Reading Catholic and catholic
Today is the Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Mary’s Cathedral. I think it should be an inspiring morning.
Here’s a quote for today. I have so many great ones, but when I came across this I thought, Yes! Now here’s another reason why Fulton Sheen is one of the patrons of this blog:
“Any book which inspires us to lead a better life is a good book.”
–Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Thoughts for Daily Living
The first question a child asks when he comes into this world is the question: Why? Every babe is an incipient philosopher.
–Fulton Sheen, Religion Without God
There are so many great quotes from Fulton Sheen that I plan to post a selection here and there this month. I have some of my own quotes, but the wonderful (and sadly out of print) The Quotable Fulton Sheen (I reviewed it in my September column here) has a lot of great ones I’ll be sharing, as well.
This weekend is #celebrateSheen on Twitter and elsewhere, as Peoria Catholics (and many from elsewhere) will take part in a Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria. Read more about the events on the Celebrate Sheen website. I’ll be at the Mass, and using the hashtag #celebrateSheen. I don’t expect to be tweeting during the Mass, but before and after, certainly! And my thanks for the reminder to use the hashtag from the ever-excellent Julie Enzenberger, administrator of the Sheen Foundation.
As I was writing the title for this post, it occurred to me that “Sheen September” is a good name for this month on Reading Catholic, as the focus is many things Sheen. Today, I’m honored to share the first of several guest posts by Sheen aficionados. Mary McKean is the leader of the women’s Sheen Book Group of which I’m a member, and I’ve known her for more than a dozen years, and as you will see, she is a longtime Sheen fan.
Mary McKean and her husband, Pete, have been married 35 years and are the parents of eight children ages 33 to 16, and grandmother of 16 (and counting), where they are members of St. John the Baptist Parish in Bradford.
Mary’s been a parish organist for 40 years (she started as a young teen!).
I also want to add one fact I’ve known for years about Mary that I find so cool: she and her husband were in the Peace Corps in Ecuador as newlyweds in 1977.
Mary, thanks for writing this guest post and sharing your perspective on Archbishop Sheen!
As a mother and grandmother of a large family I haven’t always had time to read. Now that my children are nearly grown, there has been an awakening in me of things set aside, and dreams unfulfilled. I have discovered the joys of pursuing in-depth study of the Bible, and of getting to know Our Lord personally.
For quite some time I have had a desire to be a participant in a Catholic Book Club. I wanted to learn my Faith better, and to read books that had some depth. I have searched the area many times, but have never discovered any such group. I joined my local library’s monthly book club, and while I enjoyed it, I still felt that something important was missing.
I became a member of the Marian Catechists, which is an apostolate within the Church, whose sole purpose is to share the Faith. I decided that now was the time to do something about this desire. I called some friends I thought might be interested in exploring the depths of our Faith, and we set a date to begin. I asked them each to bring a book that they might be interested in reading during the year.
Imagine my surprise when nearly everyone brought a book by Archbishop Sheen, myself included! Considering the fact that we are in Archbishop Sheen’s home diocese, and that he was just declared venerable, we decided to dedicate the entire year to his books, studying a new one each month.
What a year it has been! I have gained so much, and have learned to love and appreciate this man. I am always so impressed by the insights he brings to each book….insights that come from wisdom, not necessarily knowledge. How, I thought, does he penetrate into the human mind, and understand its workings when he has no background in psychology? I concluded that there could be only one reason: the holy hour he made before the Blessed Sacrament each and every day of his priestly life.
I think Jesus has been making this journey with me, touching my heart with His Spirit. Each book we’ve read has spoken to me, and been just what I’ve needed at a particular moment. When troubled with some personal trials, Sheen’s book Peace of Soul brought me comfort and understanding. After several weeks of suffering, I was reminded in St. Therese: A Treasured Love Story, of the power of the cross when offered to Our Lord for others. My love and devotion to Mary was strengthened and increased by a study of The World’s First Love. There are many other examples.
My family and I live on a farm just ten miles from the one where Fulton Sheen worked summers helping his grandparents. I grew up listening to his tapes, and my husband spent many evenings with his grandmother watching ‘Life is Worth Living’ on television. My mother read Three to Get Married as a young married woman. All of these things have made the archbishop feel especially close and approachable. I love his sense of humor, his warmth, and love of life. He has certainly broadened and enriched my life.
