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Spiritual Classics and Books
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Spiritual Classics and Books Group
The Books Group meets monthly at 7 p.m. in the Parish Library.
Upcoming books are:
You may also see a list of recently read
titles or browse the selections read in 2008/2009
| February 6 | Confessions | Augustine |
The most popular work of the man who more than any other shaped western civilization. The first 10 chapters constitute a spiritual autobiography and some spiritual and philosophical reflections; the last three chapters are a reflection on the creation story of Genesis 1.
www.ccel.org/ccel/augustine/confessions.html
| March 5 | Life of the Beloved | Henri Nouwen |
This spiritual classic began as a simple request from one friend to
another. Fred Bratman, a secular journalist and writer, asked friend
and reowned author Heri Nouwen to write a book explaining the
spiritual life in terms that he and his friends could understand,
avoiding theology and technical language. "Speak to us about a
vision larger than our changing perpectives and about a voice deeper
than the clamorings of our mass media. Speak to us about something
or someone greater than ourselves. Speak to us ...about God."
| April 2 | Ascent of Mount Carmel | Saint John of the
Cross |
"The soul must pass through the dark night of the senses because all
the passions it feels for created things are pure darkness in God's
eyes," wrote the Spanish mystic Saint John of the Cross in the late
16th century. In Ascent of Mount Carmel: John of the Cross, John
discusses the soul's need to pass through spiritual darkness before
union with the divine can be possible. In a beautiful text that has
been "edited and mildly modernized" by Henry Carrigan Jr., John
offers an early treatise on his spiritual poetry, outlining themes
that he fleshed out more fully in his more famous later work, Dark
Night of the Soul.
| May 7 | A Burnt Out Case | Graham Greene |
Published in 1961, this novel examines the possibility of
redemption. The story opens as Querry, a European who has lost the
ability to connect with emotion or spirituality, arrives at a
leprosarium in the Belgian Congo. His spiritual aridity is likened
to a medical burnt-out case--a leper who is in remission but who has
been eaten up by his disease. Querry is invigorated by his contact
with the leprosarium and its inhabitants, and he begins to come to
life. Parkinson, an opportunistic journalist, discovers that Querry
is a distinguished architect with a lurid past and begins to write
sensationalized newspaper articles about him. When Querry innocently
consoles the wife of the manager of a local factory, he is shot dead
by her husband.
| June 4 | Books of Esther & Jonah (Old Testament)
& Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
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The Book of Esther tells a story of the deliverance of the Jewish
people. Esther's character matures over the course of the
narrative. The book is a free composition, not a historical
document. Its fictional character can be illustrated by many
examples of literary motifs: the use of extensive conversation to
move the plot along; the motif of concealment.
The story of Jonah has great theological import. It concerns a
disobedient prophet who rejected his divine commission, was cast
overboard in a storm and swallowed by a great fish, rescued in a
marvelous manner, and returned to his starting point. Now he obeys
and goes to Nineveh, the capital of Israel's ancient enemy. The
book is replete with irony, wherein much of its humor lies. The name
"Jonah" means "dove" in Hebrew, but Jonah's character is anything
but dove-like.
In his historic Second Inaugural Address--just 700 words delivered
in seven minutes--Abraham Lincoln gave what some have called a
sermon and others his last will and testament to America. Lincoln
quoted the Bible in four places and repeatedly invoked the name of
God.
| July 2 | Fatherless | Brian F. Gail |
Called a book of the century, powerful, gripping, deeply moving,
hauntingly beautiful, masterfully done, a must read and a freight
train page turner! It is the searing journey to the center of
conscience that marks Fatherless as the signature Catholic novel of
its generation. In its pages we meet flesh and blood characters -
noble and flawed, driven and seeking; each struggling to achieve the
American Dream ... discovering instead a uniquely American
nightmare. How each confronts the reality of ethical and moral
dilemmas - while struggling to balance faith, family, and career -
goes to the very heart of the Catholic experience in America in the
late 20th and early 21st centuries. This is a tale you will never
forget. (Amazon Review)
revised 2010
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