Reading Catholic

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Book Reviews

First, What Are You Reading? Volume 31 (Easter edition)

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Here are the questions I ask and answer on the first of each month.  I’m so incredibly grateful that it is Easter, in so many ways.  There are so many wonderful things to celebrate in this season of joy.

The questions, as always, are:

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 or Twitter. Happy reading!

First, what are you reading?

I’ve actually been reading a lot these days, but not writing about it very much.

My husband and I were out to lunch with a (Franciscan) priest friend, and he  enthused about Francis of Assissi: A New Biography by Augustin Thompson, O.P.    So I ordered it from the library.

I’ve been interested to read what Pope Francis is saying in his homilies, and so I’ve been reading those as they are published.

I’m also reading and re-reading a lot of picture books with my kids in preparation for a new feature here on Reading Catholic.

What do you like best about it?

Francis of Assisi is a scholarly work, and while it’s a bit of a challenge, I’ really enjoying this life of St. Francis.    Thompson goes back extensively to original sources and Francis’ own writings to put together an exhaustive view of the saint’s life and times. Fascinating to me: the custom at the time was for babies to receive First Holy Communion the day after their baptism; so Francis most likely did.  In addition, Francis was really particular not that his followers would beg for alms to survive, but rather work at manual labor (day jobs) to support themselves.

In addition to the history lesson I’m getting, this is also an eminently quotable book, no doubt about it.  Here’s what I have just from Thompson’s introduction, finishing with what he learned most from the life of Francis:

First, he taught me that the love of God is something that remakes the soul, and doing good for others follows from this; it is not merely doing good to others.

Second, rather than a call to accomplish any mission, program, or vision, a religious vocation is about a change in one’s perception of God and creation.

Third, true freedom of spirit, indeed true Christian freedom, comes from obedience, not autonomy.

Last–and I hope this subverts everything I have just written–there are no ready and clear roads to true Christian holiness.

I’m only a few chapters into the book, and I’ve already written down many more quotes.

Here is one quote from Pope Francis that I really enjoyed; it’s from his homily at Tuesday Chrism Mass:

This I ask you: be shepherds, with the “odour of the sheep”, make it real, as shepherds among your flock, fishers of men. ….Dear lay faithful, be close to your priests with affection and with your prayers, that they may always be shepherds according to God’s heart.

I have to say that my husband pointed out that quote, and translated it (before the official Vatican translation) as “a shepherd should smell like his flock.”

What do you like least about it?

Nothing; I am really enjoying everything about this book.

What’s next on your list to read?

I pre-ordered the new book by the Heath brothers, Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life & Work.  I really need this book, and I have enjoyed very much their other books.

This isn’t exactly reading, but now that it’s Easter, I can’t resist sharing one video from an hilarious series on Youtube called “Kid Snippets.”  (HT to “I Wonder Why”).

The videos superimpose kids’ imagining different scenarios, and then adults acting them out.  Yesterday, I laughed so loud at this one about math.  Enjoy the laugh:

What are you reading (or laughing at) these days?

Q&A with Colleen Swaim, author of “Radiate: More Stories of Daring Teen Saints”

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As I wrote in my March column, I’m a big fan of Colleen Swaim, who’s written a second book in a series of “teen saints” biographies.  First was 2010’s  Ablaze: Stories of Daring Teen Saints, (here’s my review of that), and just a few months back Radiate: More Stories of Daring Teen Saints.

I did a Q&A with Colleen when Ablaze was released, so I knew I wanted to do another one.  Colleen is the kind of person I just know I’d love to meet for coffee and talk over books and everything else (for instance, she and her husband write a blog together called Duel to the Death), and I hope I will some day.  Thanks, Colleen, for being willing!

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Tell “Reading Catholic” readers a little more about you, your family, and your writing.

