I failed to achieve my massively overly ambitious Lenten reading goals & the resultant malaise continued throughout the longer Eastertide. Mere Christianity has been a struggle, because it isn't a book I chose myself & the two-person "book club" with Miss Mozart has failed to be much of a book club. That said, the book is by turns maddening & thrilling; sometimes Lewis expresses deep truths about Christianity very well, other times he expresses deep truths very poorly, & sometimes he drifts into a disappointing emotionalism, which is why I suppose he ultimately chose Anglicanism over his good friend Tokien's Catholicism. I can only speculate how I might have reacted to Mere Christianity before I was a thoroughly convinced believer. At the very least, though, it has sparked an interest in rereading The Screwtape Letters.
I hope In the School of the Holy Spirit was originally written in French & that something was lost in translation; I shall stop there, lest I write anything even more unkind. I was recently gifted a copy of Spiritual Handbook for Catholic Evangelists & asked to read it before the new religious education school year begins in the fall. I'm not a fan of assigned reading, but I am sincerely trying not to pre-judge the book.
I'm not a fan of assigned reading in part because I cannot currently keep up with the books I want to read, much less the books others—some of whom are in positions of authority over me—want me to read/compel me to read. Two books I very much want to read are Hundredfold & Bishop Barron's Letter to a Suffering Church. I am already involved in too many things around the parish, but I would be willing to drop any number of them in order to foster a culture of vocations in my parish; the difficulty is that I have no idea how best to go about doing that. Hundredfold presents a proven, step-by-step method for just that purpose. There was a Hundredfold workshop in the diocese a couple of years ago that I wished to attend, but as is my custom I allowed myself to be distracted by other church work, probably something good & important, but in the grand(er) scheme of things not the persistent call the Lord has placed on my heart, as is fostering a culture of vocations. Letter to a Suffering Church won't be available 'til July, at which point I will clear the decks for this important & timely book.
I stopped watching television as part of Exodus 90 & since that blessed period of asceticism ended I haven't really gone back. So, I won't be asking for many films of television series for my upcoming birthday, meaning my wish list will consist mostly of books. I really need to cultivate reading as a discipline, as a virtuous habit. I ought to read—from a book, not just disappear down my beloved Wikipedia rabbit hole—for at least half an hour every day. I have the time, I just lack the discipline properly to organize that time.
Recently
G. K. Chesterton, The Defendant
Theresa Aletheia Noble, F.S.P., Remember Your Death: Memento Mori Lenten Devotional
Jacques Philippe, In the School of the Holy Spirit
Currently
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Perpetually
Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise and Fall of States and Nations
Presently
Edward Sri, No Greater Love: A Biblical Walk through Christ's Passion
Rhonda Gruenewald, Hundredfold: A Guide to Parish Vocation Ministry
Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, Spiritual Handbook for Catholic Evangelists: How to Win Souls without Losing Your Own
Robert Barron, Letter to a Suffering Church: A Bishop Speaks on the Sexual Abuse Crisis
Scott Hahn, A Father Who Keeps His Promises: God's Covenant Love in Scripture
Tim Gray & Jeff Cavins, Walking with God: A Journey through the BibleSteve Weidenkopf, Timeless: A History of the Catholic Church
Diane Moczar, Converts and Kingdoms: How the Church Converted the Pagan West—and How We Can Do It Again
Sherry A. Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus
Curtis Martin, Making Missionary Disciples
Dynamic Catholic Ambassadors, Why I Love Being Catholic
Robert Barron, Seeds of the Word: Finding God in the Culture
Mike Aquilina, Understanding the Mass: 100 Questions, 100 Answers
Xavier Rynne, Vatican Council II
John W. O'Malley, What Happened at Vatican II
Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love)
Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis (The Sacrament of Charity)
Rosario Carello, Pope Francis Takes the Bus and Other Unexpected Stories
Mathias D. Thelen, Biblical Foundations for the Role of Healing in Evangelization
Jennifer Fulwiler, Something Other than God: How I Passionately Sought Happiness and Accidentally Found It
Richard Price, Clockers
Sir Richard Francis Burton, translator, "Sinbad the Sailor" from The Arabian Nights
Sir Ernest Shackleton, South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage
William F. Buckley Jr., The Unmaking of a Mayor
John le Carré, A Legacy of Spies
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