Reading Catholic

Reading Catholic and catholic

Nancy Piccione

Bethlehem Books is Having a Sale–Some Early Ideas for Your Christmas List

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Bethlehem Books is having a Christmastime sale, and that makes me want to go shopping.  Yes, I am a book geek (if that were not obvious yet), and books are almost always my favorite gifts to give and receive.
Bethlehem Books self-describes as a book publisher “dedicated to putting good literature into children’s hands by re-printing quality books from the earlier part of the 20th century. We publish tried and true historical fiction, adventure tales, biographies, and family stories which help children and young adults expand their imagination and understand the past.” 

Amen to all that!  Virtually every single Behlehem book our family owns or anyone in our family has read from the library has been a “hit.”  That’s an amazing track record for any publisher, so it should be obvious the people at Bethlehem Books have amazingly taste in good older books.  One proviso is that the books are often best, at least to start, as a “read-aloud,” and then often various children (or adults) will abscond with the book to read ahead.

Bethlehem Books are often found in Catholic and Christian bookstores, as well as their website, and other online retailers.   On a recent family trip to England, I even saw a few titles of Bethlehem books at the Daughters of St. Paul shop in London.

I’ve only just started my own wish list from Bethlehem Books.  I wish I had a paper catalog to peruse, because unfortunately, the website is a little tricky to navigate.  Meanwhile, here are some of our family favorites:

*The Bantry Bay series:  This series about an Irish family and their adventures in 1930s Ireland is written by popular author Hilda von Stockum.  The Cottage at Bantry Bay is first in the series, followed by Francie on the Run and Pegeen.   I love all three, but my favorite would have to be Francie on the Run for his various adventures and mishaps trying to return home solo after a stay in a Dublin hospital to fix his “lame foot.”

*The Mitchells series:  We’ve only read the first in this other Hilda von Stockum series –The Mitchells:  Five for Victory–about a Washington, D.C. family during WW II, so  I guess I’d have to put Canadian Summer and Friendly Gables near the top of our wish list.  The interplay of the siblings, their family, friends and neighbors is realistic and just plain fun.

*Augustine Came to Kent by Barbara Willard.  This is a great historical fiction account of how St. Augustine brought , told through the eyes of St. Augustine, two local (fictional) children, Fritha and Rolf.  An exciting story with lots of historical detail.   When another family tried to borrow it, we couldn’t find our copy, so I might have to order another one.  It’s jus such a great book!

*Madeleine Takes Command  by Ethel Brill tells the story of how 14-year-old Madeleine, her two younger brothers and a few others work to hold off an Indian attack on their French Canadian fort in the 1690s.  Exciting and read numerous times by various members of our family.

*Alvin’s Secret Code by Clifford Hicks.  This is probably the best of the Alvin mystery stories written by Hicks, though I see Bethlehem also publishes two other of the Alvin books (Alvin Fernald, Foreign Trader and Alvin Fernald, Mayor for a Day); both now on my wish list.  Alvin’s Secret Code concerns a Civil War treasure and the mystery of its location, and Alvin of course solves it, at the same time learning about secret codes.  

More than a year ago, we read Alvin’s Secret Code in the girls book group my daughters and I host, and I contacted Mr. Hicks to see if he would be a “virtual visitor” to our group via phone.  He was so sweet in responding to me by letter to say his hearing was not very good, so a phone call was not a good idea, but he answered lots of questions and thanked us for our interest.  He passed away just a few months ago, so I will especially treasure that letter and his friendship to our book group.
*Finally, I must share a great little biography of my favorite author, Jane Austen.  Presenting Miss Jane Austenby May Lamberton Becker is a gentle introduction to the life and work of the great Jane.

I could go on and on, but this is a good start.

If you are familiar with the Bethlehem Books, take a moment to share one or two (or more!) of your favorites in the comments.  If you’re not, do take some time to check out this great publisher.

