Reading Catholic

Reading Catholic and catholic

Meet a Reader

Meet a Reader: Fr. Andru O’Brien {@TheCatholicPost}

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Following is the “Meet a Reader” feature that appears in the current print edition of The Catholic Post.

How you know me:

I am Fr. Andru O’Brien, one of the two men that Bishop Jenky ordained this past May. I am now serving at St. Jude Parish in Peoria. I graduated in 2010 from Normal Community and immediately entered seminary. During summers I have spent time in Peoria, LaSalle, Pontiac, Monmouth and Oglesby. For school, I was sent to Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Minnesota, Mundelein Seminary in Chicagoland, and then I finished my studies off at Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland. If one were to go back through all the seminarian posters from my time, they would notice a year I do not appear. I spend a year studying with the Archdiocese of Atlanta where my family lives, but immediately came home earning me the affectionate nickname amongst some of our older priests of “The kid who left and came back.”



Why I love reading:


When one sits down to write, the pages serve as a blank canvas. The boundaries are non-existent and the possibilities endless. The only thing an author puts down on the page is what moves them at the deepest level. Always approaching books with this mindset, reading has become for me an encounter with another’s most personal experience of reality. And when reading is done well, it also becomes a dialogue between the author and us. In non-fiction I always ask if my experience confirms what the author is saying or not. In fiction we are able to enter into the mind of a character to feel what they are feeling. While most modern entertainment has become a break from life, reading has always been more attractive to me because it allows me to engage life on an even deeper level.


What I’m reading now:  

I always have a few books going at a time. Right now I have going a biography of Don Luigi Giussani, the founder of the ecclesial community Communion and Liberation. For spiritual reading I am working through St. Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Rule. On the fiction side, I am reading Michael O’Brien’s Sophia House. This is the prequel to a trilogy focused around a priest named Father Elijah.

O’Brien is a master of character development, and this book is entirely devoted to the early life of Father Elijah. Growing up as a young Jewish boy, he escaped the Nazis and ended up in Israel where he would discover Catholicism and the Carmelite Order before being called to Rome on a special mission for the Pope. The storyline shows a young boy’s exposure to good and evil in a dramatic way that makes it difficult to put down.

Along with Sophia House, I am also reading A Devotional Journey into the Mass by my old professor Christopher Carstens. In it he breaks open the various parts of the Mass to show how one can more fully answer Vatican II’s call for ‘active participation’ in all the faithful. He successfully shows that Mass is only boring when we do not understand what is actually happening before us.

My favorite book:

It is difficult to name just one book as my favorite, so here is an overview of the favorites. Anything by Pope Benedict XVI is amazing, but topping the list are his work The Spirit of the Liturgy and the Jesus of Nazareth trilogy.

A book that I have found myself going back to again and again is Becoming Human by Jean Vanier. Vanier is a philosopher by trade, who left his position at university to work with the disabled in his organization L’Arche. In this work, he speaks of the lessons that he has learned from his time with the L’Arche community. To a world filled with competition and individualism, he shows a Christian perspective of human life and flourishing. It is absolutely brilliant.

Finally, I will throw out Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. In this book, Huxley depicts a society free of pain and full of stimuli, but when one character breaks from the mold he discovers a world much greater than the ‘perfect’ society he had previously known.

8 Things I’ve Learned in 8 Years of Reviewing Catholic Books {My column @TheCatholicPost}

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Following is my column that appears in the current print edition of The Catholic Post. This will be my last regular column for The Catholic Post, but I may be filling in occasionally.

This marks my final regular monthly column reviewing books for The Catholic Post. After more than eight years, hundreds of books reviewed, and nearly 100 columns and “Reader” profiles, I’ll be stepping away from writing book reviews to pursue other projects.

To be honest, I’m uneasy about what this change in status will mean for my spiritual life & prayer life.

Searching out and reading good Catholic books has become normal these past eight years. I’ve spent hours in adoration reading potential good books—an excellent way to discern whether a book is review-worthy. And because my husband Joseph has been the first reader of my columns, his feedback and our discussions as I fine-tune my thoughts have strengthened our spiritual friendship in marriage.

I’ve heard from many readers over the years about books that have helped or edified them, but truthfully, I am the one who has been most enriched by writing about Catholic books. I will always be grateful for this opportunity and my years here, and the careful editing and guidance of Tom Dermody, the editor of The Catholic Post.

