Reading Catholic

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A Literary Pilgrimage

“The Fourth Cup” a Great Read for Lent, Easter Seasons {My March column @TheCatholicPost }

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Following is my column that appears in the current print edition of The Catholic Post.

A pilgrimage to the Holy Land is an aspiration of many Christians. It won’t surprise you to know that I am among those who have that desire.

Years ago, my husband and I were watching an interview on EWTN with Steve Ray, the Catholic convert and apologist, I mentioned that I would love to go on one of his “Footprints of God” pilgrimages that he and his wife Janet lead to the Holy Land. In the interview, Ray mentioned especially that bringing the entire family to the Holy Land, especially teens and young adults, is unparalleled for growing in faith for a range of generations. We haven’t quite come to an agreement about when and how the pilgrimage will take place, but I’m still hoping it will happen someday.

Your Holy Land pilgrimage, like mine, may be far off in the future, but that doesn’t mean we can’t benefit, especially during Lent and Easter, from meditating on early Jewish & Christian customs, culture, and place.

I hesitate to say it, but it is true that while we wait, books (and videos, too) can be the next best thing to an actual Holy Land pilgrimage.

In the past, I’ve reviewed several books that inform or inspire, like Fr. Mitch Pacwa’s The Holy Land: An Armchair Pilgrimage, or Jesus: A Pilgrimage, Fr. James Martin’s musings on visiting the Holy Land over the years. Even local son Venerable Fulton Sheen wrote a book (with fascinating vintage photographs) called, This is the Holy Land.

One of my favorite aspects of these books is their ability to put readers in the time and place Jesus lived, and help explain some of the aspects about our faith that we take for granted.

The most recent book by Scott Hahn, The Fourth Cup: Unveiling the Mystery of the Last Supper and the Cross while not a Holy Land pilgrimage book, has a similar effect and scope.

Scott Hahn is well-known to many as a Protestant pastor who converted to Catholicism in the 1980s, and has been tirelessly writing books, giving talks, and otherwise spreading the Catholic faith, ever since. He’s best known probably for his most popular book, The Lamb’s Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth.

Most people in the early 1990s, like me, learned of Hahn through an audio version of his conversion story, which was widely distributed during those years. I recall a friend giving me a cassette tape of Hahn’s first conversion story. (Yes, young ones reading this column, there are still people alive who listened to things on audio cassette. Don’t even get me starting on how people back in “my” college days painstakingly made song mixtapes on audio cassette).

But back to Scott Hahn. He was such a convincing and powerful speaker, and helped me to understand the riches of the Catholic faith that I, as a cradle Catholic, had never understood or appreciated.

Hahn is best at that—helping Catholics and non-Catholics alike, discover or re-discover the richness of the Catholic faith; how our practices—especially the Mass—are rooted solidly in Scripture; and how early Church Fathers point towards what we now practice and believe as Catholics.

As he writes in the preface to the book, when he began giving talks on his conversion to Catholicism, it was often titled, The Fourth Cup, after the fourth cup of the Passover, that Jesus omitted during the Last Supper. The “why” of that, and how Hahn discovered it over the course of his conversion through study and prayer, together make for an engaging, informative read.

The book is organized into 14 chapters, almost all directly relating to the Passover in the Old Testament, and how that directly prefigures Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross. The first chapter is “What is Finished,” when the young Protestant seminary student Hahn was challenged by a pastor to find out why Jesus said, “It is finished” just before he died; and the remaining chapters help explain how he discovered it, and how it led him directly to the Catholic Church. the rest of the chapters a range of chapters that help explain how the Passover is a type, or prefiguring, of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross; to the final chapter “The Paschal Shape of Life,” how we can apply that in our own lives.

One clever aspect of The Fourth Cup are the dozens of sly puns in nearly every sub-headings of sections sprinkled throughout each chapter: such as “Pasch, Presence, and Future” or “A Lamb is Bread for This,” or “Greeks Baring Gifts.”

