Reading Catholic

Reading Catholic and catholic

Nancy Piccione

Meet a Reader: Liz Dahlen

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I’m so grateful to Liz Dahlen for reaching out to me and offering to be the “reader” this month.  I’m always looking for suggestions and people in the diocese of Peoria willing to be “readers” on the Catholic Post Book Group.  If you know someone or are a reader yourself, please contact me here on the blog or through The Catholic Post.

How You Know Me:

After being a lifelong Lutheran, I joined the Roman Catholic Church on Easter 2007.  I am a member of St. Louis Parish, Princeton, where I am a lector.  I am a member of the Illinois Valley Cursillo Community, and I am a behind-the-scenes volunteer for the Rachel’s Vineyard post-abortion healing retreats.

Why I Love to Read:

I am absolutely certain I was born with a book in my hand!  Words and ideas have always fascinated me.  I love to read because I love to learn new things, and I also love to read because it “takes me away” from the daily grind to new places and new times, even if the times I’m reading about aren’t new in the chronological sense. 

What I’m Reading Now:

I just finished Catholicism by Father Robert Barron and The Litigators by John Grisham.  Both books were wonderful.  On my Kindle I am reading a biography of Michaelangelo.  I don’t anticipate starting a new hardcover until after the holiday rush.

My Favorite Book:

That is a very tough question!!  I would have to say Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.  I read it for the first time when i was in junior high school and fell in love with it.  That book has everything—plot, characters, style, great writing.  I take it out and re-read every few years and I still enjoy it.  My second favorite is any book written by Donald Cardinal Wuerl.  He is a wonderful writer and I have learned much about the Catholic faith from his books.

Time to Go on a (Media) Diet?

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Here is my January column that appears in this weekend’s Catholic Post.  I invite your feedback here or on Facebook or Twitter.
So, you’re already re-considering your New Year’s Resolution by this time.  Maybe those resolutions to get your kitchen or finances organized, or to exercise every day, have been abandoned already.
Can I suggest watching your diet?
No, I don’t mean what you eat, but the media you consume—your “media diet.”  I once wrote a column for The Catholic Post called, “You Are What You Read” about making good media choices because it’s a lot like eating well.  The more you fill up on the good stuff, the less bad stuff you have time for, or even have a taste for.   And by “good stuff” in books, I don’t mean brussel sprouts, but dark chocolate that’s delicious and healthy.
Here are a few good choices for people looking to fill up on some great and nourishing reads.  As a bonus, all have topics that might help you keep some of those resolutions.
Hoping to do more as a family?  Two books provide help:
Strengthening Your Family: A Catholic Approach to Holiness by Marge Fenelon.  I’ve never met Marge Fenelon, but we are kindred spirits.  Reading each chapter of this excellent book, I felt like I was having lunch with a friend and getting encouraging counsel and spiritual uplift about family life and its inevitable ups and downs.  Fenelon is not writing from the perspective of a holier-than-thou, but rather a fellow traveler who’s been there, made the mistakes, and yet still calls us (and herself) to a Catholic vision of doing family life well.  She shows us having a strong, holy family is hard, but also fun and rewarding, work.
Media mindfulness—viewing media in light of our Catholic faith– is a perennial interest of mine, and a frequent topic at our house.  And no one does “media mindfulness and literacy better than the Daughters of St. Paul.    Our fridge displays a Daughter of St. Paul magnet: “Control is for the moment—communication lasts a lifetime.” 
In this spirit, Daughter of St. Paul Hosea Rupprecht wrote How to Watch Movies with Kids:  A Values-Based Strategy to give tons of great ideas for parents, teachers and others who care about media literacy and mindfulness.  I so appreciated how each chapter ends; with “Saints to Guide Us” (for instance, St. Edith Stein on a chapter called, “Values Articulation,”) and with questions for family conversations. 
Thinking about living a healthier lifestyle?  Make sure you have balance in this area.
Weightless: Making Peace With Your Body, Kate Wicker’s heartfelt, personal book about body image and the spiritual life, is a resource especially well-suited to younger women.
Wicker leads readers through her own journey of an eating disorder and treatment, and now as a wife and mother yearning to hand on healthy body image to her young daughters.  She explores the role of having balance in all things related to our bodies, taking advantage of medical and psychological help when needed, but most of all keeping God at the center.  I love that that Wicker recommends (as do many resources) a “media fast” from unhealthy sources, and doing the same with her kids.  Throughout, Wicker tells readers, “If you love God, then love your body.”  Amen.
*Extreme Makeover: Women Transformed by Christ, Not Conformed by the Culture by Teresa Tomeo. Tomeo, a Catholic radio host, writes persuasively about how damaging a constant and solely secular media diet can be.
Best by far is the chapter titled,” Extreme Media Makeover: Your Personal Media Reality Check and Spiritual Beauty Plan,” in which she encourages an inventory of one’s media consumption, and more of the sacramental life.  Tomeo is great at reminding us that silence (or fasting) is a critical aspect of a healthy media life:  “We have to silence the noise in our lives if we want to hear from God an live a more peaceful and less stressful life.”
Have you resolved to make work-life balance a priority this year?  Consider The Catholic Briefcase: Tools for Integrating Faith and Work by Randy Hain.
At first glance, The Catholic Briefcase seems like book written only for business executives, but it reaches to such a wide range of people I’d recommend it for just about adult who works, inside or outside the home—pretty much everyone.   Hain is not only a business leader, but a recent convert, and he helps remind us cradle Catholics the richness of our faith, and the tools we all have available to keep us effective and holy in our vocation.
Each chapter offers interviews, encouragement and ideas not just for making realistic faith part of work life, but infusing an attractive Catholic culture into everything we do.   Especially helpful is advice on Catholic business networking, and making the spiritual life a priority.