Here are some of the “takeaways” that I’ve learned. I hope you will remember them, too:

  1. Catholic memoirs and spiritual biographies are an excellent genre for the reader’s spiritual growth & learning.

Memoirs, including spiritual biographies, can be very inconsistent in quality. While I’m not a fan of much modern memoir types, I have found numerous good examples in Catholic books old and new. I’ve written about ones as varied as the first book I ever reviewed, Venerable Fulton Sheen’s classic Treasure in Clay. Other great spiritual memoirs include He Leadeth Me by Fr. Walter Ciszek, The Fourth Cup by Scott Hahn, and The Ear of the Heart: An Actress’ Journey from Hollywood to Holy Vows by Mother Dolores Hart.

2. Not all “Catholic” books are written by Catholics, or from Catholic publishers.

One of the most discussion-worthy books I’ve read in recent years is Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, which explores the area of death and dying, including wisdom from medieval monks, and what that means in today’s culture. In addition, books like Michael Pollan’s Cooked offer incarnational perspective on the goodness of creation.

3. Catholic authors are good for different audiences.

As I’ve written before, very few books are good for every Catholic reader, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something for everyone among Catholic books.

To consider two audiences:

For kids and teens, there is everything from saint biography books like Ablaze, & Radiate by Colleen Swaim, saint-inspired fiction like the charming, Olivia and the Little Way by Nancy Carabio Belanger, and practical works such as Your College Faith: Own It! and How I Stayed Catholic at Harvard.

For moms, there are a range of books, and newer ones released almost every year, on motherhood and balance, from pregnancy and early childhood in “Made for This” to parenting for your child’s personality in books like “The Temperament God Gave Your Kids.”

4. Praise God, the saints come in all types, sizes, and spiritualities.

I’m not going to name names, but certain saints inspire in me not devotion, but gratitude that God made all kind of people capable of becoming saints. A friend is fond of saying that the spiritual life is “individual as a fingerprint.” Readers can easily find a saint, spirituality to suit, though I have found it spiritually edifying to stretch outside my comfort zone when it comes to reading about the saints.

Some of my favorite books about saints and spiritualities include How to Pray the Dominican Way: Ten Postures, Prayers and Practices that Lead Us to God by Angelo Stagnaro, Introduction to the Devout Life  by St. Francis de Sales, and My Sisters the Saints by Colleen Carroll Campbell.

5. Healing can begin with reading books.

Some of my most popular reviews have been books about sensitive topics, especially ones relating to mental health and sexuality. Such books include Dawn Eden’s My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints and Remembering God’s Mercy, both about healing memory; Gay and Catholic by Eve Tushnet; Surviving Depression: A Catholic Approach by Sister Kathryn Hermes; and the powerful Hurting in the Church: A Way Forward for Wounded Catholics by Fr. Thomas Berg.

6. You can be intellectual and Catholic.

This shouldn’t be surprising, considering that the Catholic Church gave us the scientific method, the university system, and innumerable discoveries. But in today’s culture of “cool,” the prevailing belief is that Catholicism, or any deeply held faith, is at odds with reason and “reality.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

Consider Would You Baptize an Extra-Terrestrial by Vatican astronomers Brother Guy Consolmagno and Fr. Paul Mueller; The Loser Letters by Mary Eberstadt; The Case for Jesus by Brad Pitre; and any of the books by Fr. Robert Barron or Fr. Robert Spitzer.

7. Our Catholic faith is a precious gift that we should want to share and celebrate with everyone.

Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus by Sherry Weddell is a book that gets to the heart of evangelization, both within and outside of parishes. It talks about the vital importance of helping people have a deep personal relationship with Jesus, and what that means for the life of a parish or the Church at large.

8. Media literacy and critical thinking are must-have skills.

Developing the ability to discern wisely what one is reading, watching, or hearing, is more important than ever. Books like The Read-Aloud Family by Sarah MacKenzie and The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age provide not just families, but anyone, with tools and ideas for strengthening one’s critical skills in this area.

That is eight, but I have one more takeaway, since I like to “over-deliver:”

9. Reading is subservient to the goal of our faith: love.

St. Paul puts it perfectly 1 Corinthians 13:1: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging symbol.”

Meet a Reader: Sister Mary Core {@TheCatholicPost}

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Following is the “Meet a Reader” feature that appears in the current print edition of The Catholic Post.

How you know me:

My name is Sister Mary Core. I am a Benedictine Sister of St. Mary Monastery in Rock Island. I taught and ministered for many years in the Peoria Diocese at Ss. Peter and Paul and St. Mary’s Academy, Nauvoo; Immaculate Conception, Monmouth; Notre Dame (Bergan) Peoria; and St. Joseph, Pekin.

