Reading Catholic

Reading Catholic and catholic

Nancy Piccione

Thomas Friedman Agrees With Me

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As I’ve said many times here, I’m a firm believer in reading books with and to kids, even once kids can read themselves.  In our family, we particularly love having family books–books that we all read and remember and become part of our family “story.”  

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman had a great column over the weekend essentially agreeing with me. (Not that Friedman reads me often, but you know what I mean).    My husband helpfully shared the column with me, and our discussion helped shaped my thoughts here.  I sometimes forget what a great source of both information and analysis he is, so allow me to give him a quick and well-deserved shout-out here.
Friedman refers to an international study that (every 3 years) tests 15-year-olds, and finds that young people whose parents read to them when they were young do much better on reading comprehension and problem-solving than those who do not have that benefit.  The study also shows the more parents are involved in their children’s lives, asking about schoolwork, talking with them about politics and news, in addition to the reading, also raised scores.
Now, I don’t continue to read to our children (all strong readers by now), and we don’t have family favorite “books,” just so that our kids will out-perform their peers when they take tests.  But I do love that giving kids this heritage of great books makes them better able to comprehend the world and be better at problem-solving.  Essentially, Friedman is affirming the Catholic view that parents are the “primary and principal educators” of their children.
I’m beginning work on my December Catholic Post column, about books that would make good Christmas gifts.  As it stands now,  I’m recommending more kids’ books than grown-up books.  I was starting to feel a little concerned about this until I read Friedman’s column.  
What do you think about the study and what it means for parents and kids?  You can read the full results of the international study here. 

Q&A with "A Book of Saints" author Lisa Hendey

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I’m re-publishing my Q&A with Lisa Hendey this month since I usually try to focus on a book throughout the month I review it.  You can read my review of Lisa’s new book, A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms, in my Post column here.

Longtime readers of The Catholic Post Book Group will remember that the second book I reviewed for the Catholic Post was Lisa’s first book, The Handbook for Catholic Moms.  Lisa was also my first author interview, and author interviews have become among my favorite aspects of writing about books.  I really enjoyed my visit with Lisa, a friend to moms everywhere.  I hope you enjoy it.



A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms is such a great companion and natural “sort-of sequel” to The Handbook for Catholic Moms.  Did you know you wanted to write it when The Handbook for Catholic Moms released?
Thank you for your kindness and welcome Nancy. Honestly, I must give a great deal of the credit for the concept of A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms to my amazing editor at Ave Maria Press, Eileen Ponder.  Only a few weeks after The Handbook for Catholic Moms was released in February 2010, Eileen proposed several ideas for future projects, including the concept of a book devoted to exploring the lives of the saints. Because the Handbook was so fresh on my mind, and because I so enjoyed exploring the themes of that project so much, A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms became a natural extension of the work that had begun with my first book.

I appreciate how handsomely the book is designed and “feels.”  I especially loved the illustrations/icons for “heart, mind, body and soul,” (such a great theme in The Handbook for Catholic Moms) and how you assign a different one to each saint.  Tell me more about how you connected those two themes.
I, too, love the design for the book and want to give a great deal of credit to designer Katherine Robinson Coleman of Ave Maria Press, who gave such a beautiful “face” to the ideas I wanted to convey in this book.  The “heart, mind, body and soul” themes were explored in my first book The Handbook for Catholic Moms.  In that book, I encouraged moms to care for themselves in these aspects of their lives so that they would be better equipped to serve their families, our Church and the world around us.

I’ve long had a devotion to the lives of the saints, turning to them as spiritual companions, role models and intercessors. Early in the planning for this project, I decided that I wanted to revisit the four themes, choosing saints in each of those areas and writing about their lives, but also about how the saints exemplified sanctity and excellence in these areas.

There are 52 great saints, some well-known, others not so much.  How did you select the range of saints?
Choosing the 52 saints was one of the most fun, but also the most challenging aspects of the project. I knew immediately that some saints would be included because their importance to mothers and their “fit” for the topics being explored made them immediately come to mind. But I also had a wonderful time pondering my “picks” and reveling in research at our local university library. The formula of 52 saints and four “themes” (heart, mind, body and soul) meant coming up with 13 saints in each of those categories. Honestly, many of the saints I selected could have been introduced in several ways, but conceiving of them in this way and watching the project grow and take flesh really brought them to life in this writer’s heart of mine.

