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John Cardinal Newman: A Blessed for Our Times

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Here is my review of Newman 101 and other Newman books.  This will appear in this weekend’s print Catholic Post.  I invite your comments, and check back all month for lots of Newman links and other discussion, including an exclusive Q&A with Newman 101 author Roderick Strange.

John Cardinal Newman is truly a blessed for our times.  The more I learn about him, the more impressed how his writing and his life were groundbreaking in his time and much needed in ours.
Newman, who will be beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in Birmingham, England on September 19, is famous for many things:  his prolific writings & sermons; his prayers & poems; his founding with others of the Oxford Movement to reconcile the Anglican Church with Rome; and for simply being one of the most famous English converts to Catholicism.
I had always considered Newman to be read mostly by theologians and intellectuals, but not very accessible to the rest of us average lay Catholics:  in other words, not my kind of reading.
Newman 101:  An Introduction to the Life and Philosophy of John Cardinal Newman, by Newman scholar Fr. Roderick Strange, changed all of that.  Fr. Strange has distilled down Newman’s thought and life into a very readable and engaging story.
The book runs roughly chronologically through Newman’s life, with chapters on areas that intersect Newman’s life & writing, such as Mary, the Mother of Jesus; Seeking Church Unity; and Witness to Holiness.
 Fr. Strange quotes freely from Newman, so the reader can “hear” Newman’s voice.  At the same time, Fr. Strange details how much he has been influenced by Newman in his writing and in his ministry as an Oxford chaplain, among other roles.
What Newman 101 makes clear is that Cardinal Newman is so relevant today because he has an incredibly sensible, intelligent approach that avoids a variety of extremes when it comes to theology and devotion.  Reading this book makes me wonder what gifts and guidance Newman could provide for the 21st Century Catholic Church at a time of great change and conflict.
Newman 101 is full  of “quotable quotes” from Newman (some of these will be featured and discussed on the Catholic Post Book Group blog).   Here’s one of Newman outlining his belief in an active laity:
“I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold, and what they do not, who know their creed so well, that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it.”
Newman’s belief in a strong, active laity was virtually unheard of in his time, and brought him the censure of bishops and others.  Reading it today, we can see both his courage and the challenge he sets out for us.
By studying the life of holy people like Cardinal Newman that we can learn more about the ways to have this active, charitable faith.  I am grateful to Fr. Strange for presenting the life of Newman in such an engaging way that the Catholic layperson is not put off by the challenge, but wants to take it up in the 21st century.
Some other books about and by Newman:
*John Henry Newman by Avery Cardinal Dulles, himself a great convert and great theologian, was written in 2002.  This slim volume gives a quick biographical sketch, then covers Newman’s thought on various issues, i.e. redemption, justification and sanctification; the proof of Christianity; the role of the laity; the church.  Dulles interestingly compares Newman’s view of the role of the university (primarily as an  intellectual formation) with John Paul II’s view (the university should fully form the human person).
*Apologia pro Vita Sua, probably Newman’s most famous book.  The title means in Latin, “A defense of one’s life”.  The book was written about 20 years after his entry into the Catholic Church;  it began as a refutation of an Anglican clergyman’s attack on Newman, but ended up a beautifully written spiritual autobiography.
*I know Meriol Trevor from her children’s chapter books like Sun Slower, Sun Faster and The Letzenstein Chronicles, but her acclaimed two-volume biography of Newman, The Pillar of the Cloud and Light In Winter are exhaustive and extremely well-written.
Join the discussion!  Visit the Catholic Post Book Group at www.catholicbookgroup.blogspot.com throughout this month for quotable quotes from Cardinal Newman, an exclusive interview with Newman 101 author Fr. Roderick Strange, and Newman links and clips around the beatification of Newman on September 19.  Visit the blog to share your own impressions of Newman, his works and books about him.

Are We Too Plugged In?

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I haven’t even finished this article from the New York Times about scientists who left their cellphones and Internet behind for a week, and I want to turn off everything and go off for a week into the wilderness.

I’ve thought a lot about the relationship we all have with being “plugged in” after I wrote about Nicholas Carr’s new book, “The Shallows” on what the Internet is doing to our brain.

I think rather than continue to do “research” on what’s best, I’m formulating an idea of a plan to have certain times that are Internet-free.  That already happens for me pretty naturally with taking care of a household and three busy children.  But I do find my checking e-mail or just clicking around on the Internet to be seeping into lots of time that could be spent more interestingly.  Do you have a time or day when you do not connect with the world in any way?  What do you do with that time?

Grace Before Meals: What are Your Food Rules?

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First of all,  Happy Feast of the Assumption!   What a great mid-summer feast.  I have very specific childhood memories of being on vacation with our family at Wildwood, NJ, and the priest blessing the ocean waves on this day.  I always want to be at the beach on this day, but it rarely happens.  Maybe next year?


