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I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You

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Today’s first reading is from Job 1, about all the misfortunes that happened to Job.  Servant after servant came to tell Job of losing everything, and their “line” is, “I alone have escaped to tell you.”  And Job responds with,

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

naked I shall return.
The Lord gave, the Lord has taken back.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

I am reminded of several random thoughts here that I hope will be somewhat cohesive.

*the lector for daily Mass, coincidentally, happened to be the October featured “Meet a Reader” that will appear in this weekend’s edition of The Catholic Post.  You’ll just have to check back later this week to see who it is, but suffice to say she is an excellent lector.  I always think when she is the lector, “Word on Fire,” because she reads in a very deep way (for lack of a better word, not “drahmatic” but moving and heartfelt–it’s hard to let your mind wander during her reading).  You know you are hearing the Word of the Lord.    I had arrived a bit late for Mass (not that that ever happens to me! hmm), so the reading has just started, but I was instantly drawn into the narrative.

*Job, scripture tells us, “committed no sin nor offered any insult to God.”  I think that is more difficult than anything when bad things happen.  Who can say they never complain to God?  I know I am extremely prone to this, for small things and big things.

*A suggestion for your Ipod: (and it happens to be on my running playlist), Blessed Be Your Name is a great song by the CCM band Tree 63, a meditation of sorts on this passage from Job.


*I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You: My Life and Pastimes
is the title of the excellent memoir by Ralph McInerny, who died last year.  He was a personal hero of mine and I wrote about him several times in my blogging life, so I’ve mined one of those old posts to share:

I met him once many years ago, when my husband and I were first married. McInerny gave a speech at Bradley University, and one of the hosting professors invited us to the after-speech gathering at his house.  I brought along a super chocolate cake.  It was good, with a chocolate-sour cream ganache frosting–now where is that recipe?

McInerny praised it by saying it was the “most chocolatey chocolate cake” he had ever tasted.  My husband, the philosopher in the family (by trade, degree, and temperament), said this was the highest compliment given by a philosopher.  McInerny agreed, and we all had a good laugh.

Several years ago my husband presented a paper at a conference at Notre Dame. I tagged along with the two children we had at the time.  McInerny was one of the organizers, and even though I saw him walking around the conference, I was always too shy to re-introduce myself and tell him how much I admired him.  Usually I am pretty bold about introducing myself to people.  Now I wish I had.

How he discusses writing in I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You is brilliant.    He takes the craft of writing seriously but not too seriously.  He speaks of it being a discipline and work, and the luck/serendipity involved in his success.

He has referred to Anthony Trollope, one of my favorite authors, at least three times in the few chapters I have read. He and/or his family regularly spent several years, and weeks of others, in Europe. He is a faithful Catholic family man with a large family.  What’s not to love?

Prayer of Blessed John Henry Newman

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I am created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created; I have a place in God’s counsels, in God’s world, which no one else has; whether I be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by man, God knows me and calls me by name.

God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which he not committed to another.  I have my mission—I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.  Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his…I have a part in this great wor; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons.  He has not created me for naught.  I shall do good, I shall do his work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.

Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away.  If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.  My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us.  He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it.  He knows what He is about.  He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me-still He knows what He is about . . .

I ask not to see-ask not to know-I ask simply to be used.

Cardinal Newman, Patron Saint of Catholic Novelists…and Readers, too?

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I didn’t realize until I stumbled upon this Catholic Fiction website that Blessed John Henry Newman was considered the patron saint of Catholic novelists. I love this!  Perhaps he could also be the patron saint of Catholic fiction readers.  The site is run by a publishing house I had not encountered before–Idyllis Press, “publishing the catholic imagination.”

Newman is adopted as patron of Catholic novelists because he himself wrote two novels.  I have not read either of them, but I have seen in various places that they are well-done.

Incidentally, this site is chock full of interesting information and a book list of “Catholic fiction.”  Here is an explanation of “what constitutes Catholic fiction.”  I note the list includes all of my favorite author Jane Austen’s full-length novels, and the site includes tons of reviews of Catholic fiction and commentary.

Check it out!

A Great Read: New Feature at the Catholic Post Book Group

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I’ve been wanting for some time to highlight great reads, of all types of books.  Initially, I had intended to do this to highlight great fiction, especially those that are more family-friendly, but may have been missed by busy families.  I know that both for the voracious readers and the reluctant readers, there’s a need for fiction that will delight and inspire and just be great fun.  So primarily we’ll be highlighting fiction, especially those intended for kids, but enjoyed by all.  I think it was C.S. Lewis who said that any book worth reading when you are 10 is worth reading as an adult.  I heartily endorse that!

I would love to feature students from the diocese of Peoria who can even write about their favorite books, and I’ve started reaching out to solicit some of these reviews.  So plan to look for guest reviewers in the coming months.  And if you would like to contribute a review, please contact me through the comments or by sending an email to nmpiccione at me dot com.

Even though I plan to feature classic and great fiction, I also keep learning of terrific books that are new, and I want to highlight these.

