Reading Catholic

Reading Catholic and catholic

Catholic memoirs

“Life Everlasting” A Great Resource for New & Veteran Catholics {My April column @TheCatholicPost}

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

Most of us have friends, acquaintances, or family members in our community or parish who join the Catholic Church at Easter. And I know I have wondered, as do many others, what would be a good gift for a new Catholic this Easter.

A brand-new book would make a great choice: it’s Life Everlasting: Catholic Devotions and Mysteries for the Everyday Seeker by Gary Jansen.

But Life Everlasting is not just for new members of the Church— longtime Catholics and seekers interested in the Catholic faith would also find much value and interest here.

Gary Jansen, the editor of Image Books, the Catholic book imprint of The Crown Publishing Group, has written a deeply personal, as well as far-reaching book. It’s not just a book about his own life and evolution as a Catholic, but also a relatively comprehensive field guide to Catholic practice, belief, and devotions.

Jansen has a polished narrative style that is entertaining without being contrived. His book is part memoir, part instructional work in living a rich life as a Catholic believer. The book is replete with Scripture and quotes from the saints.

The book is divided into three parts. The first “The Awakening,” covers the journey ones go through to come to faith; “The Path” outlines a deceptively simple and rich seven-step path to living a Christian life; and “The Devotions” offers a range of prayers, observances, and other ways to connect with God.

“The Awakening” is a short introduction to the book, that explains both why a faith life is significant, and explaining the organizing of the remaining book.

“The Path” lists seven steps to grow in faith life: 1)be childlike; 2) focus your mind & heart; 3) make the sign (about the Sign of the Cross); 4) say the Lord’s Prayer; 5) ask, seek, knock (about trusting prayers of petition); 6) cultivate silence; and 7) give your life away (service to God and others). Each chapter/step in this section gives good examples, based on the lives of the saints as well as Jensen’s own experience. “Cultivate Silence” is an especially good chapter, with a short introduction and explanation of St. Ignatius’ Examen spiritual practice.

In “The Devotions” part, both common and new ways of praying are offered related to the saints, angels, Mary, and Jesus. For instance, in the angels chapter, Jansen shares the familiar “guardian angel” prayer, but also offers an exercise to include one’s guardian angel in prayer time.

Not everything would be for every reader, but every reader would find something of interest and some new way to pray or express faith and grow closer to God. There’s so much I loved here, and Larsen calls them all “tools” to add to “our spiritual toolbox,” a great way to look at the many ways to pray, express our devotion, and live out a vibrant Catholic faith.

Also part of the spiritual toolbox is the ingenious “Spiritual 911,” an appendix that lists many common, basic prayers, like the Lord’s Prayer and the Memorare, and also a series of prayers “for difficult times,” to feature just a few: St. Francis de Sales Prayer for Inner Peace, a prayer to St. Dymphna for Mental Healing, and a prayer to St. Joseph for Fathers and Families. The second appendix also provides a calendar of Saints.

I’m a cradle Catholic, and yet I found a lot of content that I found fresh and interesting. “Life Everlasting” is a great read for a lot of different Catholics, or even those just interested in what Catholic belief looks like.

“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.

Every Soul a Story {My September column @TheCatholicPost}

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In younger days, I felt guilty that I didn’t love all the saints equally. Far from it; I found myself attracted to some saints, holy people, and Catholic thinkers, and almost repelled by others. Not to mention the ones I’m indifferent to!

In theory, I knew that God doesn’t make us all the same, and this diversity is good. St. Thomas Aquinas is not St. Therese is not St. Gianna Molla is not St. Charles Lwanga. But in reality, I was regretful, mostly that I had strong reactions against some, almost as if I were against holiness.

For instance, I don’t like Flannery O’Connor’s writing. At all. I’ve joked with friends that I should turn in my “Thoughtful Catholic” card for even admitting such a thing. But there you have it.

Dorothy Day is another holy person—she’s currently designated as “Servant of God,” a step towards canonization—on my “tried to love” list. Day is the 20th century political activist, then Catholic convert, who, with Peter Maurin, founded the Catholic Worker community, to serve the poor and the marginalized. So when I heard there was a new biography of her by one of her granddaughters, I wanted to give her life and spirituality another try.

Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty: An Intimate Portrait of My Grandmother by Kate Hennessy is beautifully and mournfully written—part memoir, part history, and part spiritual biography. Hennessy is the youngest of the nine children of Tamar, Dorothy Day’s only child. One of the things that makes her book so fascinating is her perspective of growing up and living throughout her life, in and out of the Catholic Worker community.

