Following is the monthly feature that appears in the print edition of The Catholic Post, featuring a Peoria-diocese reader.
How you know me:
I taught biology and physics at Hoopeston Area High School for many years before I left to become principal at St. Mary’s Grade School in Westville. Though retired now, I’m still active in CCD, high school youth group, RCIA, and facilitating a prayer group at Holy Family Church in Danville.
I’m also a fourth degree knight in the Knights of Columbus. Since I’m a convert from the Methodist Church, my faith in the Catholic Church and Her teachings is strong and deep. My wife and I have four daughters and 12 grandchildren. Our son is a seminarian in the Peoria Diocese currently at Mount St. Mary Seminary at Emmitsburg, MD.
Why I love reading:
I enjoy the quiet solitude of reading and entering into the scenes of the stories through my imagination. I am not a speed reader. I’m deliberate and always looking to gain something. I read about the Civil War with a sense of awe and reverence for the people that were there.
Most of my reading focuses on three areas: American history, particularly the Civil War; Pleasure, mostly two authors, Larry McMurtry and Michael D. O’Brien; and Spiritual growth and formation. I’m usually reading a book or two from each area at the same time. My grandchildren don’t understand why reading books on my Kindle doesn’t give me the same pleasure yet as a book in my hands. I’m trying!
What I’m reading now:
Currently I’m in the middle of Jesus: A Pilgrimage
I am early in Stand to It and Give Them Hell: Gettysburg as the Soldiers Experienced it from Cemetery Ridge to Little Round Top, July 2, 1863
The Soul of the Apostolate by Jean-Baptiste Chautard, O.C.S.O. I’m journaling as I read this one.
My favorite book:
It is difficult to choose just one since I’ve read and enjoyed so many over the years. Here are three books I couldn’t put down:
Lonesome Dove; by Larry McMurtry ;
Voyage to Alpha Centauri Michael D. O’Brien’s most recent book—very intriguing;
and Fire Within by Thomas Dubay, S.M.—I keep returning to this book.