The Queue

Rebuilt was infuriating & challenging throughout; there is much wisdom within its pages, but also much pride & hubris, leading to folly. Most irksome at all were the repeated condemnations of the persons already in the pews (the churched, throughout derides as "churchpeople," the denizens of a toxic "churchworld") as "demanding consumers," followed almost immediately by sycophantic calls to meet the consumer demands, whatever they may be, of the unchurched. Father White & Mister Corcoran display an abiding disdain for those desperate souls struggling to live the faith, coupled with a great reverence for those complacent souls satisfied to live without any faith. Yes, the Good Shepard will do whatever it takes to find the one lost sheep, but I don't recall Him saying anything about ignoring, insulting, & condemning the ninety-nine already-found sheep the way Rebuilt's authors do. Rebuilt is the playbook for my parish's "ministry team." Here's hoping they continue to eschew the breathtaking double standard the book promotes.

Also, it's time to get serious about figuring out the Liturgy of the Hours, to give it another, more earnest try. Fortitudine vincimus, by endurance we conquer.

Recently
Pope Francis, The Church of Mercy: A Vision for the Church
Rice Broocks, God's Not Dead: Evidence for God in an Age of Uncertainty ***postponed***
Father Michael White & Tom Corcoran, Rebuilt: The Story of a Catholic Parish

Currently
Edward P. Hahnenberg, A Concise Guide to the Documents of Vatican II
Madeline Pecora Nugent, The Divine Office for Dodos: A Step-by-Step Guide to Praying the Liturgy of the Hours

Presently
Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love)
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
Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise and Fall of States and Nations
Hilaire Belloc, How the Reformation Happened
William F. Buckley Jr., The Unmaking of a Mayor
Jon Baird, et alii, The Explorers Guild, Volume One: A Passage to Shambhala
Scott & Kimberly Hahn, Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism
Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World
(A.K.A. Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War)