Forgive the 19th century idiom, but reading The World Will Be Saved by Beauty left me low in spirits. That’s not just because of my “dis-affinity” for Day. Actually, I have much more admiration for and love of Dorothy Day’s holiness now. Nevertheless, in many ways it’s a very sad book.

I was inspired by Dorothy Day’s strong personal prayer life that gave her strength and meaning for her work, as well as her extraordinary devotion to living out voluntary poverty. I also have enormous sympathy for her, her extended family, and friends and how they tried to live out the Gospel.

There is a candor in their interactions with one another, especially in the difficulties of community life. Hennessy writes about Stanley, a close friend and fellow worker of Dorothy, at the time she was often being profiled by news outlets as a “living saint.” He would say, half-jokingly, “There are the saints and there are the martyrs. The martyrs are the ones who live with the saints.”

But I was heartbroken to learn (spoiler alert) that virtually all of her close relatives practice no faith at all, much less the radical, prayerful, open hands Catholicism Dorothy Day embodied. I truly struggled with so much sadness for her and for those souls, since her Catholic faith was so central to her. And I also take hope in the knowledge that one’s spiritual journey is not static, and perhaps some or all of her still-living relatives will embrace the faith that meant so much to her.

That’s why reading another book at the same time gave me so much hope about the possibility of conversion for anyone, full stop: Surprised by Life: 10 Converts Explain How Catholic Teachings on Life Led Them to the Church, edited by apologist and longtime writer Patrick Madrid.

The title may seem self-explanatory, and it is, but the narratives themselves make that title an understatement: they are awe-inspiring and grace-filled.

Patrick Madrid has put together several projects like this, including the popular “Surprised by …” book series, three volumes with convert and revert stories. There’s something about these small, first-person slices of life that are edifying, but not in a cloying or superficial way. Each person shares his or her own personal story, offering a dramatic view of how grace influenced their journey to, or back to, God and His Church.

What’s different about Surprised by Life is that each of the 10 stories in some way relates to the Church’s teaching on life issues. So, for instance, in “ Aunt Amy Saves My Baby,” writer and blogger Heather Scheider writes about how the unconditional love and support of her aunt helped her choose life rather than abortion for her unborn baby, and how that love and support helped her mature and heal from her upbringing and bad choices. And in “Little Miracles Leading from Death to Life,” Doreen Campbell shares her family’s grief journey after losing their teenage daughter in a tragic accident and the sacredness of life at its end.

The titles of some of the chapters can seem almost sensational, such as “Call Girl to Catholic,” the story of a woman who works as a sex worker until the unconditional love of friends and the Church’s clear teaching on family leads to her conversion; or “From One Holocaust to Another,” the story of a lawyer, the son of a Holocaust survivor, who participates in multiple abortions of girlfriends before his conversion to Catholicism. But in reality, these narratives, and how the Holy Spirit worked and continues to work in the lives of these people, are astonishing and amazing. Readers who might despair over loved ones who have left the faith can be comforted to read the stories and know that God reaches people in strange and wonderful ways.

Not all readers will find each story compelling or “attractive,” but that’s the value of having a range of narratives. Like Dorothy Day’s unexpected conversion to Catholicism after atheism, each of the people profiled in Surprised by Life offer unique ways to see one’s faith journey.

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*Even though I’m still not an enthusiast of the spirituality of Dorothy Day, I am glad I read The World Will Be Saved by Beauty. The phrase comes from Dostoevsky, but it’s been often quoted by recent popes, from St. John Paul II in his “Letter to Artists,” to Pope Francis in his first encyclical, “Lumen Fidei.” After reading it, and the context of the quotes from the popes, I realize that the “beauty” is the varied ways in which love is expressed.

*Are you active on Instagram? I am, and I’ve become slightly obsessed with the “Stories” or “InstaStories” These are Snapchat-like short videos combined that expire after 24 hours.  I’ve enjoyed following some accounts related to cooking, homemaking, health, travel, and of course, our Catholic faith. There is something fun and relaxing about seeing small and often beautiful slices of life from others.

One of my recent favorites is Heather Scheider, whose Instagram account, *honeychildforest is honest, crafty, and encouraging. Her Stories, in particular, are often just laugh-out-loud hilarious.

That is where I first found out about the book Surprised by Life. Scheider had posted a photo of a group of the books when she received her author copies, and so I immediately ordered it so I could read it.

 

God’s Work, No Matter the Circumstances {My July Column @TheCatholicPost}

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Following is my July column that appears in this issue of the print edition of  The Catholic Post.

I ran into a friend at Aldi the other day, and so I asked about her husband’s struggle with cancer. She outlined his progress, and also shared that their family has agreed, yet again, to be foster parents, this time to a sibling pair. When I expressed my admiration, her reply was, “We believe it is God’s work.” Did I mention her husband has cancer? I told her, “The way you live your whole life is God’s work.”

