Catholic Thought discussion

While we are reading our short read, Pascendi Dominici Gregis we will be preparing for our next major read. First up is nominations. We will take nominations for this week. If we get a lot of nominations we may cut the nominating time short since it becomes too diluted for a vote. So I would get your nominations in.

Nominations will close on Saturday night, August 31st, and voting will commence on September 1st. One week of voting will then end on September 7th. We give ourselves one week to obtain the book, which puts us reading on September 15th. At that point I will put out a reading schedule based on the organization of the book.

This read is open to any type of book. Of course it must still have a Catholic content. Since we have created a Catholic fiction category, which we just completed our first to what I think was a success, let's try not to nominate fiction here. Catholic non-fiction would include devotionals, theological, biographical, and historical. Since we also have a category of reads of extended length, let's hold this read to less than 350 pages or so.

I'll be the first to nominate. I'd like to nominate From Fire, by Water: My Journey to the Catholic Faith by Sohrab Ahmari. It's a conversion story of someone born in Iran, but he was never raised Muslim and he came to the United States at a young age. It's really a conversion story of an atheist to Roman Catholicism. Lots of praise for this book. Here's something from the backcover by Archbishop Chales Chaput:

"Sohrab Ahmari is emerging as one of the finest minds and writers of his generation, and the story of his conversion recounted here will stay with reader for a very long time."

Manny, I don't think we should conclude our reading of Mariette in Ecstasy without a heartfelt "thank you" to you for what was truly a superb presentation. And, of course, thanks always to Kerstin, too.

Manny, I was just looking at the Group Book Shelf. There are many that are shelved to-read. Are they eligible for nomination?

Celia wrote: "Manny, I was just looking at the Group Book Shelf. There are many that are shelved to-read. Are they eligible for nomination?"

Absolutely as long as we haven’t read them before. We want to read those. Go ahead and nominate the one you want and I’ll let you know if it’s not eligible. More than likely it is.

Frances wrote: "Manny, I don't think we should conclude our reading of Mariette in Ecstasy without a heartfelt "thank you" to you for what was truly a superb presentation. And, of course, thanks always to Kerstin,..."

You're welcome. I thoroughly enjoyed that novel. It's great to come across what I would rank as a true classic. I just hope its deeply Catholic roots will not prevent it from being a classic. Perhaps its underlying rejection of modernism will also prevent the current academia from making it a classic.

Manny, I would like to read From Fire, By Water, too.

Manny, I didn't read Mariette, but I read all the discussions and found (after having read Catherine of Siena and Story of a Soul during recent months) much to reflect on. Mystics still seem to me so "out there" but we do have much to work on in our own individual awareness of how much we allow God/Christ/the saints to be present in our lives. Thank you, and Kerstin, for your wonderful commentaries.

Oh don't forget Irene had some good input too. You're welcome.

Thank you all for your encouraging and kind words!

I would like to nominate:

The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of HomecomingI

ByHenri J.M. Nouwen

Oh that's a good one Celia. It's on my list to read. Someone who wasn't even Catholic raved about that to me.

I read it a few years ago. It is very good. It was recommended to me by our former priest, and of course I couldn't refuse! I bought the book right away and dove in. Nouwen writes from his experience as a priest and how the painting by Rubens gave him spiritual renewal. It is a fascinating exploration.

Kerstin wrote: "I read it a few years ago. It is very good. It was recommended to me by our former priest, and of course I couldn't refuse! I bought the book right away and dove in. Nouwen writes from his experien..."

I just noticed that a number of people in our book club have already read it. All gave it a good rating, but I suspect it will be difficult to win the nomination. But we'll have to see.

Return of the Prodigal Son is on the list for Well Read Moms this year. I picked it up a couple of years ago and am looking forward to reading it soon.

Prompted by the recent death of Jean Vanier, I am nominating one of his books. In our throw-away culture, his spirituality and life work that saw God in the bodies and minds of the most severely handicapped is something we need to learn from.

"Living Gently in a Violent World" by Jean Vanier
Living Gently in a Violent World

I would be open to another title by Vanier; I just really want to read and reflect on his insights with a group.

I just read The Return of the Prodigal Son a few months ago. I highly recommend it. I have read a number of books by Henri Nouen and it is my favorite.

Irene wrote: "Prompted by the recent death of Jean Vanier, I am nominating one of his books. In our throw-away culture, his spirituality and life work that saw God in the bodies and minds of the most severely ha..."

Oh yes, I saw that in the news Irene. Good choice. We have three good choices so far.

I have wanted to read (and considered nominating except it's so very very long) St. Augustine's City of God. I see in the first part some parallels between the criticism of the Church's part in the fall of the Roman empire and the Marxist/leftist attacks on Christianity, Israel, and capitalism all contributing to the decaying of Western Civilization. However, I have a more immediate interest in some prodigal sons of my own, and I love Nouwen's work, so I nominate The Return of the Prodigal Son. It received some nominations in the Catholic Book Club's last voting too.

Madeleine wrote: "I have wanted to read (and considered nominating except it's so very very long) St. Augustine's City of God. I see in the first part some parallels between the criticism of the Church's part in the..."

Madeleine, why don't you nominate it for our long term read. I do say this often but it seems to always need repeating. This book club now has five categories of reads. The one we're nominating for now is open to anything except of a work that's overly long. Another category is a book open to anything but within a five dollar cost. A third is the newly created category of a Catholic fiction read. And fourth is a long read, something like City of God where we break it up into stages since it would be tedious to be stuck with the same book for some six months at a time. We call that the recurring read. Dante's Divine Comedy was the last long term recurring read. We broke it up into three stages, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. We read a stage and move on in the cycle and when it returns we read the next stage.

We just finished the Fiction read. We are voting on any category read. Next up is the recurring read, I believe. Yes I think so. Before the recent fiction read was The Imitation of Christ, which was the inexpensive read. So after this next read is long term recurring read. You can nominate City of God then.

Fifth category is short reads that we stick in between nominations and voting. Pasciendi is our current short read.

Manny, I will certainly do that when the time comes.

I would like to nominate Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen. I think this would be an interesting read with his upcoming Beatification.

Excellent Lisa. All good picks so far.

This is the last day to nominate. I'm surprised we've only had four nominations so far. Let me list them:

From Fire, by Water: My Journey to the Catholic Faith

The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming

Living Gently in a Violent World

Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen

If I missed one, let me know. Nominations end roughly at midnight.

I guess that's it. Four nominations. I'll set up the poll.

Poll is up:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...