I found myself writing down multiple quotes from the book, such as:

“God taught Israel to sacrifice not so that his Chosen People would be humiliated but so that they would learn to lay down their lives, to turn away from sin, and to live in the covenant. ‘The sacrifice acceptable to God is broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart.’ (Ps 51)”

As I’ve written before, I’m a lay person when it comes to theology, and so I appreciate a straightforward, manageable read to help me grow in my knowledge and contemplate some of the riches of our faith. The Fourth Cup is just such a book.

A Cure for “Historical Amnesia” {The American Catholic Almanac Blog Tour}

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With apologies to Jane Austen, you must allow me to tell you how ardently I love and admire Emily Stimpson.

I’ve reviewed her books before here and here , and she was a “Reader” back around the time of the 2012 Behold Conference, where I first met Emily in person (photos to prove it in the link). To use another literary reference, Emily is definitely a “kindred spirit,” and I’m happy to claim her as a local author since she has roots in the Peoria Diocese and many of her family still lives here.

Headshot Living Room

So that’s why I’m delighted for Reading Catholic to be a stop on the blog tour for The American Catholic Almanac by Emily Stimpson and Brian Burch.  My review of the book appears in this weekend’s print edition of The Catholic Post and will post here in a few days. 

Thank you, Emily, for doing this Q&A, and for this great new book.

NP: Tell me a little more about your book, your co-author, and the writing process. How did you decide to write the book?

ES: Credit for the idea behind the book goes to Brian Burch and the Catholic Vote team, particularly Josh Mercer and Kara Mone. In the wake of the HHS Mandate and recent court rulings on same-sex marriage, many Catholics were justifiably concerned about government-imposed limitations of their religious freedom. But many more Catholics didn’t seem concerned at all. There was a lot of shoulder shrugging.

On top of that, more and more Americans have been questioning the Church’s place in the public square, seeing the Church (and faith itself) as a threat to democracy. Brian believed part of that problem stemmed from a sort of historical amnesia.

As American Catholics, we’ve forgotten our story: why our ancestors came here, how they sacrificed to establish the Catholic Church in America, and how much they contributed to the growth of this country.

The hope was that by re-telling our family story—in a fun, interesting, and accessible way—we could help Catholics (and all people of good will) both appreciate what the Church has done and work more vigorously to protect it.

As for the writing process, that’s where I came in. Brian approached me to work with him because I’m a storyteller, and he thought my voice could help set the right tone for the book. As I said, we didn’t want to write dry history; we wanted to tell stories that did justice to the great men and women who nurtured the Faith in America. Anyhow, I felt incredibly blessed to be asked to participate and jumped in with both feet.

After that, the actual writing process began with our fantastic research assistant, Tom Crowe, who organized the calendar and supplied us with materials to read. Then, I wrote the first draft for each month. As each individual month was complete, it went to Brian for review and revision. From there, it went on to Random House, then back to Brian, and finally back to me, so that I could smooth out everyone’s changes and ensure that the book didn’t sound like a committee wrote it.

When I explain the process like that, it sounds so sane. But it wasn’t. Everything was happening at once—filling in dates on the calendar, writing new entries, revising old ones, reviewing proofs, even designing the book cover. It was a massive undertaking, but we’re so proud of the end result.

NP: There’s such a variety of Catholics profiled, from Catholics as varied as singer Perry Como to Alexis de Tocqueville, to Rose Hawthorne, to concepts like the Act of Toleration. How did you come up with so many great entries?

ES: Again, Tom Crowe deserves a lot of the credit. He started by identifying the biggies—America’s saints, blessed, and venerables—as well as other key people and events in American Catholic history. Then Brian and I chimed in with more ideas. After that, as we researched and read, we kept identifying more interesting things to cover.

For example, while researching an early court case in New York about the inviolability of the seal of the Confessional, an off-hand mention of “Mrs. Mattingly’s miracle” piqued our curiosity, so we did some more research and discovered a fascinating tale of a miraculous healing that had been coordinated by an American priest and German prince via trans-Atlantic postal mail in 1823. How could we not write about that?

At another point, in the course of researching Terrence Mattingly, one of the great Catholic labor leaders, we found out that the original Mother Jones was also Catholic. And of course, we had to include her story! That’s how it went every step of the way. One interesting story led to another interesting story and before you knew it, we had more interesting stories than we could possibly include in just one book.