Seeing fellow Christians living in such a radically open and generous way is very humbling for an average believer like me. And yet when I want to feel discouraged about my lack of heroic actions, I recall that for all of us, our whole life is God’s work, even in the “small things” we do.

That is why it was ennobling to read a book about ordinary Christians doing extraordinary things in The Priest Barracks: Dachau, 1938-1945 by Guillaume Zeller, translated from the French by Michael J. Miller. It makes reader ponder, as one should every day, “How can I make my life more God’s work?”

The Priest Barracks tells the little-known story of the thousands of Catholic priests, seminarians, and non-Catholic clergy who lived and often died in the brutal conditions of the prototype among concentration camps, Dachau, in southeastern Germany. At first it was only German priests who were detained. Eventually, a variety of clergy, from members of the Resistance to priests who made modest statements in their sermons, from countries throughout Europe, were largely centralized into three large barracks at Dachau.

The gripping account of the lives of priests in the KZ (the German initials for concentration camp), living the Catholic faith, ministering to fellow prisoners, and maintaining humanity, is woven throughout this well-researched and fact-filled book.

Obviously, the conditions were horrific. And yet, the men endured, amid successes and failures—it wasn’t all perfect, but the priests, including at least two bishops, formed a kind of community that transcended nationality, religious order, Christian denomination, and spiritual temperament.

The Priest Barracks is divided into three sections of six to seven chapters each. First is “A Camp for Priests,” which outlines how the Dachau concentration camp was founded, and then later how it came to be a repository for clergy from all over Europe. Second is “O Land of Distress,” which details many of the horrific conditions, including hunger, death, typhus, and medical experiments. Third is “A Spiritual Home,” which outlines how sacramental life was lived, how the Eucharist existed even in the camp, and relates the improbable and nearly miraculous ordination of a dying seminarian in one of the barracks.

Each chapter begins with a Scripture verse related to its theme. So, for instance, in the chapter, “Anti-Christian Hatred,” is Matthew 5:11: “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

Most moving was the account in the “Sacramental Life” chapter on the secret ordination of Father Karl Leisner, a seminarian who, dying from tuberculosis, was ordained through the sacrifices and tactics of the clergy and their fellow prisoners, from the clergy who fashioned his vestments and the bishop’s mitre with cast-off fabric, to the Jewish musicians who played violins outside the barrack to distract the German soldiers from the ceremony. Bishop Gabriel Piguet, a resident of the camp, performed the ordination; as he wrote later, “Truly, in a place where the priesthood has been utterly humiliated and where it was supposed to be exterminated, divine revenge has been striking: one more priest had been born to the priesthood of Christ.”

Probably the finest chapter is “The Fruits of Dachau,” as Zeller outlines the lasting legacy of the priests’ time in Dachau: the importance of unity among the clergy, despite their various orders, nationalities, and practices; the presence of a healthy ecumenism among religions in the camp; how the apostolate of service was lived out; and how the clergy promoted the fundamental dignity of the human person, despite the conditions.

I was inspired to read The Priest Barracks after re-reading earlier this summer the classic He Leadeth Me, Fr. Walter Ciszek’s spiritual autobiography, including his harrowing years as a political prisoner in World War II-era and post-war Russia.


His successes and failures of faith, of perseverance, make the word “inspiring” an understatement. He Leadeth Me is for anyone who seeks to live a Christian life, but who feels unprepared for the task. Fr. Ciszek’s story shows us that “keeping on” and never giving up, is the important quality of the Christian life, all through the lens of the persecution he experienced.

In a similar way, The Priest Barracks offers inspiration for the average Christian, not because of the heroic feats of the clergy imprisoned there—and there were many— but in how normal they were, and yet how much good they could do, bit by bit, day by day.

It may be essentially zero chance that any of us will have to endure the conditions these brave clergy did, or have the opportunity to be heroic in the way they did. And yet, we, all of us, need to go “God’s work” with our lives, day by day. Learning how these ordinary Christians lived their faith can enkindle in us a desire to do the good we can every day.

Chesterton Mystery Book a Charming Introduction to Catholic Literary Giant {Kidlit Corner}

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Today I’m introducing a new feature called “Kidlit Corner.” I’ve long wanted to be more intentional about introducing readers here and in The Catholic Post to good children’s literature (sometimes called “kidlit”), both old and new. So I’m just going to jump in and start.  I’m sure it will evolve over time, and perhaps have a name change. Stay tuned!