Do you have a favorite saint among the less well-known saints?
I have several! I must admit a tremendously soft spot in my heart for Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux who is one of my personal patrons. It makes sense to me that they would have had a tremendous impact upon her and I’ve fallen in love with Blessed Zelie through reading her personal correspondence. I also have a strong devotion to St. Gianna Beretta Molla, a modern working mother, a physician and a valiant pro-life champion. Finally as an Indiana born daughter of two Hoosier parents educated by the Sisters of Providence, I absolutely love and frequently pray through the intercession of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin who has taught me a great deal about trusting in God’s providence in my life.

You’re such a busy writer and new media specialist.  What’s your next project?
Busy, but very blessed! I have several “next projects” in the work, including an Advent book for Catholic families, several new concepts for CatholicMom.com, an active speaking schedule for the Spring and some “secret projects” that will be unveiled soon.
Is there anything else you would like to add or wish I would have asked?
Nancy, I thank you for your amazing support and I truly encourage your readers to pick up A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms and to share it with their friends and loved ones. The book is designed to be of support for moms, but also to be used with the entire family. It includes daily scriptures and prayers, activities for a mother to enjoy with her children, and a family prayer to be recited together. The saints – these holy men and women – lived their lives in the same challenging circumstances we often face today. It’s such a treasure of our faith that we can turn to them for support and encouragement, in intercessory prayer. I hope families will find a renewed relationship with the communion of saints through this book – both the formally canonized saints, and those we have each known and loved in our own lives. I pray the book will be a blessing to moms in their vocation.

Catholic App Spotlight Update: Confession

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 I first wrote about the Confession App earlier this year, at that time getting a lot of press.  I did download it and check it out, but wondered at the time if I would find myself using the App during actual confession.
Let me “confess” that I’ve become very fond of the Confession App, developed by Little iApps.  So much so, that last month when the App told me it had been two months since my last confession, I felt compelled to share with our parish priest, “While my iPhone says it’s been two months since my last confession, I know I’ve been here twice without my phone.”  He laughed.  And then when I got home I tweeted about doing that.  Am I geeky enough to have a Confession App?  Oh, yes I am.
Many months ago, the very first time I used it in confession, I showed my phone to the priest at a Franciscan parish in Peoria.  Somehow it seemed wrong that he not be aware that I was reading from the examination of conscience the App prompts.  He laughed and said he had heard about it, but it was the first time he heard an App-aided confession to his knowledge. 
Joking aside, I find the Confession App very spiritually helpful in a few key ways:
*the examination of conscience  is keyed to your state in life.  When I first set up my password-protected account, it asked if I were married, etc.  And the examination of conscience relates to that.
*a neat feature that follows the sacramental nature of Confession and what it does for your soul: after you go to confession, your sins, like in actual Confession, are literally wiped away—there’s no way to go back and look through what you confessed previously.  Each time you prepare for confession, the Examination of Conscience is fresh and unchecked.
*the prayer after finishing Confession changes each time you go, and they are lovely.  I wish there were a way to capture them for future reading—I remember particularly good ones from St. Gregory the Great and one from St. Josemaria Escriva, but I can’t find a way to go back and read them again.
I had thought I might use the Confession App for a nightly examination of conscience, but instead, I use my all-time favorite App, Universalis, for saying night prayer.  
Little iApps, the developer of Confession, have a great line-up of Apps.  I’ve downloaded all of them, and especially love the eVotions Apps on different saints.  Our family especially likes the photos on the St. Gianna Molla App.
In recent days, my 8-year-old son and I have taken to saying the novena to Blessed John Paul II in his “App,” as his before-bed prayers, and there’s nothing sweeter than hearing his little voice read through the prayer at the end of the novena. 
Have you used the Confession App?  Or do you have any Catholic Apps you’d like to share?  