NP: You featured not just canonized saints or universally loved Catholics and events in American history, but also some controversial (either mildly or wildly) Catholics and events. It seems to me you don’t whitewash or downplay the controversy. Why was it important to you to share the good, the bad and the ugly here?

ES: Well, as James Joyce wrote, Catholic means, “Here comes everybody.” We’re not just a Church of saints. We’re a Church of sinners as well, and those sinners had a hand in shaping our history, too, for good and bad. To only tell the good parts would only be telling half the story.

Even more fundamentally, though, very few of us are all saint or all sinner. We’re a messy combination of both. And when we look at the last-minute conversions of men like Buffalo Bill, John Wayne, or Dutch Schultz or the tragic loss of faith experienced by someone like General William Tecumseh Sherman or even the mess of contradictions in the lives of Mother Jones, Andy Warhol, and Al Capone, we understand ourselves better. We understand grace better, and get a glimpse of what God can do through even the weakest of his children.

NP: Do you have a favorite entry?

ES: Oh gosh, that’s like asking if I have a favorite child. I enjoy the writing in this book far more than any decent person should enjoy their own work. I definitely have favorite people I met along the way, people to whom I now turn regularly for their prayers. Bishop Joseph Machebeuf, the first bishop of Denver, is one. He reminds me of an evangelizing Yellow Labrador— ever faithful, endlessly enthusiastic, and completely devoted to everyone he served.

Father Peter Whelan, who saved thousands of men’s lives in Andersonville Prison during the American Civil War, is another. I think the actual entries that I enjoy the most, however, are the ones where there’s either some sneaky, understated humor (like the November 30 entry on America’s first Catholic martyr, Father Juan de Padilla) or the entries where we found ways to shine new light on already well-known figures like Dorothy Day and Walker Percy.

NP: As I read through the book, I found myself thinking of who would be in a future, 50 or 100 years from now, version of The American Catholic Almanac, and what current pioneers might be included. I hope you won’t be embarrassed if I included you in there, with your books on a variety of topics and your passionate commitment to sharing our Catholic faith in honest and realistic ways. Are there people or events you wished you could have included in the Almanac?

ES: If I am among the best someone could come up with for some future Almanac, Nancy, the Church is in more serious trouble than I realized!

I will admit, though, that was one of the reasons I was pleased we included Katherine Burton in the Almanac. She was a Catholic convert and freelance writer, who was absolutely prolific throughout the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. She wasn’t a great writer, and almost nothing of hers remains in print, but she wrote a lot and she wrote well on a wide range of topics, particularly women’s place in the world. She’s a terrific example of a faithful, ordinary Catholic trying her best to help her contemporaries know and love the Faith—a patron “saint” for Catholic hack writers like myself, I suppose.

As for other stories, yes! There were so many we couldn’t tell, simply because of space limitations. Likewise, we wanted everything attached in some way to a date, and on some days 10 interesting things happened. On others, we were lucky to find one thing. That means people like our newest Blessed, Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, and the religious sister who took on Billy the Kid, Blandina Segale, didn’t make it in. But hopefully, the Almanac will just inspire people to go out and do more reading on their own.

NP: What is your next project?

ES: Brian has this crazy plan to maybe do a second volume of The American Catholic Almanac, but we need to see how this one goes first. In the meantime, I’m getting ready to start writing a travel column for The Boston Globe’s new Catholic website, Crux.

That’s particularly exciting for me because it’s going to give me the chance to write a bit more about some of the people and places covered in the Almanac and visit those places as well. I’m afraid this Almanac has turned me into the crazy Catholic trivia lady. I’ll probably be annoying people for the rest of my life with the odd facts and fun stories I’ve learned this past year!

10 Books, 10 Quotes, and an Island or Two

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Several people tagged me on a meme going around Facebook to list “10 books that have had a lasting impact.”  I keep meaning to do it, but I really have been doing a lot of IRL (in real life) things.  The younger kids and I are trying to get into a homeschooling routine, and I’ve been trying to accomplish a lot of house projects.