Two E-Books for Two Great Feasts

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Happy Feast of St. John Neumann!  When I saw yesterday that St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was the feast day, and today was St. John,  I immediately thought of two terrific short chapter books about these saints.

First is Thomas Finds a Treasure: A St. John Neumann Story by Joan Stromberg, part of the Glory of America series.  These books are similiar in style and reading level of the American Girl books, but with a Catholic flair.  And they are not girl-specific, so both boys and girls will enjoy it.  Readers will learn all about St. John Neumann and his time through the eyes and story of a fictional 10-year-old boy, Thomas, and his family.

Another great book in the series is Kat Finds a Friend: A St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Story, also by Joan Stromberg.  When our family traveled to Gettysburg and Emmitsburg early last summer, I realized I had forgotten to bring along our copy of Kat Finds a Friend.  How excited I was to see the Kindle edition, and download it immediately so we could read it and enjoy it as we saw the actual places described in the book.

These Kindle books are a bargain at $5.50 each.  If you are not a Kindle reader, both “real” books, and others in the series, are easily available at Catholic bookstores.

Yesterday, when I was in the school library for my day to volunteer and share great books, I had the chance to share with the kids.  I thought quite a few of the kids, or someone in their family, might have received a Kindle or other device to read e-books, and I was right–it was more than half.  I had the opportunity yesterday to “book talk” both of these books, and their e-editions, by showing the kids the books on my Kindle App.

Do you know other e-books about saints?  What are some good choices?

The Anti-List for the New Year: Books, Balance & Self-Care

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This post is a list of all the books I reference in my talk to the First Saturday group at St. Philomena.  This post describes about the talk and January’s theme–Be Yourself.  Here is where I discuss February’s theme, Pursue Happiness. I’ll do future posts towards the beginning of each month with the  theme, quote and book.   But here is the basic version of all the books & quotes.

January: Be Yourself

An earlier Norton edition was the first P&P I read ( in college).

Pride & Prejudice

Here’s a Kindle version.

“Oh! certainly,” cried his faithful assistant, “no one can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half-deserved.”

“All this she must possess,” added Darcy, “and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.”

February: Pursue Happiness

Just a few of the happiness books I referenced:

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
Here’s the five-year sentence-a-day journal.
Sonja Lyubomirsky’s The How of Happiness

Quirky side note about Lyubomirsky’s book: I own the hardback of this, and on the front is a cherry pie.  The paperback version appears to show a lemon meringue pie. Meaning? I know not what, but I find it interesting.

Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside

Quote (from Rilla of Ingleside)

“Now we won’t be sober any more. We’ll look beyond the years—to the time when the war will be over and Jem and Jerry and I will come marching home and we’ll all be happy again.”

“We won’t be—happy—in the same way,” said Rilla.

“No, not in the same way. Nobody whom this war has touched will ever be happy again in quite the same way. But it will be a better happiness, I think, little sister—a happiness we’ve earned. We were very happy before the war, weren’t we? With a home like Ingleside, and a father and mother like ours we couldn’t help being happy. But that happiness was a gift from life and love; it wasn’t really ours—life could take it back at any time. It can never take away the happiness we win for ourselves in the way of duty.”

March: Be a Pray-er and a Prayer

This is the complete boxed set.
Here is a Kindle version of the Lent & Holy Week volume.