One new book I read almost immediately upon receiving was How to Get to “I Do”: A Dating Guide for Catholic Women,  by Amy Bonaccorso.    Wow, what a great book!  I’m preparing a review and I hope to do an author Q&A in the near future.  Watch for it.

My dear husband has not commented on seeing this provocatively titled book around the my laptop, on the living room coffee table, and elsewhere in the house, either showing he is not paying attention or feels extremely secure–ha!  Actually, I am happily married for many years, but I found this book a fascinating and mature look at Catholic dating in these days.   Can’t wait to talk about it here and more with the author.

Thoughts on the Beatification of Cardinal Newman

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I didn’t have much chance to be online over the last few days, and little time to write, but I was a bit overwhelmed by all the live blogging and tons of people able to comment and post about the Holy Father’s visit to England and Scotland.  At our house, it was very hectic, though we did have a chance to watch (during meals, of course, breaking a “food rule” as we discussed last month) some of the events.

Here are some of my thoughts on the visit:

*We set our DVR to tape all the events airing live on EWTN.  I am so grateful for the network and all its programming, especially here, because we could watch them when we were able, instead of when they were aired live on the Internet.  Much as I love EWTN, I wasn’t thrilled with a lot of the political nature of the commentary, and was so glad when the focus was on the actual events.  We were watching with kids, and purposely avoiding a lot of the secular media coverage because it was so negative.  I much preferred when the commentary did focus on the “back story” of what we were seeing.  Fr. Roderick Strange shared with me that he was a commentator on the BBC for the events, and I would have enjoyed seeing his commentary.

*Did anyone else think that the welcome Benedict XVI received after the Mass at Westminster Cathedral was really cool?  You could just feel the emotion from the young people gathered outside.  I’ve been trying to find a clip online of the engaging young man from the East London parish who greeted him so enthusiastically on behalf of the youth, and his short speech.  What I did find is a  nice, if short, video clip of the Holy Father being given a “rockstar” welcome outside Westminster Cathedral.

*I guess this might be politically incorrect or culturally insensitive (wink), but who does music as well as the English?  I really don’t have a singing voice, but I found myself wanting to sing along to all the songs (wishing for a songbook, and having my family grateful I didn’t have one), and just being swept away by the beauty of it.  Much of the music was based on prayers or poems written by Newman.  The prayer vigil in Hyde Park was especially beautiful. One highlight was a 14-year-old boy who sang parts of “The Dream of Gerontius,” a poem by Newman famously set to music by Edward Elgar.  Benedict XVI came out again after the prayer service, almost for a curtain call, to thank the conductor of the music for the prayer vigil, and my husband remarked he was glad he could do so.

*I managed, just in the course of a busy weekend, to avoid virtually all mass media coverage of the Pope’s visit.  It wasn’t really by design, even though one of my sisters had emailed me last week to warn of how annoying and mean the coverage was.  I just didn’t get a chance to watch the news or listen to the radio.

Any thoughts on the beatification of Cardinal Newman?  Highlights or lowlights in your view?

Newman on Converting the Heart More than the Mind

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“I say plainly I do not want to be converted by a smart syllogism; if I am asked to convert others by it, I say plainly I do not care to overcome their reason without touching their hearts.”  -Blessed John Henry Newman.

As I mentioned before, Newman 101 author Roderick Strange shared a few great quotes from Newman tht are so interesting and cause for discussion that I took them out of my interview with him to highlight individually.
Recently, I’ve had conversations with friends about the nature and goal of apologetics and its role in conversion.  The quote that keeps coming up is the one from St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times; use words if necessary.”  But I think this quote from Newman is also appropriate.

Some weeks back (a lifetime ago in the blogosphere)  there has been a lot of chatter/discussion about the author Anne Rice, a recent re-vert to the Catholic faith, who announced she was leaving the Catholic Church.  I found out about it when a friend posted on his Facebook, “Now that’s  a shock.”  But I had to say that I was shocked to see her leave.   Several years ago, I had read her spiritual autobiography, Called Out of Darkness and found her spiritual journey fascinating as well as beautifully written.

At one point in her story–I think she was in college–Rice went to a priest for counsel about her doubts, and when he discovered that she had been raised in a very Catholic family (daily Mass-going, etc.) he told her, “Anne, you won’t ever be truly happy outside the Catholic Church.” And she left the encounter “no longer Catholic” if I remember correctly. And yet, I wonder if she would say that in a sense, the priest was right, but the words were given too harshly or at the wrong time for her to hear it.  It took many decades for her to re-commit herself to her Catholic faith.  And it was clear from the book that she was, as the priest predicted, only happiest and most fulfilled in the Catholic Church.  She writes in Called Out of Darkness of reading theologians from Benedict XVI to Thomas Aquinas to many others, and growing in her knowledge and in the spiritual life.

So that’s why I found her announcement that she was leaving the Catholic faith so sad.  What I found even more shocking all the blog posts and people trying to, essentially “talk her” back into the faith, to convert her with a “smart syllogism.”   It seems so obvious to me that those kinds of approaches would not help.  Newman now blessed, himself a great arguer and intellectual, perhaps could be called upon to help touch the heart of Anne Rice.