I also served at St. Columba in Chicago and as Youth Minister at Our Lady of Victory in Davenport, IA. More recently I served as Initial Formation Director for my community. At present I am the Liturgist for my community in Rock Island and enjoy leading the women’s Book Club for St. Maria Goretti, Coal Valley, and Mary, Our Lady of Peace in Orion.

Why I love reading:

Reading opens so many avenues to new ideas, information, imagination, creative thinking, and enjoyment. Reading helps me to put aside frustrations, worries, and criticism. I enter into the book and I relax and find myself being given bits of wisdom or thought-provoking ideas. I have a good laugh or am emotionally touched. Even books that didn’t particularly “hook me” often have a ‘pearl’ I can take away.

One of the joys of reading is being able to pause and reflect on a salient point, reread, and let the message soak in before progressing. As much as I love a good movie, it’s much more rewarding to pause when reading a book than to keep pushing the replay on a video.

What I’m reading now: 

I recently finished Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith. I purchased this book some years ago when traveling through South Dakota. It relates through narrative, personal letters and wonderful old photos, the hard and challenging life of the women who settled the west alone or with their often absent husbands.

I have just begun reading Holy Rover: Journeys in Search of Mystery, Miracles, and God by Lori Erickson. So far, so good. I may use it for my book club selection.

My favorite book:

Oh my! How difficult to choose one favorite book! I am indeed a John Steinbeck fan and have read all his novels and short stories, but I think the test of a “favorite” is how often we go back and read again a chapter or paragraph from a book.

That said, I believe there are three that remain at the top of my list. All three choices are old and enduring. Two are books: Hinds Feet On High Places by Hannah Hurnard, and A Tree Full of Angels: Seeing the Holy in the Ordinary by Macrina Wiederkehr, O.S.B.

 

The third, and number one on my list, is the Collected Lyrics of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

My copy has been with me for over fifty years and I still get inspired by her lyric poetry. My favorite is “The Blue-Flag In The Bog.”

This is a wonderful piece about the end of time, when God calls us to Heaven. Millay, who is walking with all humanity toward heaven, looks back at the earth as it burns.

She mourns the fact that her beautiful, beloved earth will be no more and wants some aspect of it to be in heaven also. Slipping out of the ranks, she returns to earth and is overjoyed to find an Iris (Blue Flag) standing proud and alive in the midst of earth’s demise. She uproots it and lovingly caresses it as she rejoins the march heavenward.

There she speaks to God and pleads for the life of the iris. God reassures her with the words: “In some moist and Heavenly place, We will set it out to grow.”  Hooray for our compassionate God!

Meet a Reader: Christine Pinheiro {@TheCatholicPost}

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Following is the “Meet a Reader” feature that appears in the current print edition of The Catholic Post.

How you know me:

I have been teaching Latin and Theology at Peoria Notre Dame High School for seven years. I grew up in Champaign, Illinois, and lived at the Newman Center for four years. After graduating from the University of Illinois with a degree in Classics, I got my Master’s in Theology at the University of Notre Dame. Now that I work at PND I sometimes affectionately call the University “the other Notre Dame.” I am a parishioner at St. Philomena in Peoria.

Why I love reading:

I learned how to read when I was very young, and by the time I was supposed to enter kindergarten I was reading young adult books. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of going to the library and checking out dozens of books at a time, reading them, and then going back for more! Reading gives me the opportunity to learn and to think more deeply. It’s also a wonderful activity because I can bring a book with me and read in a waiting room or doctor’s office with no worries about whether my cell phone will connect to a network.

What I’m reading now:

I’ve only gotten a few paragraphs in but I’m starting to reread Harrius Potter (Harry Potter translated into Latin) and plan to finish it over the summer. It’s a fun way to keep Latin at the forefront of my mind when the school year is over.

For a few months now, I’ve been reading Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series (I’m currently reading The Beautiful Mystery). It’s a mystery series set in Quebec, mostly in the fictional town of Three Pines. Penny has quickly become one of my favorite authors. Her characters are compelling, her mysteries are tightly woven, and her prose is so beautiful that sometimes I just have to put the book down and take a moment to savor her words. Chief Inspector Gamache is reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot in some ways because he solves crimes primarily through talking with people and he’s interested in the psychology of the crime. But he’s a much more fleshed out character than Poirot, with none of Poirot’s ego. He’s the kind of character I’d love to have coffee and a conversation with.

