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"Jesus Has Been Making This Journey With Me": Guest Post for Sheen September, Mary McKean

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As I was writing the title for this post, it occurred to me that “Sheen September” is a good name for this month on Reading Catholic, as the focus is many things Sheen.  Today, I’m honored to share the first of  several guest posts by Sheen aficionados.  Mary McKean is the leader of  the women’s Sheen Book Group of which I’m a member, and I’ve known her for more than a dozen years, and as you will see, she is a longtime Sheen fan.  

Mary McKean and her husband, Pete, have been married 35 years and are the parents of  eight children ages 33 to 16, and grandmother of 16 (and counting), where they are members of St. John the Baptist Parish in Bradford.  

Mary’s been a parish organist for 40 years (she started as a young teen!).  

I also want to add one fact I’ve known for years about Mary that I find so cool: she and her husband were in the Peace Corps in Ecuador as newlyweds in 1977. 

Mary, thanks for writing this guest post and sharing your perspective on Archbishop Sheen!

As a mother and grandmother of a large family I haven’t always had time to read.  Now that my children are nearly grown, there has been an awakening in me of things set aside, and dreams unfulfilled.  I have discovered the joys of pursuing in-depth study of the Bible, and of getting to know Our Lord personally.

For quite some time I have had a desire to be a participant in a Catholic Book Club.  I wanted to learn my Faith better, and to read books that had some depth.  I have searched the area many times, but have never discovered any such group.  I joined my local library’s monthly book club, and while I enjoyed it, I still felt that something important was missing.

I became a member of the Marian Catechists, which is an apostolate within the Church, whose sole purpose is to share the Faith.  I decided that now was the time to do something about this desire.  I called some friends I thought might be interested in exploring the depths of our Faith, and we set a date to begin.  I asked them each to bring a book that they might be interested in reading during the year.

Imagine my surprise when nearly everyone brought a book by Archbishop Sheen, myself included!  Considering the fact that we are in Archbishop Sheen’s home diocese, and that he was just declared venerable, we decided to dedicate the entire year to his books, studying a new one each month.

What a year it has been!  I have gained so much, and have learned to love and appreciate this man.  I am always so impressed by the insights he brings to each book….insights that come from wisdom, not necessarily knowledge.  How, I thought, does he penetrate into the human mind, and understand its workings when he has no background in psychology?  I concluded that there could be only one reason:  the holy hour he made before the Blessed Sacrament each and every day of his priestly life.

I think Jesus has been making this journey with me, touching my heart with His Spirit.  Each book we’ve read has spoken to me, and been just what I’ve needed at a particular moment.  When troubled with some personal trials, Sheen’s book Peace of Soul brought me comfort and understanding.  After several weeks of suffering, I was reminded in St. Therese: A Treasured Love Story, of the power of the cross when offered to Our Lord for others. My love and devotion to Mary was strengthened and increased by a study of The World’s First Love.  There are many other examples.

My family and I live on a farm just ten miles from the one where Fulton Sheen worked summers helping his grandparents.  I grew up listening to his tapes, and my husband spent many evenings with his grandmother watching ‘Life is Worth Living’ on television. My mother read Three to Get Married as a young married woman.  All of these things have made the archbishop feel especially close and approachable.  I love his sense of humor, his warmth, and love of life. He has certainly broadened and enriched my life.

Meet a Reader: Bonnie Engstrom

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I’m delighted this month to feature a young mother I know in real life as a friend, an insightful writer and influential young leader in our area.  Of course, it may be obvious that we would be friends since she loves both The Hobbit and Jane Austen, but still ….  I’m grateful for Bonnie for being willing to be featured this month, when Reading Catholic is focused on all things Sheen.


  
How you know me:  Along with my personal blog, A Knotted Life (formerly “Learning to be a Newlywed”),  I am also a regular contributor to the online magazine Ignitum Today.  Also, I have been honored to serve as the Associate Director for the Behold Conference for the last three years.  My husband, Travis, and I are the parents of four small children—Lydia, Bennet, James and Teresa.  We are members of St. Luke parish in Eureka.  Our third child, James Fulton, was stillborn and came back to life after being without a pulse for sixty-one minutes.  His alleged miracle is attributed to the intercession of Venerable Fulton Sheen and was officially submitted to the Vatican for Sheen’s beatification.

Why I love reading:  I love reading because it makes anything possible.  Sitting in a waiting room I can suddenly be in another country, time, or world.  By reading I can connect with another’s heart, see a different perspective, grow in virtue, partake in an adventure, witness forgiveness and beauty, and know the love of my God.

