Posts Tagged ‘reading’
How a Women’s Book Club Enhanced My Spiritual Life
For years, I had heard great things about Well-Read Mom, a national women’s book club, but I had never had a chance to join. Then, last year, a friend invited me to the chapter that meets once a month in her home. I was more than ready to dive into a discussion of great books with like-minded ladies. As a serious bibliophile, I get a little lonely reading in isolation. I hoped for deep literary discussion with fellow women of faith.
Read MoreThe Poverty of the Moment
Francis came face to face with poverty and realized that “it was not a loathsome thing to be shunned but something holy”(20). Francis believed that you could not truly love Christ without loving Lady Poverty. It is the natural result of love because “Love must give or it is not love” (21).
Read MoreOur Father’s Tale
actually did not want to read A Father’s Tale, not because of its length but because I am not a father and I have no sons. I thought it would be unrelatable. Yet, I find that despite these very significant differences between myself and Alexandre, we have everything in common that we need to: we are both children of the same Father.
Read MoreA New Look at St. Francis
Elizabeth Goudge’s work, My God and My All: The Life of St. Francis of Assisi, has been a blessing! Her deep academic study of St. Francis’s life, told as a narrative, has given me a new lens through which to perceive the man.
Read MoreStretch Your Mind: The Gift of Challenging Literature
As I look back on several years participating in Well-Read Mom, (since the Year of the Friend!) I am so happy that in every book list there has been at least one book that stretches my mind.
Read MoreCome as You Are
Come as You Are Written by Susan Severson The dinner plates had barely been shoved into the precariously full dishwasher before I finally faced the question: should I go to Well-Read Mom tonight? It certainly wouldn’t be convenient. We were in the midst of moving from our home of nine years to one that would…
Read MoreThe Old and the New: Rediscovering Literature
The Old and the New: Rediscovering Literature Through Well-Read Mom Written by Nicki Johnston I started a new Well-Read Mom group for women in my parish this year. Inevitably, I received inquiries about the need to pay for a booklist, allowing me to articulate the many ways Well-Read Mom has enriched my life during the…
Read MoreThe Restoration of Culture Through Literature and Prayer
The Restoration of Culture Through Literature and Prayer Written by Christina Mermis In an essay entitled “The Importance of Virgil”, my favorite author and educational reformer, John Senior, wrote, “If I succeed in giving anyone even the slightest glimpse into the rich treasure of Virgil, I shall have made my case for the restoration of…
Read MoreFinding Hope in Tragedy: Lessons from Virgil’s Aeneid
I was hardly surprised to find a class on Virgil’s The Aeneid as a core requirement for the degree. Yet, I must admit that I approached the epic with some level of hesitancy. In my mind, it was one thing to study Plato and Aristotle, yet Virgil and Homer? The looming question was always, what could one hope to gain by studying them? Should a Christian even read pagan classics? The answer is obvious when considered in light of their historical and, arguably, eschatological significance.
Read MoreTo Seek and To Know the Place for the First Time
To Seek and To Know the Place for the First Time Written by Lucile Foley When we began this Year of the Seeker, I was in the midst of an intense period that felt like the climax to years of searching. What did I seek? Healing. A return of our fertility. In these years of…
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