Father Dom

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I’m excited for the appearance of Father Dominic Garramone, OSB, at Lagron-Miller, the Catholic bookseller here in Peoria.  Fr. Dominic will be at a book signing Friday, November 26, at the store, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
This won’t be my first Fr. Dom book signing.  I have great memories of another one, and I can testify that he is delightful in person.   In 2000 or early 2001, my husband sent me to Lagron-Miller, for a booksigning for Father’s new book at the time, Breaking Bread with Father Dominic 2.    We had a newborn and a three-year-old at the time, and I think my dear husband wanted me to have a morning out.  So, baby in sling, I made my way there.
Father Dominic was, if possible,  far nicer in person than his television persona.  I remember being somewhat apologetic and “confessing” to having a bread machine, and he made a joke, something about bread machines not being the spawn of the devil.  With small children, and someone who doesn’t like kneading much, it could be a good way to make fresh bread, he said.
I no longer have the bread machine, because as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a not very successful baker of either bread or pizza.    But Father Dom’s newest book, and some ideas for crusts, I have a new confidence to try, and I’ll try my hand again at “food blogging” this month as I did in August when we discussed Fr. Leo’s book Grace Before Meals.

A Laugh for Early November

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You might, like me, need a good laugh early in the day.  I  recently discovered (via Lisa Hendey of CatholicMom.com & Faith and Family Live!)  a great group of charming videos produced by a Harvard grad student, Matt Weber, that are Catholic, engaging and fun.

This article tells the whole story about how this enterprising young man started making these videos.

Here’s one video on confession.  This brought many, many laughs at our house:

We also love this one, an appreciation of letter-writing, the Mother Teresa stamp. I can’t find it on YouTube to embed here, for some reason, but if you visit Catholic TV you can view it. Well worth the visit!

First, What are You Reading? Volume 3

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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/pile to read?

I hope you’ll consider sharing yours on your blog (I’ve abandoned the Mr. Linky for now!) and/or sharing yours here in the comments or on Facebook.  This month, I’m scrunching all my answers into one, because I’m concerned otherwise this might never post.  Happy reading and I hope you’ll share what you are reading!

First, what are you reading?


I’m reading a ton of books right now, preparing for December’s gift column (don’t you agree books make a good gift?), as well as improvement books for January, as in turning a new leaf.  Lots of interesting reading to share.

There are two that I’m especially enjoying:

The Grace to Race by Sister Madonna Buder.  This is the story of an 80-year-old nun who is also a record-breaking triathlete.  This impresses me, because while I’m a triathlete (having completed the Seattle Danskin Women’s Triathlon last year with my four sisters–that’s a great story for another time), I am by no means fast.  She didn’t start running until her late 40s, and still keeps going.  I wasn’t sure I would like this book, but so far I am loving her style, her call to vocation, and her sheer energy.   Also, she has a special fondness for the Blessed Mother and St. Therese, the Little Flower, so I’m hooked.

Carney’s House Party/Winona’s Pony Cart: Two Deep Valley Books (P.S.)
in an excellent new edition. I could.not.WAIT for this new release of an old classic, by Betsy-Tacy author Maud Hart Lovelace, because the foreward for Carney’s House Party was written by prolific blogger and fellow Betsy-Tacy fan Melissa Wiley.  I knew about Betsy-Tacy books before I knew about Melissa Wiley’s blog, but she’s made it so much fun to be a superfan of this great series.  And I was not disappointed in her great foreward, and I’m so enjoying reading this great classic again.

St. Andre Bessette, Crutches, and Healing

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In summer 2009, our family had the opportunity to travel to Canada, and some of our best memories were from visiting, St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, and the Shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre , outside Quebec City. With the canonization of St. Andre Bessette (who built the Oratory) this month, I was inspired to re-post here what I had written about the crutches in June 2009. As we wind up our discussion of Beyond Blue this month, and learning about healing, I think it’s an appropriate reflection.

In both places of pilgrimage, crutches figured prominently.

I’m sure I snapped more than a couple dozen photos of the crutches left behind by those healed through the intercession of St. Joseph and St. Anne. Now I only have a few because I’ve been fairly ruthless editing the photos we took in Canada. And I experienced such involuntary and powerful emotions when seeing them.   So I’ve put up a couple of the photos I took that remain.

At first, or at some point after seeing them I thought, could there really be this many people who are cured and no longer need their crutches?  How many people really need crutches these days?  I guess it was different many decades ago when these shrines were being constructed.  But still,  all these people healed?

And yet, you see the hundreds of well-used crutches and canes all over the place, and clearly people left them behind.   Even with my skepticism, at least for me, I continued to have a very strong emotional reaction, my eyes tearing up, when I would catch sight of the crutches as we spent our time at the shrines.  I think part of my intellectual reaction was from my mom, who was pretty practical about these kind of things, almost to a fault.  But still the tears flowed.