What I’m reading now:  Right now I am making my way through J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and I love it.  There’s something about a hobbit that is so endearing.  Also, every day I read From Head to Toe by Eric Carle about a billion times.

My favorite book: For a long time it was A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, which is a slightly-scandalous-in-places memoir.  Recent favorites have been The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter.  And I will always love anything written by Jane Austen.

First, What are You Reading? Volume 25

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Here are my answers to the four questions I ask on the first of each month:
first, what are you reading?
what do you like best about it?
what do you like least?
what’s next on your list to read?

As always, I hope you’ll consider your current reads on your blog and/or sharing here in the comments or on Facebook.  Happy reading!

First, what are you reading?

I enjoyed, as a lark, P.D. James’ new mystery, Death Comes to Pemberly.  Yes, it’s set at Jane Austen’s Pemberly.

I have also been on a non-fiction kick, recently finishing The Cure for Everything: Untangling Twisted Messages About Health, Fitness and Happiness.

For a read-aloud with my youngest, I am also now on The Fellowship of the Ring after finishing The Hobbit last month.

What do you like best about them?

Death Comes to Pemberly was a fun, nice read.  I have not read any P.D. James before now.  She is in her 90s and is pretty popular among mystery lovers.  I’m not a huge mystery person, but I love Jane Austen so much that I gave this a try.

The Cure for Everything is predictably quirky, being written by a Canadian professor, Timothy Caufield.  I’m not sure if I’m stereotyping Canadians, and I apologize if it’s politically incorrect to do so.  Nevertheless, the Canadian perspective just seems different enough from a US view, that I find it entertaining.

Caufield, as the blurb of the book states, “talks with experts in medicine, pharmaceuticals, health and fitness, and even tries out many of the health fads himself, in order to test their scientific validity, dispel the myths, and illuminate the path to better health.”

Could J.R.R. Tolkein be any more quotable?  I keep stopping every page or so to repeat a line as I read it aloud.   From a recent day:

“But where shall I find courage?” asked Frodo.  “That is what I chiefly need.”
“Courage is found in unlikely places,” said Gildor. “Be of good hope!  Sleep now!”

What do you like least about them?

The Cure for Everything really begs a lot of questions.  Because Caufield writes about experimenting with different ideas about health, and if they work, but since he is starting the process basically very healthy, it doesn’t really seem completely convincing, even with the studies he cites.

What’s next on your list to read?

I am in the midst of Three to Get Married by Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the next book we are reading in the women’s Sheen book group I attend (I discussed the group in my September Post column here).  It’s slow going for me right now, but I am also taking copious notes.

Sheen for All Readers

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Here is my column that appears in this weekend’s The Catholic Post. I invite your feedback here or on Twitter or Facebook.

It’s high time to visit–or re-visit– the writings of local son Archbishop Sheen.

A few months back, Archbishop Sheen was named “Venerable,” one more step on the path to a potential declaration of sainthood.  A Mass and other events will be held in Peoria next weekend to celebrate Sheen’s new title, as well as his life and work.  What the experts call “an alleged miracle” that happened locally (see “Meet a Reader” on this page for details), has been examined and submitted to the Vatican for approval for Sheen’s cause.

No doubt, Sheen is worth reading, discovering and sharing.

So what book should you choose if you’re new or want a good recommendation among Sheen’s prolific output?

My very first review for The Catholic Post, more than two years ago, was Sheen’s excellent autobiography, Treasure in Clay.

I still consider it the best introduction to Sheen’s writing style and his life.  I’m grateful to my editor Tom Dermody for suggesting it as a great “first book.”

As I wrote then, Sheen “is the master of telling a great story. Treasure in Clay is full of such stories; edifying, funny and illuminating, making it an inspiration for us to do more as Catholics.”

But after Treasure in Clay, I truly hesitate.  Not because Sheen didn’t write anything else “great,” but because there’s a lot of variety from which to choose.

I’ve been part of a women’s book group this past year that has read a different Sheen book each month.   What surprises me is how varied our responses are to the different Sheen works we have read.  Some women love a certain book that others have found really hard to get through.   (True confession: I’m one of the ones who found a few hard to “get through”).

Not every Sheen book is going to speak to every reader.

Nevertheless, I want to encourage and inspire reading Sheen, and especially for readers not to give up if the first work sampled is not a “keeper.”  So I asked some local Sheen experts for some good ideas.