My favorite book:

My all-time favorite book is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read it. Nothing compares to Austen’s sparkling wit and complex characters. It’s one of those books I wish I could forget all about so I could reread it as though for the first time.

My favorite book by a modern theologian is Introduction to Christianity by Joseph Ratzinger (who, of course, became Pope Benedict XVI). I took a class on him at Notre Dame and in addition to being a towering intellect, Benedict is a deeply humble and gentle man. This comes through very clearly in his writings. After reading Introduction to Christianity, I felt like I got to know better not only the subject matter but also the author.

Meet a Reader: Deacon Wendell Lowry {@TheCatholicPost}

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Following is the “Meet a Reader” feature that appears in the current print edition of The Catholic Post.

How you know me:

In May 2017 I was ordained to the Permanent Diaconate in the Diocese of Peoria and serve as both Deacon and Business Manager for the four churches in Logan County.  I am the oldest of 6 (5 boys and 1 girl).  I was born in Mt. Lebanon, PA (a suburb of Pittsburgh) and grew up in Ohio and I am a lifelong Cleveland Indians fan.  This year my wife Brenda and I will celebrate our 37th anniversary.  We have two sons, one married and living in East Providence, Rhode Island, and one living in Lincoln.  We were blessed to add our first grandchild to our family just two months ago; his name is Lincoln.

Why I love reading:

My parents were a huge influence on me and I think for that reason I have always loved reading.  I love to learn, and I am wired in such a way that it is important for me to know the background (who, what, where and how) of something to better understand the why.

What I’m reading now:

I am currently reading The Case for Jesus by Dr. Brant Pitre, Interior Freedom by Fr. Jacques Philippe, and The Battle for Leyte Gulf: The Incredible Story of World War II’s Largest Naval Battle, by C. Vann Woodward. I also just completed two books on World War I (A World Undone and The World Remade) written by G. J. Meyer.  In The Case for Jesus and Interior Freedom, I am able to learn and to grow in my faith and in my relationship with Jesus Christ which is by far the most important thing that I can do.  Sadly, the history of the world and war are intertwined, and it is through these books that I gain a greater understanding of the why (why war? why this battle? why this general or admiral? etc.…etc…).  I also enjoy reading about the key men and women involved and the decision-making processes that they used and finally the valor of those who fought the battles.

My favorite book:

The Miracle of Father Kapaun: Priest, Soldier and Korean War Hero by Travis Heying and The Grunt Padre, The Service and Sacrifice of Fr. Vincent Robert Capodanno, Vietnam 1966-1967 by Fr. Daniel Mode.

These two books address the heroic virtues of two men – both of whom have been declared “Servants of God” – who volunteered to serve as Catholic Chaplains in combat, one in Korea and the other in Vietnam.  They are my favorites because they address both the relationships these men had with Jesus Christ and with the men whom they served on the field of battle.  Both books address the historical aspects of battles that each man participated in and further addressed how these men made the Sacraments and themselves available to the men they served and how each Priest gave their life for others.  Everything I love about reading is wrapped up in these two books. And reading The Grunt Padre was meaningful for me because Fr. Capodanno and my Uncle were friends and served as Chaplains together in Vietnam.

Meet a Reader: Fr. Jim Pankiewicz {@TheCatholicPost}

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Following is the “Meet a Reader” that appears in the current print edition of The Catholic Post.

How we know you:

I’m a native of St. Joseph, MO and was ordained for the Diocese of Peoria in 2010.  My assignments have included St. Joseph-Pekin and St. John’s Catholic Newman Center in Champaign. Currently, I’m an assistant at the Heart of Peoria Catholic Community.

Why I love reading:

Both of my parents are teachers. Growing up, my dad constantly had his nose stuck in a book.  His influence didn’t stick right away. But by early high school I had developed a passion for the written word.  As an undergraduate, my interest in reading history led me to major in that very subject. Over the years, I’ve discovered that by being a voracious reader it’s difficult to ever be bored.  There is always so much more out there to read.

What I’m reading now:

I just finished Power and Empire, the latest novel in the Tom Clancy/Jack Ryan series.  Every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas a new novel in the series is released.  It’s my perennial birthday (November 24) gift from my parents.  At the moment, I’m reading Ron Chernow’s new biography on General Grant, The Marian Option by Carrie Gress, and re-reading several Scott Hahn works. 

My favorite book:

I have many favorite books.  Here are a few based on subjects: The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy (novel); Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (history); Searching for and Maintaining Peace and Time for God both by Jacques Philippe (spirituality).