My husband Matt and I live in a late nineteenth-century era house in Cincinnati, Ohio with our 14-month-old son Zeke and Libby, our 10 year old English Bulldog. When we’re not writing books, I teach high school religion and English in the Diocese of Covington and Matt produces the EWTN-syndicated The Son Rise Morning Show from Sacred Heart Radio. We enjoy exploring the city, cooking together, and are really looking forward to a fun summer of seeing the world through our toddler’s eyes – everything’s new and an adventure!

–You had a lot of success with Ablaze: Stories of Daring Teen Saints, and so I’m glad you decided to write a “sequel” book with more saints.  Did you have any trouble picking the saints for the book?

Making the choices of whom to write about has been the primary challenge of each book, although with Radiate I focus on ten stories of saints, two more than the eight I originally profiled in Ablaze, so it was a little less difficult. However, my aim was the same with both books, as it was very important to concentrate on stories focused on an equal number of young men and women from all over the globe and spanning the ages of the Church.

I think that, with Saints Agnes; Gabriel of Duisco, Louis Ibaraki, Juan Soan of Goto, and Thomas Kozaki (The Japanese Martyrs); Bernadette; Lucy; Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin; Luigi Gonzaga; Rose of Viterbo; and Peter Yu Tae-Chol; as well as Blesseds Laura Vicuña and Ceferino Namuncurá, that balance was again able to be struck.

– I found Radiate more appropriate for older readers than Ablaze, both in the writing style and the content–there is more intensity in some of the martyr stories, for instance. Your thoughts on this, and who you consider to be the “ideal” reader for Radiate?

One of the things that is a goal of mine both as a writer and a teacher is to convey the saints’ stories, their hagiographies, in a way that both grabs onto the sensibilities of present-day teenagers with the sometimes high drama of these holy people’s stories – encompassing both their joys and trials/tribulations – without jeopardizing the precious commodity that is young people’s inherent integrity, including their senses of modesty and chastity. With stories like, for instance, Laura Vicuña’s, where the subject matter involves abuse, that can be a precarious path to tread, but I maintained a tone of honesty and nuance that I hope parents of pre-teens and teenagers can appreciate.

That’s why, when family members, religious educators, or others who are buying specifically for young people ask me, I recommend Radiate for students roughly in the 12-19 year old age range. Both Ablaze and Radiate are formulated for individual, small group, or classroom use, so they can really lend themselves to a variety of learning and reading environments.

– I asked this question in our last Q&A, but I think it’s worth re-visiting.  You’re a high school teacher. Other than this book, how do you challenge students immersed in the popular culture to pause and really take a look at these saints and their lives?

The single most important thing for Catholic young people living in the world today to realize is that, to paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, keeping the commandments is way more radical and counter-cultural than breaking them! Of course, personal and familial holiness are issues we all struggle with on a day to day basis, but teenagers especially need to realize that the yearning that they seem to have (and I believe that they all indeed have it) for solidity and truth is noble and needs to be nurtured.

The saints were some of the most fascinating people to ever live, they’re now with God for eternity in heaven, and they can offer us both a framework and the inspiration to do likewise amazing things. One of my favorite things when researching saints’ lives is to draw the connections between them.

I’ve never run across a saint who wasn’t deeply influenced on the path to holiness by yet another saint or blessed, and as a flawed human being who is holiness work in progress, I find that very comforting. Young people need to be imbued with the sense that sanctity is going to be foolish to a lot of people out in the world, but it is the best opportunity we have for both happiness and fulfillment, even if it can be quite arduous at times. Teenagers like a challenge, and the call to be a saint is the ultimate.

– I also asked this question when we discussed Ablaze so let me ask it again.  Do you have a favorite saint in Radiate?  If so, why?

I can honestly say that I resonated with every single saint or blessed in the book, otherwise they probably wouldn’t have made an appearance at all, but I have to say that the story of the Japanese Martyrs just blows me away. It is difficult to imagine a group of young men, part of a religious minority in a land that was intensely hostile to Christianity, acting more courageously than those teenagers led by St. Paul Miki.

