Young Adults Book Club
Members read a different book each month and then meet on a Sunday after Mass to discuss the book. The group chooses books that cover a wide variety of topics, from literary novels to Church history and theology. If you are interested in joining the conversation, please contact Fr. Mark at mpavlik@saintolaf.org or 612-767-6201.
“Vile Bodies” by Evelyn Waugh
Sunday, August 29
5:00 pm
Satiric novel by Evelyn Waugh, published in 1930. Set in England between the wars, the novel examines the frenetic but empty lives of the Bright Young Things, young people who indulge in constant party-going, heavy drinking, and promiscuous sex. At the novel’s end, the realities of the world intrude, with Adam Fenwick-Symes, the protagonist, serving on a battlefield at the onset of another world war.
“Credo for Today: What Christians Believe”
by Benedict XVI
Sunday, September 26
1:00 pm
What do Christians believe? What gives meaning to our life? What is the purpose of life? The Christian answer to these questions is found in the Creed, in the profession of faith. But what do the articles of this confession actually mean? And how to they affect our lives? Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, takes a fresh look at these timeless questions. This work is a reflection of the profound, personal insights of Benedict XVI, but also of the great foundations of Christianity: faith, hope, and charity. Ratzinger writes eloquently and persuasively about the importance for followers of Christ to understand well what they believe so one can live as a serious Christian in today’s secular world. He talks in depth about the true meaning of faith, hope, and love-the love of God and the love of neighbor. He also discusses the crucial importance of a lived faith, for the believer himself as well as being a witness for our age, and striving to bring faith in line with the present age that has veered off into rampant secularism and materialism. In our generation the Christian Faith finds itself in a much deeper crisis than at any other time in the past. In this situation it is no solution to shut our eyes in fear in the face of pressing problems, or to simply pass over them. If faith is to survive this age, then it must be lived, and above all, lived in this age. And this is possible only if a manifestation of faith is shown to have value for our present day, by growing to knowledge and fulfillment.
“A Song for Nagasaki: The Story of Takashi Nagai — Scientist, Convert and Survivor of the Atomic Bomb” by Fr. Paul Glynn
Sunday, October 31
1:00 pm
On August 9, 1945, an American B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing tens of thousands of people in the blink of an eye, while fatally injuring and poisoning thousands more. Among the survivors was Takashi Nagai, a pioneer in radiology research and a convert to the Catholic Faith. Living in the rubble of the ruined city and suffering from leukemia caused by over-exposure to radiation, Nagai lived out the remainder of his remarkable life by bringing physical and spiritual healing to his war-weary people. A Song for Nagasaki tells the moving story of this extraordinary man, beginning with his boyhood and the heroic tales and stoic virtues of his family’s Shinto religion. It reveals the inspiring story of Nagai’s remarkable spiritual journey from Shintoism to atheism to Catholicism. Mixed with interesting details about Japanese history and culture, the biography traces Nagai’s spiritual quest as he studied medicine at Nagasaki University, served as a medic with the Japanese army during its occupation of Manchuria, and returned to Nagasaki to dedicate himself to the science of radiology. The historic Catholic district of the city, where Nagai became a Catholic and began a family, was ground zero for the atomic bomb. After the bomb disaster that killed thousands, including Nagai’s beloved wife, Nagai, then Dean of Radiology at Nagasaki University, threw himself into service to the countless victims of the bomb explosion, even though it meant deadly exposure to the radiation which eventually would cause his own death. While dying, he also wrote powerful books that became best-sellers in Japan. These included The Bells of Nagasaki, which resonated deeply with the Japanese people in their great suffering as it explores the Christian message of love and forgiveness. Nagai became a highly revered man and is considered a saint by many Japanese.
“The Truth of Catholicism: Inside the Essential Teachings and Controversies of the Church Today” by George Weigel
Sunday, November 21
1:00 pm
The Catholic Church may be the most controversial institution in the world. Whether the question is the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, the relationship of Catholicism to other religious communities, the meaning of freedom, the use and abuse of sex, the dignity of human life from conception until natural death, or the role of women, the Catholic Church has taken challenging positions that some find inexplicable, even cruel. In The Truth of Catholicism, George Weigel, author of Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, explores these perennial questions and more, showing Catholicism and its controversies from “inside” the convictions that make those controversies not only possible but necessary. The truths of Catholicism then come into clearer focus as affirmations and celebrations of human life and human love, even as they challenge us to imagine a daring future for humanity and for ourselves.
