The Queue

The Real Story dovetails perfectly with the Bible study I'm currently facilitating, The Bible Timeline: The Story of Salvation. (Mock me if you like, but I dislike saying or writing about "leading" a Bible study, since I'm discovering most of these texts for the first time myself & I'm just following the Study Set provided by Jeff Cavins & the good people at Ascension Press. "Facilitating" is the term with which I'm comfortable, chickenshit or not.) Now I just need to acquire the resources (or convince some benefactor to commit the extant resources) to get The Real Story into the hands of everyone in the parish, & then to get those who read it into a serious Bible study.

I was delighted to find, as I finished the book of the feast day of St. Teresa of Calcutta, a quote from her on the last page:

Now you are being invited into this story. You are called to play a part in God's plan of salvation & to help extend His Kingdom on earth. In the words of Mother Teresa, you are called to make your life "something beautiful for God." How will you play your part in the story?

I've added a number of books to the queue, including a pair by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI. I'm presently up-to-date on Pope Francis's encyclical letters & apostolic exhortations; so, the next step is to start ticking off those of his immediate predecessors, Benedict XVI & St. John Paul the Great. For the nonce, that massive pile is intimidating enough; so, I am limiting this subset of the queue to those popes of my earthly lifetime. I will read the encyclicals of previous popes (especially epochal tomes like Humanae vitae by Bl. Paul VI, Rerum novarum by Leo XIII, or Quadragesimo anno by Pius XI) as the occasion warrants or my desired future seminary studies require.

I'm going to finish The 5 Love Languages for Men, even though I've already broken Miss Mozart's heart, because I'll learn a thing or two, either from the book itself or from disagreeing vigorously with its contentions & assertions (which are often contradictory). My hope is that I'll learn something that could someday help someone else or some other, less doomed couple. I doubt it, but I hope.

Also, I am in the queue at the Genesee District Library for the new John le Carré novel, A Legacy of Spies, currently sitting fourteenth out of seventeen.

Recently
Mark Waid & Fiona Staples, Veronica Fish, Joe Eisma, et al., Archie, Volumes One, Two, & Three
Fulton Sheen, Finding True Happiness
Edward Sri & Curtis Martin, The Real Story: Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible

Currently
Gary Chapman with Randy Southern, The 5 Love Languages for Men: Tools for Making a Good Relationship Great

Presently
Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise and Fall of States and Nations ***paused***
Eugene Hausmann, Catholics Go by the Bible: Biblical Sources of Catholic Theology & Liturgy
Matthew Kelly, Perfectly Yourself: Discovering God's Dream for You
Sherry A. Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus
William E. Simon Jr., Great Catholic Parishes: How Four Essential Practices Make Them Thrive
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
Bishop Robert Barron, Seeds of the Word: Finding God in the Culture
Mike Aquilina, Understanding the Mass: 100 Questions, 100 Answers
Scott & Kimberly Hahn, Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism
Kevin Lowry, How God Hauled Me Kicking and Screaming into the Catholic Church
Xavier Rynne, Vatican Council II
John W. O'Malley, What Happened at Vatican II
Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love) [encyclical letter]
Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis (The Sacrament of Charity) [apostolic exhortation]
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
Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World
John le Carré, A Legacy of Spies