Julie Enzenberger, administrator of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, has a great theory on her two favorite Sheen books.

“I always say if you don’t know Sheen read Treasure in Clay and if you don’t know Christ read Life of Christ,” said Enzenberger.  “Life in Christ explains every parable in the bible and why Jesus did what he did in terms everyone can understand.”

Monsignor Richard Soseman, a priest of the Peoria diocese who now works for the Vatican in Rome and is Coordinator of International Outreach for the Sheen Foundation, suggests the relatively unknown Old Errors and New Labels, a commentary on modern thought.

“It’s a hidden “gem,” Monsignor Soseman reports, and says that his college students love it.

Others have recommended Three to Get Married, Sheen’s popular book on marriage.

Two other Sheen books are worth mention:

*Ignatius Press has a handsome new edition of the well-loved classic The World’s First Love:  Mary, the Mother of God.  This was a favorite in my book group, as well as mentioned by plenty of people asked for Sheen suggestions.

*Regrettably out of print, but a terrific compendium, is The Quotable Fulton Sheen:  A Topic Compilation of the Wit, Wisdom and Satire of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, edited by George J. Marlin and others.  This book makes looking up quotes from the very-quotable Sheen easy, as it is organized by subject.



The CNMC "Following Along in Spirit" Edition

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Well, I still have the badge on the blog saying that “I’ll be there!” to the Catholic New Media Conference in Dallas this week, but this year, it’s just going to have to be in spirit, or on Twitter, or something.  A little more than a week ago, for far-too-long-to-explain-here reasons, I had to cancel all my reservations for my planned trip to this great conference.

Last year, when I followed along with several of the sessions that were streamed from Kansas City’s CNMC, I had determined that I would work hard to make it happen this year.  The plans did get made, but now it’s not going to work out this year.  Doubly sad, I was planning to see two young friends at The University of Dallas–a neice and a daughter of my best college friend.  Because I won’t be in Dallas, visiting them and seeing their college home won’t happen.

I’m super disappointed about all of it, especially since at the CNMC I was going to get to see friends that I know, and meet many others that I know only online.  The conference is going to coincide with both the Catholic Marketing Network and the Catholic Writers Guild.  It’s going to be a great experience for those who are going to network, learn about great books, movies and other Catholic media, and just in general soak up the atmosphere.  Attending a conference the first year is often a “lost” year, getting one’s bearings, etc., but I think with all the great topics and speakers and sessions, I would have gleaned a lot from attending even this first-for-me conference.

So, though I am Emily of Deep Valley sad about this (and you can read all about what that means here, in my literary pilgrimage to Betsy-Tacy land), I do hope to make the best of being at home.

The conference starts today, so if you are attending or en route, please do tweet and updating those of us at home about it.  I will be following along on Twitter and Facebook.  And have a great conference!

New Links List: Catholic, Local and Online

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One of the trickiest aspects of being a “local” Catholic blogger for a diocesan Catholic newspaper, The Catholic Post, but writing about books, which are generally not specific to the diocese, is balancing the local and more general audiences.   I’ve wondered, and had a few discussions with my editor, about ways to make the blog more local-friendly or help it have a local “flavor” at the same time.  I’ve added a new links list to help with that.

If you look on the right hand panel of this blog, you’ll see a new links list: “Catholic, Local, and Online”

For some reason, this idea never occurred to me before now, but now I’m very excited to share and compile local Catholic online sources.  You’ll notice I have everything from the Catholic Diocese of Peoria to various bloggers and other local-interest sites.

I made the list relatively local–not just people from our diocese, but those nearby.  I considered Sister Helena Burns and her blog “Hell Burns” in this “local” category, since she is such a friend of the Peoria diocese, speaks here often, and is just a short drive away in Chicago.  I’m really thinking of expanding to include St. Louis people as well, since there are quite a few Catholic folks active online there.  I also couldn’t resist adding Lisa Schmidt, who blogs with her husband at The Practicing Catholic, since they are just in the next state over.

I have a number of requests out to local Peoria-area bloggers that I know locally to see if they would like to be added onto the list.  I’m really on the look-out for anyone who is active online with a blog, Twitter presence or other online resource.  Can you share your favorites?  And if you would like to be added onto the list, or have an idea for someone to add (even if not “strictly” local), then please comment on this post and I would love to add you onto this.

Eventually, I might consider making this a tab on the top of the blog.  If you have any ideas on that, please share away!