A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms Encourages and Uplifts

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“Every time a Catholic mother asks me what author she should read, I have a ready answer: Lisa Hendey,” says noted author Fr. James Martin, S.J.
Amen, Father Martin.  Lisa Hendey is a seemingly omnipresent champion to Catholic women everywhere.  Hendey has a big presence online, where she runs her encouraging and informative website CatholicMom.com.  She also is a featured blogger at the popular Faith & Family Live! web community,, and she speaks and writes on new media as a way to spread the Catholic faith. 
A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms is such a great companion and natural “sort-of sequel” to The Handbook for Catholic Moms, Hendey’s first book. (Incidentally,  that was the second book I ever reviewed here at the Catholic Post.  Lisa was also my first author interview, since Fulton Sheen, author of first book review Treasure in Clay, was unavailable for an interview). 
I appreciate how handsomely the book is designed and “feels.”  Especially lovely are the illustrations/icons for “heart, mind, body and soul,” such a great theme in The Handbook for Catholic Moms and continued here.  Each saint has an icon of either heart, mind, body or soul based on the saint’s particular charism—for instance, a heart for St. Monica, mother of St. Augustine, and a body for martyr St. Maximilian Kolbe.
There are 52 great saints, some well-known, others not so much.  I enjoyed discovering newish-to-me saints like St. Rose Venerini (mind) , a 17th century lay educator, and St. Theodore Guerin, who helped bring the Sisters of Providence to the US.   There are also fresh reflections on saints like St. Jerome (soul) and  St. Jane Frances de Chantal (heart).
Each saint/chapter is divided into five sections:  lessons (an essay/reflection on the saint; traditions (charming familiar and obscure observances associated with the saint); saintly wisdom (a quote from or about the saint); scripture for each day of the week; and saint-inspired activities for mom alone or with kids.
I read through The Book of Saints cover to cover, but it would be a great resource to have at hand throughout the year.  A reader could choose to use this book as a bedside devotional to “keep up with the saints” all year, or get even more practical by planning some of the activities for the family.  Any way it is utilized, The Book of Saints for Catholic Moms is an enduring treasury for heart, mind, body and soul.
This is my monthly column in the print Catholic Post.  Check back all month long on the blog for discussions, giveaways and more about this book and many more.

First, What are You Reading? Volume 15, November 2011

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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?  

Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 by Rafe Esquith.    Esquith teaches in a troubled Los Angeles school with few success stories, and yet manages to transform the lives of his 5th grade students year after year.

The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles is by Padraic Colum, and illustrated by Willy Pogany.  My 8-year-old son and I are reading this to each other, with other family members listening in from time to time.

What do you like best about them?

Here’s what I loved about Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire:  Esquith writes all about making a great classroom culture and holding kids to a high standard.  He teaches them problem-solving as a key skill, and challenges the students to act right at the highest level of behavior.  He and his students perform an acclaimed Shakespeare play every year.  He takes his students on trips to broaden their horizons and shows them classic movies to foster a sense of media literacy—I could go on and on.  He’s a powerhouse, and his many awards are well-deserved.  This would be a great book for any teacher, or really any parent, to get great ideas (or be confirmed in your own) for enriching the lives of children.

Padraid Colum was an Irish writer.  I’m not sure where I picked up the handsome Aladdin paperback of The Children’s Homer, but once I started reading it with my 8-year-old son, we were hooked.  Other than various adaptations over the years, I’ve never been good at reading The Odyssey and other classic Greek literature.  I downloaded an Odyssey App once, but found the language less than friendly to my style.  Colum’s language, while a little old-fashioned, hooked us quickly and we love the amazingly great stories.  After we finished The Children’s Homer, we started on The Golden Fleece.  Colum won the Newberry award for The Children’s Homer, The Golden Fleeceand The Children of Odin.

What do you like least about them?

A big deficit of Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire is the amount of stuff Esquith is able to accomplish with his kids, and how someone reading it might feel inadequate.  It reminds me of when we used to educate our children at home—a danger could be visiting the blogs of other moms who seemed to be able to “do it all,” and how that kind of information was depressing instead of challenging.

Esquith is an amazing teacher, but in a way it’s more of a vocation.  It doesn’t appear he has children; his wife is very involved in helping his classroom succeed.  His kind of dedication and single-minded pursuit of great teaching isn’t realistic for most people, with families and other responsibilities.

I don’t necessarily think that a teacher, whether in public, private or homeschooling, should attempt to replicate, even over the course of a lifetime, Esquith’s successes.  However, there are so many great take-away points that it’s a very helpful read.

I don’t really care for the Willy Pogany illustrations in The Golden Fleece and other Colum books.  They are not terrible, just not my style.  Otherwise, these Colum/Pogany books are all good.

What’s next on your list to read?

I am reading many, many books that would be good as gifts for my December column.

So, what are you reading these days?  Any books you would like to share?