Whenever I hear of a martyr group of “and companions” my curiosity is piqued – “Just who were all of those companions?” – and this situation was no exception. These young men were berated, abused, made examples of, and literally lashed to crosses to die, and they did it all with a sense of fearlessness that is just awe-inspiring. They were not the only group of martyrs to die in Japan during this time period, as its estimated that there were about 1, 200 over the course of several hundred years of persecution and the Church going underground, but the witness of their blood made it possible for about 20, 000 Japanese Catholics to keep the faith alive underground in Japan for about 250 years without an organized church.

Can you imagine living your whole life as a Catholic without ever meeting a priest? It makes you want to pray for people who are dealing with similar religious persecutions in the world today, and makes me as an American want to cherish and fight even harder for the cause of religious liberty, both here and abroad.

– What’s your next writing project?  Will there be another in this series?  If so, can you share some of the saints you might explore?

I don’t anticipate another book that is specifically a sequel to Ablaze and Radiate, however my husband Matt and I just released a new book, Your College Faith (Liguori, 2013), which is, in many ways, a natural follow-up. It is meant for high school seniors and college students who want to ignite the flames of their faith, and do it in such a way that is conducive to the college experience, whether that is at a faithfully (or unfaithfully) Catholic college or university, a state school, another sort of private institution, or anything in between.

In Your College Faith, we do profile saints within each chapter in the Alumni Directory feature, such as Saints Peter Gonzalez, Tarcisius, Monica, Augustine, Josephine Bakhita, Edith Stein, Maria Faustina Kowalska, Maximilian Kolbe, as well as Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. It is also set up with some of readers’ favorite features from Ablaze and Radiate, like the reflection questions, prayers, memory verses from Sacred Scripture, practical steps to take, as well as some new features.

It was a new experience writing a book with my spouse, but one which I’m looking forward to doing again. Additionally, having written Radiate and Your College Faith while I was in the third trimester of pregnancy and then with a newborn/infant, I’ve become very interested in early childhood catechetical materials, as I seek out some for my own family, so perhaps one of my next writing projects might even span into that arena. 

Meet a Reader: Sister Marie of the Apostolic Sisters of St. John

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Soeur Marie

How You Know Me: I’m originally from Lorraine, France, but I’ve lived in Princeville, IL, for 6 months as part of the Apostolic Sisters of St. John.  The Apostolic Sister are based in Burgundy, France, but we have just opened a house here in Princeville, IL. I’ve been a sister for more than 22 years.

Why I love reading: I have always loved reading. When I was a child, I would leave a book in each room around the house. That way, whatever room I would go into, I would be sure to find a book I had started. Reading is great because it is like traveling. Reading adds flavor to life, like adding salt in a dish.

When I was a kid, I loved real stories about people in different cultures and times. I enjoyed reading the “Little House on the Prairie” books. I loved to also see how people look at life, and I’ve always enjoyed discovering how other people look at life.

What I’m Reading Now: As a community, we read at table. We take turns reading aloud from the book at meals, and it’s a very good way of nourishing ourselves all together. When we have times of recreation among the sisters, we share what speaks to us about we heard being read.

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These days, we are reading The Price to Pay: A Muslim Risks All the Follow Christ by Joseph Fadelle. It’s an amazing book because it’s like a thriller. It’s the true story of a Muslim who converts to Christianity. Our sisters have a personal connection to him, because he lives in France, and his children have attended programs with the Community of St. John. Reading a story like this book rekindles one’s own faith.

My Favorite Books: I have many favorites, but two books that I always come back to for a sense of renewal and freshness.

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The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry has been a favorite since I read this book in French, of course, but I’ve always loved it. I first listened to it as a girl on car trips with my family. And we put on a play of it when I lived with the Sisters in the Phillippines, and also in Taiwan.

I love The Little Prince because it is so incisive about the truth of relationships and friendship and how to be truly human. Also, the ideas in it are accessible even to those who do not share our Catholic faith.