Second book of The Mistmantle Chronicles


Quote from Urchin and the Heartstone (The Mistmantle Chronicles, Book 2)

“Alone all day, Juniper would remember the animals and places he loved, and hold them in his own heart before the great Heart that made them. He was learning to find quietness inside himself. He was learning to pray.”

April:  Focus on Finance (through the eyes of faith)

“All The Money in the World is about the link between money and happiness, and how money can be used in our rich society to optimize well-being for ourselves and those we care about. To start, we must stop thinking about money as something evil or soulless,… Instead, we have to start thinking of it as a tool, a means to acquiring, doing and taking care of things that bring us joy. I’ve come to believe that people who are happiest about money operate under three premises of wealth, a word that has less to do with quantity than with outlook:

1. I have enough. There are some people in this world who have more, but also plenty with less.

2. If I want more than I have now to achieve big goals, I can figure out a way to get it.

3. Every dollar is a choice. How I earn it and spend it are up to me.”

May: Start a Garden

(I don’t necessarily mean that literally, as those who know me can attest!).  Just trying to explain/introduce concept of orchids/dandelions as it relates to ourselves and those near us.

Quote from Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain:

“What scientists haven’t realized until recently is that these risk factors have an upside. In other words, the sensitivities and the strengths are a package deal. High-reactive kids (orchids) who enjoy good parenting, child care, and a stable home environment tend to have fewer emotional problems and more social skills than their lower-reactive peers, studies show. Often they’re exceedingly empathic, caring, and cooperative. They work well with others. They are kind, conscientious, and easily disturbed by cruelty, injustice, and irresponsibility.”

June:  Keep a “sharp eye” on your personality

(here’s a handsome recent paperback, but on Kindle it’s only $1.99 because it’s in the public domain).

Quote from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

“The answer to that question is that she didn’t do it because Cousin Ann was Cousin Ann. And there’s more in that than you think! In fact, there is a mystery in it that nobody has ever solved, not even the greatest scientists and philosophers, although, like all scientists and philosophers, they think they have gone a long way toward explaining something they don’t understand by calling it a long name. The long name is “personality,” and what it means nobody knows, but it is perhaps the very most important thing in the world for all that. And yet we know only one or two things about it. We know that anybody’s personality is made up of the sum total of all the actions and thoughts and desires of his life. And we know that though there aren’t any words or any figures in any language to set down that sum total accurately, still it is one of the first things that everybody knows about anybody else. And that is really all we know! 

 So I can’t tell you why Elizabeth Ann did not go back and cry and sob and say she couldn’t and she wouldn’t and she couldn’t, as she would certainly have done at Aunt Harriet’s. You remember that I could not even tell you why it was that, as the little fatherless and motherless girl lay in bed looking at Aunt Abigail’s old face, she should feel so comforted and protected that she must needs break out crying. No, all I can say is that it was because Aunt Abigail was Aunt Abigail. But perhaps it may occur to you that it’s rather a good idea to keep a sharp eye on your “personality,” whatever that is! It might be very handy, you know, to have a personality like Cousin Ann’s which sent Elizabeth Ann’s feet down the path; or perhaps you would prefer one like Aunt Abigail’s. Well, take your choice.”

July: Enjoy leisure and believe wonderful things

Quote from Five Children and It by E. Nesbit

“Grown-up people find it very difficult to believe really wonderful things, unless they have what they call proof. But children will believe almost anything, and grown-ups know this. That is why they tell you that the earth is round like an orange, when you can see perfectly well that it is flat and lumpy; and why they say that the earth goes round the sun, when you can see for yourself any day that the sun gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night like a good sun as it is, and the earth knows its place, and lies as still as a mouse.”

August: Be Brave

(even in private, like Elinor in Sense & Sensibility)

Quote from China’s Bravest Girl: The Legend of Hua Mu Lan

The ocean hides the oyster.
The oyster hides a pearl.
Bright armor and heavy helmet
Hid China’s bravest girl.

September: Seek out kindred spirits, bosom friends

Quote from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery:

“Marilla,” she demanded presently, “do you think that I shall ever have a bosom friend in Avonlea?” “A—a what kind of friend?” “A bosom friend—an intimate friend, you know—a really kindred spirit to whom I can confide my inmost soul. I’ve dreamed of meeting her all my life. I never really supposed I would, but so many of my loveliest dreams have come true all at once that perhaps this one will, too. Do you think it’s possible?”

October: Muster your wits 

And what does “muster your wits” mean in your life?  What “guns” do you have to fight sadness?