Q&A with Lisa Hendey, author of A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms

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I was so excited to be invited to participate in the blog tour for Lisa Hendey’s new book, A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms (and can I say how cute is the cartoon Lisa for the blog tour icon?).  Longtime readers of The Catholic Post Book Group will remember that the second book I reviewed for the Catholic Post was Lisa’s first book, The Handbook for Catholic Moms.  Lisa was also my first author interview, and author interviews have become among my favorite aspects of writing about books.

I will be reviewing A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms for my November column, but in the meantime here is a great short Q&A with Lisa Hendey, a friend to moms everywhere.

A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms is such a great companion and natural “sort-of sequel” to The Handbook for Catholic Moms.  Did you know you wanted to write it when The Handbook for Catholic Moms released?
Thank you for your kindness and welcome Nancy. Honestly, I must give a great deal of the credit for the concept of A Book of Saints for Catholic Momsto my amazing editor at Ave Maria Press, Eileen Ponder.  Only a few weeks after The Handbook for Catholic Moms was released in February 2010, Eileen proposed several ideas for future projects, including the concept of a book devoted to exploring the lives of the saints. Because the Handbook was so fresh on my mind, and because I so enjoyed exploring the themes of that project so much, A Book of Saints for Catholic Momsbecame a natural extension of the work that had begun with my first book.

I appreciate how handsomely the book is designed and “feels.”  I especially loved the illustrations/icons for “heart, mind, body and soul,” (such a great theme in The Handbook for Catholic Moms) and how you assign a different one to each saint.  Tell me more about how you connected those two themes.
I, too, love the design for the book and want to give a great deal of credit to designer Katherine Robinson Coleman of Ave Maria Press, who gave such a beautiful “face” to the ideas I wanted to convey in this book.  The “heart, mind, body and soul” themes were explored in my first book The Handbook for Catholic Moms.  In that book, I encouraged moms to care for themselves in these aspects of their lives so that they would be better equipped to serve their families, our Church and the world around us.

I’ve long had a devotion to the lives of the saints, turning to them as spiritual companions, role models and intercessors. Early in the planning for this project, I decided that I wanted to revisit the four themes, choosing saints in each of those areas and writing about their lives, but also about how the saints exemplified sanctity and excellence in these areas.

There are 52 great saints, some well-known, others not so much.  How did you select the range of saints?
Choosing the 52 saints was one of the most fun, but also the most challenging aspects of the project. I knew immediately that some saints would be included because their importance to mothers and their “fit” for the topics being explored made them immediately come to mind. But I also had a wonderful time pondering my “picks” and reveling in research at our local university library. The formula of 52 saints and four “themes” (heart, mind, body and soul) meant coming up with 13 saints in each of those categories. Honestly, many of the saints I selected could have been introduced in several ways, but conceiving of them in this way and watching the project grow and take flesh really brought them to life in this writer’s heart of mine.

Do you have a favorite saint among the less well-known saints?
I have several! I must admit a tremendously soft spot in my heart for Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux who is one of my personal patrons. It makes sense to me that they would have had a tremendous impact upon her and I’ve fallen in love with Blessed Zelie through reading her personal correspondence. I also have a strong devotion to St. Gianna Beretta Molla, a modern working mother, a physician and a valiant pro-life champion. Finally as an Indiana born daughter of two Hoosier parents educated by the Sisters of Providence, I absolutely love and frequently pray through the intercession of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin who has taught me a great deal about trusting in God’s providence in my life.

You’re such a busy writer and new media specialist.  What’s your next project?
Busy, but very blessed! I have several “next projects” in the work, including an Advent book for Catholic families, several new concepts for CatholicMom.com, an active speaking schedule for the Spring and some “secret projects” that will be unveiled soon.
Is there anything else you would like to add or wish I would have asked?
Nancy, I thank you for your amazing support and I truly encourage your readers to pick up A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms and to share it with their friends and loved ones. The book is designed to be of support for moms, but also to be used with the entire family. It includes daily scriptures and prayers, activities for a mother to enjoy with her children, and a family prayer to be recited together. The saints – these holy men and women – lived their lives in the same challenging circumstances we often face today. It’s such a treasure of our faith that we can turn to them for support and encouragement, in intercessory prayer. I hope families will find a renewed relationship with the communion of saints through this book – both the formally canonized saints, and those we have each known and loved in our own lives. I pray the book will be a blessing to moms in their vocation.