I love to read. As a child, I spent many golden
hours lost in the stacks of our neighborhood library. The endless rows of
books gave me the dizzying sense that the possibilities of this life were
infinite.
While I was in high school, I would often sacrifice a
night's sleep to read just one more page of the most thrilling story ever.
I vividly remember being spellbound by Betty Smith's, A Tree Grows in
Brooklyn - so much so that I couldn't bear to put it down even when I could
barely make out the words through my tears.
In his book, The Message in the Bottle, Walker Percy
reflects that man's search for meaning is bound up with mystery. In other
words, man's desire is to discover the deepest things this life has to offer.
This life bears the promise of a life that does not end.
The mission of a good book is to give flesh and blood to
this promise through a story that inflames the imagination with beauty. A
good book does not moralize. It points to something beyond itself - it
has a sacramental function, introducing the reader to the mystery of eternity
in and through the things of this world.
At this point, I would like to mention a few of my
favorite books in no particular order. Instead of describing the plot or
critiquing the composition, I simply express here what they have taught me:
Our Town (Thornton Wilder) - The apparently mundane
events of daily life are charged with glory. Cooking dinner, celebrating
birthdays, walking home from school - there is nothing we do here in this life
whose maning does not extend into eternity. Every moment bears within
itself an infinite depth, an infinite weight.
The Odyssey (Homer) - The journey home is the
longest journey. This is true not only in terms of actual distance, but
because of how the encounter with danger and novelty changes us. To
return home means to remember the truth about ourselves, in other words, that
we are expected by someone who loves us.
The Portal of the Mystery of Hope (Charles Peguy) -
Trust. The sorrows of today are not the final word. Our own
expectations lead to disappointment, but hope in God leads to glory.
Happy summer and happy reading!
- Mother M. Maximilia, FSGM
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