After the (for me!) success of Sugar-Free August, I started a Facebook group called De-Clutter September, and again, I’m loving the support and accountability.  I haven’t done very much de-cluttering, but I’ve been doing a lot of house organizing/painting projects that have been on back-burners.  Yesterday I put together an IKEA island, and that was really satisfying.  I even had the kids help me, in my quest to have them comfortable with power tools at a young age.

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Yay me!

But I digress.  Here are the 10 books that have had an impact on me.    They are in no particular order, and I can’t even say if these are my life-long ones–just ones that have had a recent (in the last 20 years or so) impact.  I’m also including a quote from each one that I just love.
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.”

Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace. (I love all the Betsy-Tacy books, but I’d have to say this is my absolute favorite book of 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.
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“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.”

The Last Battle (Book 7 in the Chronicles of Narnia), by C.S. Lewis.  The Last Battle is not necessarily my favorite of the Narnia books–The Horse & His Boy is my definite favorite, though I love them all.  But last month the younger kids and I were reading it for the eleventeenth time, and I find it tremendously powerful.  Every time I read this one, I also grow more and more devoted to Emeth, the virtuous Calormene who serves Tash all his days, but was really serving Alsan.

“It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child ? I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.”

The Duke’s Children by Anthony Trollope.  This is the last of the Pallister novels.  I love the entire series, and I’ve just begun re-reading it.  I’m only in Can You Forgive Her? but I knew my favorite quote would be in The Duke’s Children, describing the Duke of Omnium after his wife, the wonderful and my most favorite Trollope character ever, Lady Glencora, dies.

“It was not only that his heart was torn to pieces, but that he did not know how to look out into the world. It was as though a man should be suddenly called upon to live without hands or even arms. He was helpless, and knew himself to be helpless. Hitherto he had never specially acknowledged to himself that his wife was necessary to him as a component part of his life. Though he had loved her dearly, and had in all things consulted her welfare and happiness, he had at times been inclined to think that in the exuberance of her spirits she had been a trouble rather than a support to him. But now it was as though all outside appliances were taken away from him. There was no one of whom he could ask a question. “

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen, because how could I not?

“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.”

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

“‘And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them . I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on – and not all to a good end, mind  you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same – like old Mr. Bilbo. But those aren’t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into?’”

 

Hard Times by Charles Dickens. I’m re-reading Tale of Two Cities but Hard Times is one of my favorite Dickens.

“How could you give me life, and take from me all the inappreciable things that raise it from the state of conscious death? Where are the graces of my soul? Where are the sentiments of my heart? What have you done, oh, Father, What have you done with the garden that should have bloomed once, in this great wilderness here?’ said Louisa as she touched her heart.”


“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.”

Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink.  I feel like I’ve had a lot of downer quotes and even books, but this is such a great, funny book, and it’s had a great impact on me when I need a really good laugh.

“Once Mr. Peterkin’s hard heart had started to soften, it was just like ice cream in the sun.” 

The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown.  So many of her books are my favorite picture books, but this is my absolute favorite.

“The important thing about you is that you are you.”

So that sums up my book list (for this week). Consider yourself tagged if you’re reading this– I’d love to see your list.

“The Faithful Traveler in the Holy Land” Tonight!

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My blogging has been seriously light of late.  That means a busy and full life off-line, and actually a ton of reading, that I wish I could get onto here as well.  I have some great ideas as we head towards Lent, so stayed tuned.

While I hope that the approach of Lent will help me get back into a groove blogging-wise, I wanted to highlight a show that will be premiering tonight on EWTN, “The Faithful Traveler in the Holy Land.”

Faithfultraveler

I have been a fan of Diana von Glahn, the face behind “The Faithful Traveler” series, since way back when she had a series of US-based travel shows that featured Catholic pilgrimage locations, primarily along the East Coast.  We DVRd it back then, and my husband and I (and sometimes our kids) would watch one every so often and really enjoy it.

(True confession/rant here: Much later, I discovered when going through a spam folder that Diana had actually e-mailed me to review that first series in advance of it coming out.  I was so sad! And it just annoyed me to no end that I still don’t have a good system for keeping up with e-mail.  I’ve just resigned myself to being as good as I possibly can with it, and not getting too annoyed at missed things–like this!–in the past. True confession over).

