June 20, 2004

Summer reading

When one does, by effort, open a spiritual book, it requires a still greater effort to keep it open! Truth to tell, it is not always the reader who is to blame!” Expect more candor of this caliber from author M. Eugene Boylan, OSCO, in his classic This Tremendous Lover (Christian Classics, 1987, $11.95), now in its 35th printing. The book has rightly been called “our generation’s Introduction to the Devout Life.” With characteristic Trappist directness, simplicity, and wit Boylan inserts the tenets of our Catholic catechism into the context of everyday life.

George Weigel’s new book, Letters to a Young Catholic (Basic Books, 2004, $22.50), may remind older readers of Rosemary Haughton’s The Catholic Thing. Like Haughton, Weigel introduces his reader to what seem to be unrelated locales and persons: Greenville, S.C., and G. K. Chesterton; St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai and Cardinal John Henry Newman. This smart, entertaining book of unusual connections is George Weigel at his best. Not until readers finish the book do they realize they have been reading theology. Highly recommended for young Catholics and their parents.

The recent crises in our church have, for many, evoked a powerful emotional response. From amid the shock and anger, Philip Trower’s Turmoil and Truth (Ignatius Press, 2003, $14.95) is a lucid, concise attempt to explain the historical origins of post-conciliar crises in the Catholic Church.

He successfully accomplishes this, giving his readers enough objective facts to rethink some of our ecclesial woes in the clear light of church history. The book itself reads like a powerful drama. Moreover, it is our drama.

The winner of our May drawing is Mariannina DeRosa-Morris.

The Paraclete is a full-service Catholic book and supply store. Visit 417 Erin Drive in Knoxville, near Sacred Heart Cathedral, call 865-588-0388 or 800-333-2097, or e-mail www.staff@paracletebooks.com.