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My other favorite book is The Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux. She is simply writing the story of her soul, but everything she writes is so true. She has such a keen way of looking at her own heart and the way God is working in her life.

In every little event of her life she takes a deep meaning, and describes how any small gesture can be vitally important. Our lives can seem small, for instance here in our convent, but St. Therese has a way to look at these small things with such depth. St. Therese shows us that everything can be looked at as an encounter with God; nothing is neutral in our lives.

Here is a quote from The Story of A Soul that particularly spoke to me: “Considering the mystical body of the Church, I had not recognized myself in any of the members described by St. Paul, or rather, I desired to see myself in them all. Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understand that if the Church had a body composed of different members, the most necessary and noble of all could not be lacking to it, and so I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood it was Love alone that made the Church’s members act, that if Love ever became extinct, apostles would not preach the Gospel and martyrs would not shed their blood. I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that love was everything, that it embraced all times and places … in a word, that it was eternal. Then, in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love…my vocation, at last I have found it… My Vocation is Love!”

Time for a Lent “Re-Set”

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Following is my March books column that appears in the March 2 print edition of  The Catholic Post. I invite your feedback here or on Facebook or Twitter.

Lent is just about halfway over. How’s it going for you?

Usually by this time, my bold ideas of Lenten prayer, fasting and almsgiving have been breached on several occasions, and some are abandoned entirely.

Even if I am mostly sticking to my plans for this Lent, spiritually things can begin feeling pretty dull and lifeless. Why exactly was it a good idea to give up chocolate?

I find myself pining for St. Patrick’s Day and St. Joseph’s Day, two feasts when many (and I’m raising my hand here) relax their Lenten fasts. Instead of just enduring Lent until we can celebrate Easter, care to join me in a mid-Lent re-do and consider ways to actually celebrate this season?

There are plenty of classic works to turn to, whether St. Therese Story of a Soul, or my Lenten favorite, St. Francis de Sales Introduction to the Devout Life.

But here are some recently-published titles that just might fit the bill for a Lent “re-set”– lively and readable works to boost your spiritual life.

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*A Rhythm of Life: The Monastic Way by Brother Victor-Anoine D’Avila-Latourette.

Brother Victor is best known (to me) for his cookbooks with simple monastery fare, but this handsome book is both an introduction and a sourcebook of all things monastic. Reading one or two of these short chapters at a time about how life is lived in the monastery invites reflection about how to make our lives more prayerful and joyful.

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*Lent and Easter Wisdom from St. Vincent de Paul by John E. Rybolt, CM. This is a simple Lenten daybook with quotes from St. Vincent, Scripture and reflection. I haven’t read much from St. Vincent de Paul, but the quotes are remarkable, spiritual wisdom well worth pondering. St Vincent has been such an inspiration for the Church’s lived expression of charity over the course of centuries.  This collection makes his words more accessible.”

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*Holiness for Everyone: The Practical Spirituality of St. Josemaria Escriva by Eric Sammons is a simple introduction that lays out St. Josemaria’s simple spirituality of living well in everyday life. I like that the book is simply written, but still has much food for thought and challenges to everyday Catholics.

Younger readers can also benefit from spiritual reading and reflection:

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*A 40-Day Spiritual Workout for Catholics by Bob Rice.  Local teens will recall he spoke at last fall’s Diocesan Youth Rally. In this book, Rice uses St. Paul’s admonition to “run the race” by inviting readers to grow in their spiritual life, using the jargon of workouts. Each selection of Workout, like all good workouts, begins with “hydration” in Scripture verses and short reflection. Eventually, other workout-themed ideas are added in, such as “stretch” (prayers of blessing and adoration), “fat-burning” (confession), and even the Catholic “cool-down. (an Our Father and Hail Mary). For the tech-savvy, the book even comes with an app.