An old friend from DC wrote on my Facebook (after I mentioned we were going to St. Joseph Oratory) that she had visited there years ago and, seeing the crutches, was inspired to pray for her own healing.  And I didn’t see her note until after we had been there, but I had the same thought.  I couldn’t even articulate at the time what I meant by that.  It was just a wordless prayer for healing and grace.

Now, with some time away from the experience, and getting a chance to reflect on it, I recognized that what resonated with me was the common human struggle with brokenness.  For some it is an obvious problem–a physical disability.  Some are more open about their struggles with brokenness–I’m grateful for the blogs I can visit where people share their struggles and their faith journeys.

But even if we are more private about it, or it is not obvious, human life involves struggles and brokenness, even amid joy.   What is important is to be loving and forgiving to each other as we recognize that.  On our own we don’t have that kind of love and forgiveness.  That is why I’m so grateful for the grace and supernatural love given freely by Jesus, however imperfect I am at accepting that grace and love.

I was in confession last week with an African priest visiting our parish, and I have to “confess” I was a little concerned, because the last time I went to an African priest for confession (a number of years back), my penance was– an entire Rosary.  I can laugh now, but in my shock, I had to ask him if that’s what he really meant.  Now I know a Rosary isn’t terrible (Mary, Mother of God, please still love me for even writing that!).  But for soft old American me, going to confession to very kind American priests, I’m used to a couple of Hail Marys, and some good advice.

But this time during confession (with a penance far less than a Rosary, I might add), the priest at one point said, “dear daughter of the King,” and of course my eyes teared up.  I am a daughter of the King–we are all children of the King– and His grace and healing is available to us.  Let us be given the hearts to know that.

Beyond Blue Question: Other Catholic Books, Resources on Facing Adversity?

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I feel grateful to have the chance to review and write about Beyond Blue  this month, and interview author Therese Borchard.  But there are many, many books that approach depression, mental health and promote healing from a Catholic perspective.  Many books were recommended to me, and I searched around for what would be good.  I was surprised at only having a few that I found good reads & worth recommending.  I know that many people would find different books helpful in different ways, so feel free to add your suggestions.

Here are several books I found most helpful and best reads:

*Surviving Depression:  A Catholic Approach by Kathryn J. Hermes, FSP, (a sister in the Congregation of the Daughters of St. Paul) writes a beautiful account of her own struggles with depression, and tells the stories of others, in giving hope and a spiritual blueprint for healing and progress against mood disorders.

The book now comes with a companion prayer book:  Prayers for Surviving Depression and a companion journal, Surviving Depression Journal, making this an excellent series for those grappling with depression.

*Safely Through the Storm: 120 Reflections on Hope by Debra Herbeck is a slim but rich volume of quotes, reflections and poems from saints and spiritual writers on hope in the midst of suffering.  The book is divided into three sections:  “The Quotes,” “The Voices” (short description of each writer), and “The Sources” (for each quote).  My only tiny quibble is that the voices (listed alphabetically), do not refer back to the numbered quote, so I can’t look up, say, Caryl Houselander’s quote.  Still, a wonderful, beautiful selection of voices, in quotes of varying lengths that provide hope and healing.   This would be a great book to have on hand for times of Adoration or for quiet reflection on one or two quotes.

Here’s one example, from St. Thomas More,:  “I will not mistrust (God), though I feel myself weakening and on the verge of being overcome with fear … I trust he shall place his holy hand on me and in the stormy seas hold me up from drowning.”

*Another recently released compendium is Hidden Graces: Poems for Crisis, Struggle and Renewal selected and introduced by Gretchen L. Schwenker, Ph.D. and Matthew J. Kessler, a Redemptorist priest.  The poems are selected primarily to help those who have experienced loss, providing a way to navigate your emotions through the “hidden graces” of crisis, the authors explain. Poets from Christina Rossetti to Wendell Berry and many others, both classic & modern, provide space and reflection for those in grief and in the process of recovery.

*Prolific author and trained psychologist Father Benedict Groeschel wrote a book in the 1990s that has enduring appeal:  Arise from Darkness:  What to Do When Life Doesn’t Make Sense.  The book handles grief, depression and other issues from Father Groeschel’s sensible Catholic approach.   Father Groeschel writes in such an easy-to-read and conversational style, making it well worth a look.

Do you have a favorite read or resource to recommend in this area?