So I was very excited to read in the EWTN newsletter that Diana and Dave von Glahn, the husband-wife team behind “The Faithful Traveler”  had a new series premiering on The Holy Land.  It airs tonight and every night this week on EWTN, and can be streamed on the website here.

Those who know me well in real life will know that one big goal I have for our family is to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land sometime before our kids are all grown up.

My husband Joseph and I are  members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, and the daily requirement of being in EOHSJ is to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”  One of the lifetime requirements is to make a Holy Land pilgrimage.   Since I was pregnant with our youngest child when we were instituted, we haven’t made our pilgrimage yet.  So watching this series will be a good way to go on a virtual pilgrimage right away, and inspire us to begin our planning for it.

I tell people from time to time that I’m saving pennies so that  we can go on a pilgrimage with Steve & Janet Ray of Footprints of God Pilgrimages.  And I still think that may be our plan, but I was happy to see that the von Glahns are also hosting a pilgrimage this summer.  I know this summer won’t work out for our family’s schedule, but I hope they continue to offer Holy Land pilgrimages.

In the meantime, over the next few nights we will be watching what I expect will be an excellent series about the Holy Land.   And to the von Glahns, know that I am a big fan of your work!

Have you made a Holy Land pilgrimage?   Any advice for me if you have?

Pride & Prejudice, Books & Balance

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Late year, I was invited to speak to the First Saturday group in Peoria, a gathering of mostly younger women who meet monthly for talks and fun fellowship. To get a feel for this group, you might want to read my article for The Catholic Post covering a bigger gathering they had last year to gather women for talks by Lisa Schmidt and Sister Helena Burns. That was a terrific evening!

My talk to First Saturday was slated for January 4, but since a snowstorm was on its way, the meeting was rescheduled until February 1. Back in January, I had a bare-bones post, mostly to include each of the books I quoted, slated to go, so women wouldn’t have to take notes.  When the talk was canceled I put it back into draft.

My talk was entitled, “The Anti-List for the New Year: Books, Balance and Self-Care”. Here’s the blurb about it from First Saturday Facebook page:

Have you made new year’s resolutions? Any for just you?  Join Nancy Piccione at the “first” First Saturday of 2014 as she shares some ideas (through books, naturally) about finding balance in the new year for busy women and moms.  Nancy is the book page editor of The Catholic Post, mom of three, and inveterate reader of Jane Austen.

Clearly, it was meant to be a new year’s talk, but I didn’t want it to be a “to-do” type of talk. I can find those 10 ways to be a better mom in 2014” kind of talks interesting and sometimes helpful.  At the same time,  knowing how busy my own life is, I don’t want to load women up with any more “to-dos.”

What I did was pick a book and a theme for each month, and offer a quote from the book and some ideas about it. I’m not challenging women to read all the books, but to encourage them (and myself)! to do things that bring them joy and energy.

Here at Reading Catholic, I plan to share the idea, quote and book for each month, during that month this year. When I give the talk in February, I’ll have a post with the entire list of books. At the same time, I thought a monthly post about the month’s topic, book and quote was in order.

My goal for the talk is to keep it light, fun and encouraging, and these posts, too, will definitely be impressions rather than fully formed essays. I hope they are enjoyable to you and give you a few new book ideas, or inspire you to re-read an old favorite.

Thanks to Marie, and the rest of the First Saturday team for inviting me. I’d love your feedback here, and I welcome you to the talk, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, February 1, at the Sacred Heart Room of St. Philomena Parish in Peoria.

January:  “Be Yourself”


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

Pride & Prejudice

Elizabeth Bennet is surely a heroine who is “herself,” and that is what leads Fitzwilliam Darcy to grow in love and pursue her. Because she is not trying to “catch” Darcy, he is able to see her in a natural way, and grow to love her effervescent, smart personality.
That’s also true of our happiness and wholeness. If we pursue the things we love, especially related to our faith, happiness and wholeness is often the result.