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*Radiate: More Stories of Daring Teen Saints by Colleen Swaim. I am a huge fan of Colleen Swaim, a high school teacher and author who’s written this “sequel” to the wonderful Ablaze: Stories of Daring Teen Saints. Swaim provides a freshness to the stories of well-known saints like St. Bernadette, while introducing young readers to little-known saints such as the Korean martyr Saint Peter Yu Tae-Chol, and their daring lives. The book is well-designed, and full of extra features, like prayers, explanations of parts of our faith, “saintly challenges” with ways to extend the life and culture of each saint into modern life.

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*Because it’s a “picture book,” Be Saints! An Invitation from Pope Benedict XVI by Amy Welborn, seems like it should only be for “little kids.” But really, anyone could benefit from perusing or even meditating on this book. Each two-page spread of this book has a lovely watercolor painting by Ann Kissane Engelhart, a quote from Pope Benedict XVI on what Vatican II called “the universal call to holiness,” and a complementary quote from a saint or Scripture.

What are you reading this Lent?  

First, What Are You Reading? Volume 30

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Here are the questions I ask and answer on the first of each month (yes, faithful blog readers will notice I didn’t do this on February 1!). The questions, as always, are:

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 or Twitter. Happy reading!

First, what are you reading?

I recently finished Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain.

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The younger kids and I are listening to the Jim Weiss audiobook version of The Young Carthaginian.

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What do you like best about them?

I wrote on GoodReads about Quiet love. this. book.

I took copious notes as I read this book and I think it is a must-read for so many people. I understand myself, my husband and members of my family and others much better now.

In looking for an image of the book cover for this post, I came across this wonderful graphic review, “Drawn & Read,” that basically sums up my praise of this book.  If you click on the image, it will bring you to this fun and worthwhile summary/review.

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My nine-year-old son is loving listening to the very military G.A. Henty classic, The Young Carthaginian.  This book was one of the suggested additional resources in The Story of the World, the history program we use.  We’re on Volume 1 (for the second time, many years on), which is ancient history, and there are terrific picture book and chapter book suggestions for additional reading.

Jim Weiss as always does an excellent job with reading aloud this 19th century work and archaic language.  I am enjoying the nobility of certain characters, such as Malchus, the title character, and his boy-to-manhood story.

What do you like least about them?

Curiously, Cain’s chapter  in Quiet on introversion in children does not mention home education as an option.  She’s really incisive about how introverted kids can flounder in school, or just not bloom as well as they could.  In fact, she mentions that the reason many introverted kids do better as adults is because they can choose the type of work they want to do, how often they want to interact with others, and their environment.  Um…that’s home education, pretty much.  So it was kind of surprising to me that she suggests rather families seek out school environments (such as Montessori, etc.) that are welcoming to introverts, and never mentions the option of home education.

I’m not at all against school and we have had good experiences when we have chosen that route, but reading this book makes me see the value in the possibility of the home education route for introverts.

I just noticed that Jim Weiss’ audiobook is an abridged version of The Young Carthaginian, and I now express my shock at that, because it feels really, really long to listen to.  I think it’s maybe a 9-hour production.  Normally I am a complete snob and refuse to listen to abridged audiobooks, but if I had a choice of listening to a full-length version of this, I would choose Jim Weiss without a second thought.

We love listening to audiobooks, and had just finished (and all loved, by the way) this audiobook of Eleanor Porter’s Pollyanna, so I thought something boy-friendly would be a good alternative, especially to the very active and battle-loving boy in our house.  And it truly is–the story is noble and good, and we have been able to have some discussions about how this has a “Victorian” feel since it was written during that time.

At the same time,  the fact that it is so focused on battles makes it just exhausting for me.  Also, the body count is really high, whether soldiers (Roman, Spanish, or Carthaginian, or in charmingly or alarmingly Victorian writing, “natives,” in this case Gauls), bears, wolves or other creatures. I’m thoroughly ready for a Jane Austen chaser next and am seriously considering having us all listen to Emma.

Still, it is good to stretch in our reading and our listening, even for Jane-Austen-loving moms, and I am happy for the chance to do so with this book.

What’s next on your list?

