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I noticed in this week’s print edition that someone in our diocesan family has a new book out.  It’s called “A Book of Plane Prayers” by Sister Agnes Cunningham, SSCM, of Champaign.

Jennifer Willems writes about the book here.

I had the chance to pick up this slim volume when I was at Lagron-Miller the other day picking up a Catechism of the Catholic Church for a book group (surprise! another book group for me).

It’s a really nice book of prayers, and since we like traveling in our family, some more than others, I’m sure we’ll be getting some use out of it.

Check it out!

On Tuesdays this month, I want to share blogs that are either Catholic humor blogs, or reflect on the nature of humor to help us live out our faith.


Today, I want to feature Sister Helena Burns, a Daughter of St. Paul nun who writes the blog “Hell Burns” (get it?).  Her blog is more about one of my big passions–media literacy–than humor per se.  Still, if you’ve ever had the good fortune to meet her in person, you’ll know immediately how funny she is and how she radiates joy.  And how could a person who named her blog “Hell Burns” not be funny?


Recently, she wrote a commentary on the television show “The Family Guy” that really became an essay on the value and importance of humor in the world.  In fact, I borrowed concepts from her conclusion to really focus on humor this month:  


“Never underestimate the bewitching potential and power of humor. He/she who gets you to laugh last, laughs best. All the way to the zeitgeist bank. And what do you and your children get?”


Please consider reading Sister Helena Burns’ essay here. 


 And do visit her blog–Sister Helena does write the occasional laugh-out-loud post, like this account of her first and last ski trip.


Also, Sister Helena is a great source of detailed and skilled movie reviews in the context of our Catholic faith.  Her review of Toy Story 3 shows, for example, touches on both John Paul II’s Theology of the Body and Lotso’s nihilism.  You must read her reviews to fully experience these kind of great connections.

 I consider a good sense of humor as indispensable as dark chocolate.  If you know me at all, that is saying a lot, because seldom does a day go by outside of Lent or Advent that I don’t eat some dark chocolate, whether my mainstay dark chocolate M&Ms or some wonderful single-origin dark chocolate from Trader Joe’s.  Many is the time when a good sense of humor has defused a tense situation in our house, distracting young ones from their evil deeds or helping spouses see the love instead of the frustration of a disagreement.  Of course, many of those things can be accomplished through dark chocolate, but that’s a topic for another day.

I personally am not very good at telling a joke, as my husband and friends can well attest.  I would fail miserably as a stand-up comic.  But I find that the older I get, the more I need to laugh, and, paradoxically, the more discerning I am about what makes me laugh.  There is a lot of sadness in life–death, brokenness in ourselves and others, the state of the world–that it’s easy to get and stay down.  So lots of laughter–and the right sort of it– becomes even more important.

That’s one of the reasons why I love Mary Eberstadt’s The Loser Letters, July’s book selection here at the Catholic Post Book Group.  You’ll see in my review on Thursday that one of my favorite things about the book is that it makes me laugh in the right way.

But what do I mean by the “right kind” of laughter?  I don’t mean that I’m a snob about it, like I can only laugh at intellectually high-brow jokes.  I’m a big fan of silly puns and slapstick humor.   For instance, we love Charlie Chaplin films at our house.  And we laughed through Toy Story 3 recently (when this mom wasn’t weeping openly at the poignant parts).  

C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters  in preparation for  has an entire letter on the “danger” of humor to lead people closer to God.  For those who have not read The Screwtape Letters, let me fill you in because we’ll be talking a lot this month about the mini-genre Lewis created with the book.

C.S. Lewis wrote the book as a series of fictional letters from a demon, Screwtape, to his apprentice nephew demon Wormwood.  Everything is twisted in the book, so “the Enemy” is God and the advice is all backwards from what would make people happy.

C.S. Lewis’ tempter in The Screwtape Letters divides the causes of human laughter into Joy, Fun the Joke Proper and Flippancy.

“You will see (joy) among friends and lovers reunited on the eve of a holiday.  Among adults some pretext in the way of Jokes is usually provided, but the facility with which the smallest witticisms produce laughter at such a time shows that they are not the real cause.  What the real cause is we do not know… Laughter of this kind does us no good and should always be discouraged.  Besides, the phenomenon is of itself disgusting and a direct insult to the realism, dignity and austerity of Hell.”

I know many people can relate to this exact description.  I was a younger sibling in a family of six kids, and when my older brother and sisters would return from college for a holiday, the kitchen table was always full of laughter as we sat and caught up with each other.   But were we telling jokes?  Not exactly; there was that kind of gentle ribbing that goes on in families, but we were laughing and smiling so much out of proportion to the jokes that it was clearly Joy.

What concerns me when I say the “right kind of laughter” is there is an awful lot of humor recently that really has nothing to do with Joy or Fun is being promoted as humorous.

I can think of certain modern authors, television shows and movies that really do nothing but sneer and ridicule the good, all under the pretext of “humor.”  And if someone accuses them of that very thing, that person is ridiculed (more with an attitude than exact words) of “I’m just joking.  Can’t you take a joke? Don’t you have a sense of humor?”