This spring, as I was preparing to take on this role of book page editor and blogger for the Catholic Post, I had a number of discussions with my editor Tom Dermody, about future books to feature.


I had just finished Michael Pollan’s slim but very intriguing book, Food Rules, and I suggested this one as a possible one for a summer month.  Fortunately, Tom pointed out the challenge of a month-long discussion on this one book, and he’s right.   That’s why he’s the editor, and I’m the editee.  Thank you, Tom.

Food Rules is a compendium of different rules people shared with food writer Pollan about how they eat healthy.  Most of them are great basic advice for eating well, though some are very appealing to me personally. Sweets only on days that begin with an S? I don’t think so, Mr. Pollan!

But the book an interesting starting point for talking about food rules–we all have them, and defining them can be a fun exercise.

Here are some of my food rules:

Almost always, I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every single day, and I don’t mind a bit.   This one I learned from my Dad, who didn’t mind it, either.

This one, also from my Dad:  there is no such thing as too much fiber.

Coffee can make you feel better.  This one was from my Mom, and I only learned this later in life and not in time to thank her.

Dark chocolate makes you smarter (even on days that don’t start with an S).

I wish I had some good food rules for children, but for now I just keep putting out whatever good stuff I can and hope some of it sticks at some point, either literally or figuratively.

What are your top food rules?

Grace Before Meals: Family Meal Rules?

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Fr. Leo’s ministry Grace Before Meals is all about gathering families around the dinner table for good food and good conversation, in order to foster the great connections that the domestic Church that is the family.

But I had an interesting discussion some weeks back with a group of moms about if the “family dinner” was so important.  One mom argued that other mealtimes, like breakfast, could be a time to gather, and pegging it to dinner was too restrictive.   Another mom argued that perhaps even mealtime was not necessary for connection when there are other opportunities for connection as a family, and that “forcing” everyone to participate in family mealtimes could be counterproductive.   It made for an interesting conversation.

I do think there is something important about eating together that is unique in a family’s experience.    But I also know some people don’t have great memories of family mealtimes.  Also, there can be different seasons of life, such as busy sport or work schedules and young children just learning table manners, that can make family mealtimes a challenge at best.

As I wrote in my review of Fr. Leo’s book, our family’s mealtimes often break some of the common “rules” for dinner time.  I was partially joking, of course, because there are no rules in Canon Law for how mealtimes should look.

But we do try to make an effort to have family mealtimes and interesting conversations to go along with those, and I find that as our children get older both the discussions and the food get more interesting.  That keeps us committed to trying to make those times a priority, even as schedules get busier.

What are some of your family meal rules?  Any suggestions for

Grace Before Meals: Your Favorite Cookbook, Food Magazine, Blog or Recipe Website?

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Care to share your favorite website, cooking magazine, blog or cookbook to help you cook at home?

I tend to “google” a recipe if I’m looking for, say, a recipe for something in particular, like soba noodles in peanut sauce.

But the sites I tend to trust for accurate, turns out most of the time, recipes is Epicurious.   I enjoy getting recipes off of various people’s blogs, but I find the recipes frequently don’t come out as good as the photo!

Cookbooks?  I have two versions of the Joy of Cooking, one my mom got me when I lived in my first apartment in the 1980s.  When a new edition came out in 1997, she gave me that one as well; for some reason, even though I purge cookbooks from time to time, I still keep them both on the shelf.    They are both such a wealth of information about all kinds of cooking and food, and a good base to learn about basic techniques and cooking methods.  Armed with the information

I love cooking magazines, and I used to have a tradition a friend recommended of subscribing to one cooking magazine per year and then rotating; so I did “Cooking Light” one year, Cook’s Illustrated the next, and so on.  But though I love to page through them, I found that they piled up alarmingly, so  I don’t subscribe to any at the moment.   The one cooking magazine I did frequently try recipes from was Cook’s Illustrated, and they tended to be pretty great recipes.

What are your favorites?

Grace Before Meals Question: Favorite Faith-Based Food Traditions?

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One of the best things about Fr. Leo’s book Grace Before Meals is how it is divided by different seasons, from religious holidays (the Feast of the Sacred Heart) to sports team gatherings.  The recipes and “Let’s Talk.. Let’s Listen” portion of each relate to the  of each of these times through the year.  He suggests great ideas to help 


One recent one I can recall is from July 16– we try to have something with caramel on the feast of Our Lady of Carmel.  I know, it’s not “Our Lady of Caramel,” but it does help us to remember Our Lady that day in a “sweet” way.


Since we are Italian at our house, we’ve got lots of food-based traditions that relate to the liturgical year.  My husband makes his family’s Sicilian savoiardi (ladyfingers) recipe on St. Joseph’s Day, and we serve both fish and pizza on Christmas Eve.  (I’m not sure why the pizza, except that traditionally Christmas Eve was a day of abstinence from meat; both my family and my husband’s family had this tradition).


What are some of your favorite faith-based food traditions?