Quote from Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace

Depression settled down upon her, and although she tried to brush it away it thickened like a fog. “Why, the kids will be home for Thanksgiving! That will be here in no time. I mustn’t get this way,” she thought. But she felt lonely and deserted and futile. “A mood like this has to be fought. It’s like an enemy with a gun,” she told herself. But she couldn’t seem to find a gun with which to fight.

….

“Muster your wits: stand in your own defense.” She had no idea in what sense he had used it, but it seemed to be a message aimed directly at her. “Muster your wits: stand in your own defense,” she kept repeating to herself on the long walk home. After dinner she sat down in her rocker, looked out at the snow and proceeded to muster her wits. “I’m going to fill my winter and I’m going to fill it with something worth while,” she resolved.

November: Be a Pollyanna

yes, really.  topics: what being a Pollyanna really means; the emotional and spiritual maturity of the “glad game”

Quote from Pollyanna by Eleanor Holmes Porter

What men and women need is encouragement. Their natural resisting powers should be strengthened, not weakened…. Instead of always harping on a man’s faults, tell him of his virtues. Try to pull him out of his rut of bad habits. Hold up to him his better self, his REAL self that can dare and do and win out!… The influence of a beautiful, helpful, hopeful character is contagious, and may revolutionize a whole town…. People radiate what is in their minds and in their hearts. If a man feels kindly and obliging, his neighbors will feel that way, too, before long. But if he scolds and scowls and criticizes—his neighbors will return scowl for scowl, and add interest!… When you look for the bad, expecting it, you will get it.

December: go with your strengths

I wrote a post for Bonnie at A Knotted Life in her Advent series in 2012, and the title there was “Go with Your Strengths.”  For me, that is books.  Here are probably my two favorite  Christmas read-alouds and ones we read every year.

What are your strengths?

The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy

A quote from The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy by Jane Thayer

“I’m not alone,” said the boy. “I’ve got a puppy.”

The Story of Holly & Ivy by Rumer Godden

A quote from Rumer Godden:

“There is an Indian proverb that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual . Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.” 

N.B. This post contains affiliate links.  I’m new to this world, but what it means is that if you click on the link and order a book (or any other item),  I get a small amount of money, though your cost stays the same.

Do you participate in any affiliate programs on your blog or website? I’d be interested to hear your experience/positives, negatives.

Q & A with Local Author Deacon Bruce Bradford

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Following is my brief interview with local author Deacon Bruce Bradford, author of An Angel Named Herald, one of the books I reviewed in my December column about Christmas gift books.  Thanks so much, Deacon Bradford, for sharing about your book and your life here!





Q: Tell Catholic Post Book Group blog readers a little about yourself and your family.

I’ve been married 47 years to my wife Terry, and we have four children and 10 grandchildren. Both Terry and I were born and raised in the state of Maine. I worked for Pan American Airways for 25 years( and so I can say that the TV series is not all that accurate.). We lived in New York City; Shaker Heights Ohio; and then 38 years in Oak Park, just outside Chicago.  In 2006 we retired to Pekin to be closer to our daughters and five of our ten grandchildren. I was ordained as a permanent Deacon 26 years ago in Chicago. At present I am assigned to two parishes; St Joseph in Hopedale & St Mary in Delavan. I am an amateur actor (20 years) and am presently in a production of A Christmas Carol. This fall, I performed in “The Ghosts of Spoon River.”

I also volunteer driving seniors for the Miller Senior Center, and conduct a “Bible Connections” session for the mentally and physically challenged at PARC in North Peoria. I am constantly reading and enjoy travelling around the country with Terry to visit our boys in Houston and Minneapolis.  Isn’t retirement grand?

Q:  How did you come up with the idea for the book?

Six years ago I decided that as Deacon of the Mass I wanted to read something after the Gospel of Luke on Christmas Eve for the children.  I created Herald to be used as someone we could emulate as a messenger for God’s message of love. The response that first Christmas eve was “Where can we buy the book?” I of course had to say that Herald was in my head only.  People urged me to publish which I respectively laughed off.

When I moved to Pekin and was assigned to the two parishes mentioned I read the story to the children and again was asked about a book. A parishioner overheard my discussion. She walked up to me and said,”Publish it, and I want the first copy.”  Eight months later she had her copy.

Q. You mentioned that the book was initially intended for your grandchildren.  What made you want to publish it to a wider audience?

I asked myself why publish “Herald”?  I determined that if I published it would be for my ten grandchildren.  I wanted them to have something of their grandfather’s creation. The original orders for books reflected that desire. Then I decided to get additional copies for the children on Christmas Eve and my friends at Parc. I started getting requests from friends for the book and suggestions that I do a book signing.  I’ve had one in Oak Park, one at Lagron-Miller in Peoria, and on December 20th I’ll be doing another book signing at “I Know You Like a Book” bookstore in Peoria Heights.  The book has been a blessing, and has reunited me with so many folks around the country.