(Sharing great songs that are inspiring, uplifting and/or are otherwise “worth a listen”)
I discovered Group1Crew earlier this year when they played at WinterJam. They were easily my favorite group who played there, and there were a lot of good musical acts there. This is a montage video of their “Live It Up.” Dare you not to dance while you hear this.
I’m delighted this month to feature a young mother I know in real life as a friend, an insightful writer and influential young leader in our area. Of course, it may be obvious that we would be friends since she loves both The Hobbit and Jane Austen, but still …. I’m grateful for Bonnie for being willing to be featured this month, when Reading Catholic is focused on all things Sheen.
How you know me: Along with my personal blog, A Knotted Life (formerly “Learning to be a Newlywed”), I am also a regular contributor to the online magazine Ignitum Today. Also, I have been honored to serve as the Associate Director for the Behold Conference for the last three years. My husband, Travis, and I are the parents of four small children—Lydia, Bennet, James and Teresa. We are members of St. Luke parish in Eureka. Our third child, James Fulton, was stillborn and came back to life after being without a pulse for sixty-one minutes. His alleged miracle is attributed to the intercession of Venerable Fulton Sheen and was officially submitted to the Vatican for Sheen’s beatification.
Why I love reading: I love reading because it makes anything possible. Sitting in a waiting room I can suddenly be in another country, time, or world. By reading I can connect with another’s heart, see a different perspective, grow in virtue, partake in an adventure, witness forgiveness and beauty, and know the love of my God.
What I’m reading now: Right now I am making my way through J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and I love it. There’s something about a hobbit that is so endearing. Also, every day I read From Head to Toe by Eric Carle about a billion times.
My favorite book: For a long time it was A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, which is a slightly-scandalous-in-places memoir. Recent favorites have been The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter. And I will always love anything written by Jane Austen.
Here are my answers to the four questions I ask on the first of each month:
first, what are you reading?
what do you like best about it?
what do you like least?
what’s next on your list to read?
As always, I hope you’ll consider your current reads on your blog and/or sharing here in the comments or on Facebook. Happy reading!
First, what are you reading?
I enjoyed, as a lark, P.D. James’ new mystery, Death Comes to Pemberly. Yes, it’s set at Jane Austen’s Pemberly.
I have also been on a non-fiction kick, recently finishing The Cure for Everything: Untangling Twisted Messages About Health, Fitness and Happiness.
For a read-aloud with my youngest, I am also now on The Fellowship of the Ring after finishing The Hobbit last month.
What do you like best about them?
Death Comes to Pemberly was a fun, nice read. I have not read any P.D. James before now. She is in her 90s and is pretty popular among mystery lovers. I’m not a huge mystery person, but I love Jane Austen so much that I gave this a try.
The Cure for Everything is predictably quirky, being written by a Canadian professor, Timothy Caufield. I’m not sure if I’m stereotyping Canadians, and I apologize if it’s politically incorrect to do so. Nevertheless, the Canadian perspective just seems different enough from a US view, that I find it entertaining.
Caufield, as the blurb of the book states, “talks with experts in medicine, pharmaceuticals, health and fitness, and even tries out many of the health fads himself, in order to test their scientific validity, dispel the myths, and illuminate the path to better health.”
Could J.R.R. Tolkein be any more quotable? I keep stopping every page or so to repeat a line as I read it aloud. From a recent day:
“But where shall I find courage?” asked Frodo. “That is what I chiefly need.”
“Courage is found in unlikely places,” said Gildor. “Be of good hope! Sleep now!”
What do you like least about them?
The Cure for Everything really begs a lot of questions. Because Caufield writes about experimenting with different ideas about health, and if they work, but since he is starting the process basically very healthy, it doesn’t really seem completely convincing, even with the studies he cites.
What’s next on your list to read?
I am in the midst of Three to Get Married by Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the next book we are reading in the women’s Sheen book group I attend (I discussed the group in my September Post column here). It’s slow going for me right now, but I am also taking copious notes.