“The Cloud of Unknowing” by Anonymous
Sunday, December 12
1:00 pm
“Lift up your heart to God with a humble impulse of love and have himself as your aim, not any of his goods … Set yourself to rest in this darkness, always crying out after him whom you love. For if you are to experience him or to see him at all, insofar as it is possible here, it must always be in this cloud and in this darkness.” — The Cloud of Unknowing
Wise Blood: A Novel by Flannery O’Connor
January, 2011 (date and time to be determined)
Adrift after four years in the service, Hazel takes a train to the city of Taulkinham, buys himself a “rat-colored car,” and sets about preaching on street corners for the Church Without Christ, “where the blind don’t see and the lame don’t walk and what’s dead stays that way.” Along the way he meets Enoch Emery, who’s only 18 years old but already works for the city, as well the blind preacher Asa Hawks and his illegitimate daughter, Sabbath Lily. (Her letter to an advice column: “Dear Mary, I am a bastard and a bastard shall not enter the kingdom of heaven as we all know, but I have this personality that makes boys follow me. Do you think I should neck or not?”) Subsequent events involve a desiccated, centuries-old dwarf–Gonga the Giant Jungle Monarch–and Hazel’s nemesis, Hoover Shoats, who starts the rival Church of Christ Without Christ. If you think these events don’t end happily, you might be right.
Spiritual Passages: The Psychology of Spiritual Development “for those who seek”
by Benedict Groeschel
February, 2011 (date and time to be determined)
Fr. Benedict Groeschel, best-selling author and beloved spiritual teacher, writer, and psychologist, wrote this latest book for all those who have suffered great sorrow or catastrophe in their lives and for those close to such persons, who share their deep suffering. Sorrow comes into the life of every person, but only into the lives of some people comes catastrophe. These are disasters that occur either suddenly or with terrible effects, like the death of a child. They can be natural disasters like hurricanes, or they can be horrific accidents or tragedies caused by people’s evil acts. They can also arise from wars and situations of great tension.
The Practice of the Presence of God and The Spiritual Maxims by Brother Lawrence
March, 2011 (date and time to be determined)
A classic of practical Christian devotion. At any moment and in any circumstance, the soul that seeks God may find Him, and practice the presence of God. Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth-century French monk, learned to practice the presence of God at all times. And you can, too. Here in one volume are two classic works by Brother Lawrence. Each book reveals how to practice God’s presence and see His glory in every facet of your life. The Practice of the Presence of God is a collection of documented conversations and letters that reveal the heart of this humble man. He wrote, “The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen . . . I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament.” Written by an anonymous English monk during the late fourteenth century, The Cloud of Unknowing is a sublime expression of what separates God from humanity and is widely regarded as a hallmark of Western literature and spirituality. A work of simplicity, courage, and lucidity, it is a contemplative classic on the deep mysteries of faith.
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
April, 2011 (date and time to be determined)
Man’s Search for Meaning is among the most influential works of psychiatric literature since Freud. The book begins with a lengthy, austere, and deeply moving personal essay about Frankl’s imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for five years, and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live. The second part of the book, called “Logotherapy in a Nutshell,” describes the psychotherapeutic method that Frankl pioneered as a result of his experiences in the concentration camps. Freud believed that sexual instincts and urges were the driving force of humanity’s life; Frankl, by contrast, believes that man’s deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. Frankl’s logotherapy, therefore, is much more compatible with Western religions than Freudian psychotherapy. This is a fascinating, sophisticated, and very human book. At times, Frankl’s personal and professional discourses merge into a style of tremendous power. “Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is,” Frankl writes. “After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.”
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
May, 2011 (date and time to be determined)
A blend of horror, adventure, mystery and morbid realism for this weird, sometimes original story of murders at Brighton Rock, the London Coney Island. An unprepossessing Londoner on a Bank Holiday is the first victim and his friend of the day investigates the murder, which was done by Pinkie, a boy of 17, heading a gang of racing racketeers, whose rule is threatened by another more powerful gang. Perversed, abnormal, dwarfed, the “Boy” goes from one razor cutting to another in his attempt to cover his initial crime, is forced to marry a young girl who holds the clue to the first killing, though he hates women and despises his own impotency. And in the end — inevitable defeat for the “Boy”. For this type of thing, overlong and occasionally repetitive, with some unconvincing elements. But there is a good sense of the tawdry scene and the crowds, and considerable originality with interesting psychological touches to the characterization.