I have been a bit haphazard about my Lenten reading, but as we are nearing the mid-point of Lent, I hope to make more time for adoration, prayer, and reading.

We are still working our way through me reading aloud The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  We just last night finished The Two Towers. (Oh! what an ending! Poor Sam!)  I have a noble goal of trying to finish it before Easter.

I am going to explore a new review copy I received recently of The Catholic Guide to Depression.  A recent encounter left me considering the need to consider books along these lines for review.

I gave a talk earlier this week to a group of Catholic leaders.  I focused on Catholic memoirs (I have a Pinterest board for that), and my review of Therese Borchard’s Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Best of Bad Genes inspired the most after-dinner discussion.  There are a lot of people struggling with mental health issues, and a sensible Catholic approach and guide would be welcome.

What are you reading this month?  Anything good to share?

Celebrating @Pontifex and the Conclave at our House

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Today is our Holy Father’s last day as Pope.  There is so much coverage, from television to people writing, tweeting and talking about it, I can’t even process it.  I did my part for the Twitter storm #ThanksPontifex, though others were much more eloquent in 140 characters or less.

When my teen came down for school this morning, holding her BXVI sweatshirt from Catholic Girl Apparel to wear at play practice after school, she expressed a little wistfulness that she probably couldn’t wear it after today.  So I knew we had to make this event in the life of the Church our family’s experience too.  And fortunately, a lot of resources are out there for families, kids or just interested adults, to learn more about this process and the Holy Father.

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I think she can still keep wearing it, but maybe that’s just me?

One thing I  remember vividly from when Blessed John Paul II died and Benedict XVI was elected was how much television (EWTN, mostly) we watched at that time.

We had a French teenager named Aude living with us at the time.  It was interesting to have someone from Europe with us at that time, and seeing the Church as a truly universal Church.  One of Aude’s French friends shared with us this great mix song, “Habemus Papem (Benedictus Mix).”  I still sometimes play it on runs if I want to go a little faster.  It’s catchy:

We didn’t do a lot of schoolwork those days, but looking back I’m enormously grateful we spent a lot of time praying for JPII, praying for the conclave, and just exploring it through watching television (and in smaller way, checking out websites, but the Internet is much bigger and better now). I also worked on a scrapbook of that time, and looking through it these days brings me back to those days.

When Cardinal Ratzinger was announced as the new Holy Father, I remember Aude was sitting with the girls on a little red IKEA kids couch we had at the time, and the three of them were so excited that the couch fell over backwards.  I don’t have a photo of that in my scrapbook, but it’s in my memory.  Here are some pages from the scrapbook.

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Now that my kids are all readers and writers and do-ers, so what are we doing to mark this historic transition for the Church? I won’t be doing a physical scrapbook this time, though perhaps I will find some digital ways to remember, like here.

Here are some ideas we are picking and choosing from:

Meg of Held by His Pierced Hands had a super-fun round-up of ways to “teach the conclave.”  So far, we’ve laughed at the “conclave” photo and those of us home right now have “adopted” a cardinal.

After visiting the very simple Adopt a Cardinal website, our random pairing gave us Sean Brady of Ireland, Jean-Claude Turcotte of Canada, and Luis Antonio Tagle.  If you do the Adopt-a-Cardinal at your house, will you share in the comments who you received?

The brand-new “Electing the Pope” website  by Dorian Speed (and a great group of contributors) is also interesting to explore, though I must say we haven’t spent much time there yet.  I’m sure it will be a great resource for it when the conclave starts in a few days.

I tweeted just after BXVI announced his retirement: “Looking for another intention to pray for this Lent? @pontifex resigning and the election of a new Pope is a good start.”

I want to continue to have that spirit this Lent, to pray and sacrifice both for Benedict XVI in retirement, the college of cardinals as they select a new pope, and for the new pope himself.   My goal is also for the kids in our house to remember these days, not just prayer but the fun of exploring and learning about it.

Are you doing anything special to mark this important day and this time in the life of our Church?