“Whatever is true whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” — Philippians 4:8

Keeping younger kids in chapter books, the shorter, interesting stories to help readers transition from easy readers to full-length novels, can be a challenge.  There are always the classic series like The Boxcar Children and The Magic Tree House series, which offer enjoyable and well-told mysteries for younger readers. 

But sadly, this category in recent years has also filled up with many “branded” or commercialized stories that promote the latest movie or television show, and are the equivalent of processed food.  Kids might be “reading” these books, but they are not especially nourishing.  It’s like chips for the mind.

Younger readers deserve hearty fare as they are beginning to love reading—books that are fun and relatively easy to read, but provide an interesting and worthy subject matter. Consider such books meat & potatoes, or healthy comfort food, for the emergent reader.

One great new offering in the chapter-book genre is The Chestertons and the Golden Key by Nancy Carpentier Brown, with Regina Doman, and lovely period-style illustrations by Ann Kissane Englelhart. 

The Chestertons and the Golden Key is a charming story about GK Chesterton and his wife, on vacation one summer, meeting and befriending a young family, and helping them solve a child-friendly mystery.

As I read the story, I thought it was mostly fiction.  It turns out the story is based on the real-life Nicholls family, whom the Chestertons did meet and befriend when they  visited Lyme Regis, England.  The afterward describes the actual story, and how Carpentier Brown’s research lead her to the Nicholls family and relatives who were still alive to tell her some stories.

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Previously, Nancy Carpentier Brown also has adapted for younger readers a good variety of Chesterton’s most famous Father Brown mystery stories. 

The Father Brown Reader: Stories from Chesterton, and The Father Brown Reader II: More Stories from Chesterton offer budding mystery lovers a chance to be introduced to one of the classic sleuths from the prolific Chesterton.

Carpentier Brown is also the author of the well-regarded adult biography of Frances Chesterton, The Woman Who Was Chesterton.  You can read my review of that book here.

“The Prodigal You Love” Offers Hope {My April column @TheCatholicPost}

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Following is my April column that appears in this week’s print edition of The Catholic Post. 

When Mother Angelica died on Easter Sunday this year, there were myriad tributes to her life and influence. Many quoted her pithy, tongue-in-cheek, but often pretty true, zingers. One of my favorites was shared on Facebook by Catholic Memes. It’s a laughing photo of Mother with the caption, “If it wasn’t for people, we could all be holy.”

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Isn’t that the truth? It’s easy to be a “good Catholic” in theory. It’s when reality sets in—that of our own weaknesses and flaws, combined with the weaknesses and flaws of others— that our best intentions and desires to “be good” are often thwarted.

So how do we try to live holy and inspire others to live the Catholic faith? That’s the premise of an appealing new book on attracting people to (or back to) the faith.

It’s The Prodigal You Love: Inviting Loved Ones Back to the Church by Sister Theresa Alethia Noble, FSP.


Sister Theresa, once an atheist but now a Daughter or St. Paul, has written an incisive and spiritually rich book both about her own experience. She grew up Catholic, left the faith (and any faith) for many years, and then not only returned to the Catholic Church, but discerned a vocation to the religious life. She writes about how people can approach those who have left the faith, not just to convert them back, but to model a healthy, wholesome faith.

Sister Theresa weaves the story of the Prodigal Son parable throughout the book, showing how we ourselves are prodigals, along with those who may have left the faith behind. The Prodigal You Love  explores how Scripture, the saints, and our own struggles, offer us the way to inspire others in ways we may never understand fully in this life.

For instance, in a chapter on doubt, Sister Theresa points out that how we encounter our own questions and uncertainty can help others:

“We can learn to model a healthy relationship with doubt by living our doubts honestly, while at the same time holding them lightly.”

 Sister Theresa also shows how while our ultimate goal may be having those we know in the fullness of the Catholic faith, we have to respect the free will of others to choose, as she did for a time, a different expression of faith, or even no faith, all the while praying for conversion and for Christ to reach each person in a different way. She quotes Saint John Paul II’s statement, “It is necessary to keep those two truths together, namely, the real possibility of salvation in Christ for all mankind and the necessity of the Church for salvation.”

Several months ago, a young woman I know posted her disgust and frustration on Facebook about her college alma mater supporting something dreadful. A priest friend commented: “Be a saint. All the outrage in the world goes nowhere. Saints change hearts.”

Ultimately, that is the message of The Prodigal You Love. When we seek holiness and live a life of prayer amidst our daily responsibilities, desires, and faults, we will change hearts, starting with our own, as well as those dear to us, and even those we may not know well or at all. As Sister Theresa writes, “Precisely because it is difficult and requires holiness, the evangelization of our loved ones in an intense path to sanctity.”