Q.  What do you hope readers take away from “An Angel Named Herald”?

Herald’s story is our story.  Jesus came to create a “new” kingdom; a kingdom based on Love and action.  We like Herald, have doubts that we are up to the task, but God like he did with Herald provides us with the tools to be his Herald.  We, like Herald, are called to be God’s messengers.

Q. Is there anything else you would like to add, or wish I would have asked?

People have asked if there will be a sequel. My answer to that is Herald in our lives is a daily sequel.

Meet a Reader: Shirley Plaag

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“Meet a Reader” appears on the monthly book page of The Catholic Post, and it features someone within the diocese of Peoria who enjoys reading.  Here are the four questions I ask “readers” to answer: how you (meaning Post readers) know me, why I love reading, what I’m reading now, and my favorite book.  This month, I feature Shirley Plaag, a delightful young woman who is a fellow volunteer on the Behold Conference.


How you know me: 

I was born and raised here in Peoria and have lived here just about my entire life, minus four years of college at Franciscan University of Steubenville and a year of mission work at St. Gianna’s Maternity Home in North Dakota. I am currently a member of St. Jude Parish in Peoria were I work with a wonderful group of 4th graders every Sunday. I most recently began teaching religion to another wonderful group of middle school students at St. Mary’s School in Kickapoo. Last, but not least, I sell books at Lagron-Miller Company alongside the lovely Gina McKenna. When I’m not working or reading, I love to cook and bake. Just ask my friends and family!

Why I love reading:

I love reading quite simply because it transforms my life. After studying four years of Theology and Catechetics, I have covered a lot of ground in spiritual reading. God speaks to me through the things that I read by challenging me and calling me to a deeper conversion. My favorite thing about reading- whether it be a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, the life of a great saint or the writings of the Holy Fathers- is that it is something that I can share with others to deepen their understanding or devotion as well as my own.

What I’m reading now:

 I think that I may have a bookmark in at least 10 books at the moment! I just finished Mystery of Joseph by Fr. Philippe, founder of the Community of St. John. This beautiful book sheds a new light on the Gospel accounts where St. Joseph is present and gives an intimate look into the life of the Holy Family. Scott Hahn called this book “profound and deep” and I wholeheartedly agree. In the spirit of the coming feasts of Christmas, I am also reading the classic Charles Dickens’ novel A Christmas Carol and Come, Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Art of Waiting by Mother Mary Frances P.C.C. Recently, I have picked up Ablaze: Stories of Daring Teen Saints by Colleen Swaim to share with my students.

My favorite book:

Choosing a favorite book is a challenge. There are many that I am passionate about, but there are two that stand out among the stacks. The first is A Serve Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken. This is a poignantly written memoir about the journey of the author and his wife from “A Pagan Love,” a love that is turned in on one another to a selfless love of the living God, Jesus Christ. This true story is full of beauty, poetry, joy, despair and honesty about what it means to fully convert our lives to Christ. This message is clear: there is no middle ground and there is no turning back once we have encountered Him. [The following is my favorite excerpt from the book, written by the author before his conversion: “How did one find joy? In books it seemed to be found in love- a great love- though maybe for the saints there was joy in the love of God. He didn’t aspire to that, though; He didn’t even believe in God. Certainly not! So, if he wanted the heights of joy, he must have, if he could find it, a great love. But in the books again, great joy through love seemed always to go hand in hand with frightful pain. Still, he thought, looking out across the meadow, still, the joy would be worth the pain- if indeed, they went together. If there were a choice- and he suspected there was- a choice between, on the one hand, the heights and the depths, and on the other hand, some sort of safe, cautious middle way, he, for one, here and now chose the heights and depths.”]

The second is I Believe in Love: A Personal Retreat on the Teaching of St. Thérèse of Lisieux by Fr. Jean d’Elbée. This book has changed my life time and time again. It is one that I go back too when I need to relearn the “Little Way” of St. Thérèse. This book, written with a great deal of gentleness and love has brought me through many trials in life and reminded me that I am a joy for Jesus because “His delight is to be with the children of men” (Prov. 8:31).

I am also a big fan of anything written by C.S. Lewis, Peter Kreeft, and Archbishop Charles Chaput just to name a few. But, I digress. I can’t write about them all. I must join St. John the Beloved Disciple in saying “were every one of them to be written, I suppose the that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25).