends

*your teen’s friends (and their friends’ parents)

*the school environment

*the culture at large

These voices–and more– are competing to sell young adults on the way to “be” and –maybe– “be good” in college and beyond. Most parents want to be sure there are enough voices of positive influence.

Consider Your College Faith: Own It! by Colleen and Matt Swaim one of the “good” voices.

Your College Faith manages to be both extremely practical and extremely Catholic. No, the two are not mutually exclusive. How is it possible to do both so well at the same time?

First, the Swaims have a broad and deep knowledge of Catholic doctrine. They quote freely from Scripture, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as well as classic works and lesser-known saints, to provide a range of Catholic background to campus life. But they do this not in long essays on doctrine or theology, but through short, creative bites that capture the attention and get to the point.

Next, the Swaims are not that far removed from college life, so their advice is truly geared towards today’s students. I’ve been giving copies of Your College Faith as high-school graduation gifts, and the universal feedback I’ve gotten is that it’s a positive, realistic book that encourages Catholic identity as well as good tips for college living.

A recent college grad who’s heading off to law school previewed the book, and she agreed that it is an especially realistic, relevant resource from a Catholic perspective. She especially appreciated how the Swaims kept the advice short, but sweet, with helpful sidebars and extras.

Finally, the Swaims have a lot of genuinely helpful and practical advice for late teens on time management, social media opportunities and pitfalls, and just general life skills.

Consider this all-too-true quote the chapter, “Making it Morally: Living Christian Ethics in the Dorms:” “Unless you’re the luckiest person who has ever attended college in the history of higher education, you are going to run into some conflict with your roommates or housemates. … Campus life gives you an opportunity to learn compromise on a whole new level to create a more harmonious living situation. This does not mean compromising your Catholic values of identity, but instead some of your preferences that may not even be that important in the big picture.”

The suggested reading from each chapter contains really helpful books and articles for exploring an area further. Cleverly, an “Alumni Directory” at the end of each chapter profiles a saint who exemplifies the virtue of that chapter.

All of the chapters were helpful, but in addition to the “Dorm Life” chapter, “24/7: Balancing It All With So Many Available Options” stands out. It’s not just about time management, but taking time for prayer and for silence. How well the Swaims put this together makes Your College Faith a must-read for college bound and those who love them.

Meet a Reader: Father Bob Cook, OFM Conv

by

Father Bob Cook

How you know me:  I am the Parochial Vicar of Holy Family Parish in Peoria, IL.

Why I love reading:  I can’t imagine not reading. Reading is like eating– It is a necessary part of my life, but I definitely like some things more than others.

What I’m reading now:  Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald.  For the last year or so, I’ve been fascinated by Fitzgerald—especially his short stories, letters, biographies. He had an amazing gift for observation and story telling from an early age. His writing has a clear Catholic worldview and moral sense, despite his gradual departure from the Church as a young man.  So many great artists grew up Catholic– I think Martin Scorcese said something like “you can leave the Church, but the Church never leaves you.”

My favorite book:  So many favorites.  To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was probably the first book to have a real impact on me. In adulthood, the stories, essays and letters of Flannery O’Connor completely altered my perspective on the nature of grace and its operation in our fallen, yet redeemed, world.  Walker Percy’s novels and essays have really helped me to better understand, as he would say,  our common predicament.  I’ve been really influenced by the theology and cultural criticism of Romano Guardini.  So, too, by the writing and homilies of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI—he was like a modern Church Father.

When is a 74-year-old Nun More Interesting than the COO of Facebook?

by

Coincidentally, my review copy of The Ear of the Heart: An Actress’ Journey from Hollywood to Holy Vows by Mother Dolores Hart arrived the same day as inter-library loan delivered  Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg. That was interesting.

You’re going to have to trust me on this one: a 74-year-old cloistered nun speaks more clearly and significantly to our time than the COO of Facebook.

I don’t come to bury Sandberg but to (sort of) praise her. She works mightily to promote the laudable goal of women succeeding in the workforce, and the outside and self-made obstacles that prevent that. 

But try as she might, Sandberg writes Lean In chiefly for other uber-successful full-time professionals, and for those who want to be. Yes, she gives some lip service to supporting women’s choice to be out of the paid work force, but can we be honest? Not a whole bunch.

I found myself not so much pondering what Sandberg would think of at-home-mom me for not putting my M.S.J. to full-time work. I’m older than her and both secure in my choices and welcoming of other women’s choices.

Instead, I wondered: whatever would Sheryl Sandberg make of Mother Dolores Hart?

On the surface, Mother Dolores breaks pretty much all of Sandberg’s rules in Lean In about women and success. She “leans out” instead of “leaning in” by leaving Hollywood in the 1960s–just as her acting career was taking off–to enter Regina Laudis, a Benedictine monastery of nuns in Connecticut. Perhaps more accurately, Mother Dolores “leans in” to a life far more influential and powerful than the typical career in Hollywood or elsewhere.

Over a long and varied life, Mother Dolores Hart develops spiritual wisdom and realism about the world and human life, born from a life of disciplined Benedictine prayer and work. That’s what makes The Ear of the Heart truly much more relevant for our time than the rather narrow message of Lean In.

The Ear of the Heart offers space for pondering and reflection, no matter your age or life path, on living life fully and intentionally, on spiritual friendship, and on maturity.

Like all good spiritual autobiographies, The Ear of the Heart really takes off once the vocation begins. Struggles with early doubts, times of desolation, community struggles and more, make for fascinating reading.

The book is bursting with spiritual nuggets. Consider part of a much longer passage of Mother Dolores reflecting on the value of prayer in coping with pain:

“God did not create us to suffer. He made us for joy and goodness, and He made the body to be a container of beauty. I believe He wants our body to be a treasure. If not, why would God want His Son to be part of humanity? When we are in pain our only answer is to stay in that identification with God’s Son, who transformed pain through love.”

The book is co-written with Mother Dolores Hart’s longtime friend and Hollywood insider Richard DeNeut. Their back-and-forth informal conversation through the book offers both a unique structure and the ability for other voices–of Hart’s friends, family and fellow nuns–to “speak” in the book in a natural way.

What did I find most surprising about The Ear of the Heart? How, once upon a time, so many major Hollywood stars were serious Catholics or converts to Catholicism. May it be so once again.

—- Briefly noted: An interesting cultural connection with The Ear of the Heart: When I read about one of the Regina Laudis nuns, Sister Noelle, who is well-known in natural-foods circles for her cheese-making and research into cheese, I thought her name sounded familiar.

Then I realized Sister Noelle, the “cheese nun,” was favorably profiled in food writer Michael Pollan’s latest book, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation.

Food Rules is still my favorite Michael Pollan book, for many reasons, but Cooked had much of value to say about family and the importance of real cooking and people eating together. At times it felt like Pollan was channeling G.K. Chesterton, so much does he stress the value of families eating home-cooked meals together.  And his time with Sister Noelle makes me want to try to make my own cheese (but, being honest, I’m more likely to try homemade yogurt or perhaps kimchee if I’m feeling really brave).

A more common exclamation as I read through The Ear of the Heart, was, “This is a real-life In This House of Brede.” Fiction lovers may find of interest Rumer Godden’s In This House of Brede, her account of many decades in the lives of nuns in an English Benedictine monastery.

Godden is a beautiful as well as melancholy writer, and In This House of Brede is probably best among her books for adults. But feel free to skip the 1975 film with Diana Rigg, which does justice to neither the book nor Benedictine life and spirituality.