Setting up the quote from P&P: This exchange takes place at Netherfield Park, the home of Charles Bingley, a young wealthy man who is pursuing Elizabeth Bennet’s sister Jane. Elizabeth is a guest while her sister Jane is recovering from illness. She prefers to read, and is teased about it by Caroline Bingley, Charles’ sister and certainly a woman who is molding herself to what she thinks Darcy wants in a wife. Caroline teases Elizabeth for reading instead of playing cards with the rest of the party:

“Miss Eliza Bennet,” said Miss Bingley, “despises cards. She is a great reader, and has no pleasure in anything else.”

“I deserve neither such praise nor such censure,” cried Elizabeth; “I am not a great reader, and I have pleasure in many things.”

Soon after there is a discussion about what makes “an accomplished woman,” and Caroline again strives in vain to insinuate herself into Darcy’s good graces by over-agreeing with him.

“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.”

I would argue that it is important to “improve your mind by reading,” since that’s what I love. There’s a quote by Susan Wise Bauer (I can’t find , even after some searching) that younger moms should definitely let the kitchen floor get sticky so you can read the classics, slowly over time. As one who loves reading, and doesn’t have the cleanest kitchen floor on the block, I’m all for this.

For me, reading seems as natural, and as necessary as breathing. I always have multiple books around, and I always have a Jane Austen book going (it’s currently Persuasion, one of my favorites).

But maybe it’s different for you, and reading isn’t a passion, and you learn better other ways. Still, you have talents and health passions that are yours. You don’t have to be an accomplished woman via the Caroline Bingley “checklist” (or mine)—you get to make your own list.

How can you resolve this month to spend more time on what gives you joy and pleasure, so you can be happier and more effective in all the areas of your life?

Scripture take-away:

“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” —Romans 12:2.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Can you think of another fictional character, or person you know, who exemplifies a strong sense of self?

Twitterature, December 2013: Jane Austen Birthday Edition

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Linking up with Anne Bogel at Modern Mrs. Darcy for her monthly round-up of quick reviews.  I enjoy doing this and sharing great current reads, and seeing what others are reading.  This month, since Twitterature falls on Jane Austen’s birthday (I’m writing this the day before, and wondering if Modern Mrs. Darcy will also have an Austen-themed Twitterature?), I thought I would share all Jane-inspired reading.  Coincidentally, many Austen and Jane-inspired books have been in my reading queue in recent months. This month I’m sharing three favorites.

I also realize that planning needs to get underway stat for  the annual tea party that my girls & I host each year in January.  Here’s where I wrote about last year’s gathering, and some fun gift-type items for Austen-lovers. 

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I always have a Jane Austen novel going, and it’s easy to pick it up because I have all the novels downloaded to my Kindle App.  Currently, I’m reading (and loving, of course) Persuasion.

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As I told my book group when we read Emma earlier this year, this is the first time I read Emma from the perspective of Emma’s dead mother.  I hope that doesn’t seem too maudlin or macabre.  It’s just. . .  interesting.  I am also reading Persuasion from the perspective of Anne Elliot’s  dead mother, and so wishing she could have been there for Anne.

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I have just begun Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay , and I SO DEARLY LOVE IT I MUST WRITE IN ALL CAPS SO YOU KNOW.   All things I love in fun fiction: Jane Austen-theme? check.  Epistolary novel?  Check.  A retelling of the beloved Jean Webster’s Daddy Long-Legs? Yes!  Even more icing on the cake: the main character applies to the graduate journalism program at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, my alma mater.

I would write, “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I love and admire this book.” But I already did that when I reviewed Deborah Yaffe’s Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom. 

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As I wrote back in September’s Twitterature,

You must allow me to tell you how ardently I love and admire this literary “memoir” of sorts.  Deborah Yaffe is a kindred spirit to me, similar in age, temperament, and obsession about Jane Austen before Jane was cool. She’s convinced me to do what my husband has long encouraged: join JASNA and attend a convention. #JaneAustenForever

Now I am happy, having written about and thought about Jane Austen and some of my favorite things today. I needed that little boost of happiness in a big way.

What are you reading this month? Whatever it is, I hope it’s making you happy, too.