Yes, I do have a sense of humor.  A good sense of humor.

Lewis writes about this very thing beautifully in Screwtape’s letter on humor:

“But flippancy is the best of all.  In the first place it is very economical.  Only a clever human can make a real Joke about virtue, or indeed about anything else; any of them can be trained to talk as if virtue were funny.  Among flippant people the Joke is always assumed to have been made.  No one actually makes it; but every serious subject is discussed in a manner which implies that they have already found a ridiculous side to it.  If prolonged, the habit of Flippancy builds up around a man the finest armour plating against the Enemy that I know, and it is quite free from the dangers inherent in the other sources of laughter.  It is a thousand miles away from joy; it deadens, instead of sharpening, the intellect; and it excited no affection between those who practise it.”

What do you think is meant by a “good sense of humor”?   Do you think humor is important in living out a faith-filled life?

As promised, I hope to share through the month lots of Catholic humor websites.

One of my favorites is The Ironic Catholic, written by

Now that I’m a couple of months into this Catholic Post Book Group blog,  I see that each month not only has a book, but really a theme that the book highlights and invites discussion.

April’s book was Treasure in Clay, the autobiography of Fulton Sheen, and the discussion centered on two things: the priesthood, and media.  Fulton Sheen lived out his priesthood in such a vibrant way, and did so through his media apostolate, that the discussion centered on those two topics.

May was The Handbook for Catholic Moms by Lisa Hendey, and that book is so well-ordered that our discussion of mom-hood and its challenges was a breeze.  Thanks, Lisa, for writing such a great book that fostered a month-long online discussion.

June was “summer fiction” month.  Once the schedule with specific topics for days, such as “Family-Friendly Friday,” was up and running, June became a great month to discuss and learn from each other on Catholic and catholic fiction.  I plan to do summer fiction each June, and I’ve already got a great list of classic books for next year.  Suggestions are always welcome!

July’s book is Mary Eberstadt’s The Loser Letters, fictional letters of an atheist “convert” written in the style of C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters.  Initially, I thought I would spend the month inviting discussion of this mini-genre created by Lewis.  But as I wrote my review (that will appear in next week’s print Catholic Post and here online, I realized that its just-right humor is what makes the book so enjoyable to me.

For July, humor it is.  I am a big fan of Catholic humor blogs and humor in general, and I will love to share them and find out your favorites.   I also plan to share some thoughts from the saints and others–about about what makes humor not just good but ennobling, something to lift up our human spirit, not demean us.

When it comes to humor, the expression “de gustibus non disputandum est,” (there’s no accounting for taste) will definitely apply.  Everyone will have a different view on what he or she thinks is funny.  Let’s plan to agree to disagree when we have different humor types.

Those who know me know how much I enjoy using the internet expression LOL in e-mail, texting, and even occasionally real life.  So let’s plan on some LOL this month.

Summertime means travel, and for many people that means lots of books, movies and other “stuff” in the minivan/car to keep people busy on long trips.  Audio CDs can be a great way to while away those hours.

Here are just a few great audio versions of favorite books to delight the whole family.  I can think of many more, but these ones shout out to me, “Summer!”:

1.  One of our family favorites is the Radio Theatre production of the Chronicles of Narnia.  Normally, I’m an unabridged snob, meaning that I much prefer the unabridged versions of novels to their abridged or shortened versions.  This 19-CD set is abridged, but so well done and so captures the spirit of Narnia that we listen to it over and over.

2. The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster’s classic comic tale of the conflict between numbers and words (and a whole lot more), is available in a fantastic narration by actor David Hyde Pierce. I’ve tried to read this aloud, and it’s a real challenge, so I’m grateful for this version. Bonus at the end of this audio version is an interview with Norton Juster about his writing of the book. Terrific!

3. Betsy-Tacy, first in the series of Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace, is nicely done by actress Sutton Foster. I wish more of them were in audio format, but I’ve only seen Betsy-Tacy.

4. We’ve read many times, but not yet listened to The Penderwicks, Jeanne Birdsall’s wonderful summer novel on audio CD. I see one is available now, and I’ve got it reserved at the library. Birdsall writes multi-sibling stories in the wry and charming style of E. Nesbit and Edward Eager.

5. All-of-a-Kind Family tells the sweet, slice-of-life story of a Jewish family in early 20th century New York’s Lower East Side. The narration is lively and enjoyable.

6. E.B. White narrated two of his classic novels, and these are still available as audio CDs. I can’t pick a favorite, so I’ll list them both: The Trumpet of the Swan and Charlotte’s Web. White’s spare and just right; in Trumpet of the Swan, in particular, there is humor for both the children and the adults.

In our family, we do own some favorite audio books on CD, but often we will borrow them from the  library through the inter-library loan system.  Some libraries have online audio downloads available, and there are services like audible.com.

What are some of your family’s favorite Audio CDs? Or can you share some ways you enjoy your family’s favorite books?