Be Not Afraid of Fasting

Recently someone told me that there are two things he’s learned not to do.  The first is never to make a New Year’s resolution because he always breaks it the next day.  The second is to give up something for Lent.  The reason being the same as for New Year’s resolutions - he can’t keep it up.  Instead, he said, he tries to do something “positive” for Lent such as smiling at everyone he meets.

There are three problems with this outlook.  The first is that this treats Lent as nothing more than a New Year’s resolution.  While it is true that you are allowed to “do something” as your lenten penance rather than fasting from something - as per Pope Paul VI’s Apostolic Constitution on Penance - the idea is to do something spiritual.  One day when I was in high school a group of students was discussing what they were doing for Lent.  One student said that he would be doing all his homework.  Besides being something that a high school student should already be doing, this act, along with the aforementioned smiling at everyone a person meets, is a perfectly secular New Year’s Resolution.  When the Church gives the option to do something for Lent she still means it to be a spiritual act and an act of penance, such as praying the Rosary daily, going to daily Mass, or spending an hour a day in front of the Blessed Sacrament.  

The second problem with this outlook is that it ignores the inherent value of fasting.  Fasting is an ancient practice, observed both in the Old and New Testaments, and, not least of all, by Christ Himself.  On the first Sunday of Lent we heard the story from the Gospel of Matthew of Christ’s forty days in the desert following His baptism.  We see in this act of Christ not only an example to follow but a demonstration of the reasons for fasting.  

The primary reason for fasting is to help us acquire mastery over our passions, our instincts, and our sins.  By denying ourselves a pleasure, we increase our capability to deny our temptations and, ultimately, with the grace of God, to overcome sin.  In denying ourselves, we also engage in a small martyrdom, a death to self, which prepares us for the Cross.  This is the second purpose of fasting during Lent - to prepare for the suffering of Good Friday and the joy of Easter Sunday.  Christ’s forty days in the desert were a preparation both for His imminent public ministry and His ultimate passion, death, and resurrection.  

The third reason for fasting is to express an inner conversion.  This is the purpose that a penance following confession serves.  We have turned away from sin, we have repented and received absolution from our sin, and now we make restitution for our sin through some corporal penance.  Lent is a season of conversion and it, therefore, necessarily involves penance.  When Christ went into the desert, He had not committed any sin.  However, He had just been baptized as an example to us of how to turn away from sin, and He extended this example by embracing a penance - first, through fasting in the desert and, ultimately, on the cross.

Fourthly, fasting is important because it unites us to Christ.  Our constant mission throughout life is to conform ourselves more fully to Him.  In fasting we both follow His example and join in His passion and death.  In the Gospel Our Lord calls on us to “take up your cross every day and follow me.”  The act of fasting, particularly during Lent, is a means of embracing our cross and following Our Lord to Calvary.  And when we have joined Him in His passion and death, we are then also able to join Him in His resurrection.

The final reason why the attitude which rejects fasting is incorrect is that it makes Lent all about us and our willpower rather than about God and His mercy.  Lent should be an opportunity to increase our reliance on the grace of God which helps us to renounce the pleasures of this world and on the mercy of God by which He forgives us when we fail.  Would any of us say that we have given up trying not to sin because we always end up sinning?  I certainly hope not.  So neither should we give up fasting because we sometimes break the fast.

Throughout the season of Lent we are marching toward the Cross.  The Cross, from which Jesus promised paradise to a miserable thief.  The Cross, from which, gasping for breath as He endured the cruelest of deaths, Our Lord uttered “Father, forgive them.”  The Cross, from which God’s mercy literally flowed when the centurion stabbed Him in the side, letting loose a fountain of blood and water - the love and mercy of God - which drenched the soldier causing him to cry out that “Truly, this was the Son of God.”   

Don’t be afraid to fast this Lent.  Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself.  Face your greatest weakness, take on your greatest temptation.  And if you fall, don’t give up.  Run to Him.  He is literally dying to shower you with His mercy and His grace.  His mercy by which He forgives you and His grace by which you will be able to get back up and continue on your Lenten journey.  Our Lord told His disciples “forgive not seven times but seventy times seven.”  He longs to forgive you every time you fall.  Even if you fall seventy times seven times.  He died to pour out His mercy and grace on you so that, eventually, if you persevere, you may overcome your struggle.  

John Paul II and the Sacrifice of Love

Four years ago I was studying abroad in Europe.  One weekend our class had an opportunity to travel to Poland – to spend three days in Pope John Paul II’s beloved homeland.  To prepare for the trip we all set out to watch various documentaries on and tributes to our late Papa.  My image of JP II had always been of the young, vibrant Pope, despite the fact that throughout my life he had been in the last stages of his.  In watching one of the tributes to him I was struck by how he looked in the final years of his life.  Pope John Paul II was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991 and suffered from the degenerative disease, the same which my grandma has been suffering from for over 15 years, until his death in 2005.  What struck me about his appearance was that he looked like my grandma.  The disease had taken the same toll on each of them.

In our world today there are two approaches to disease, disability, and depression.  The first, the euthanasia approach, says both “I don’t want to live like this,” and “I don’t want to die like this.”  I don’t want to live attached to machines, too weak to care for myself.  I don’t want to die in an undignified manner.  When of course the truth is that there is no such thing as dying in a  dignified manner.  Death is a messy business wherever and however it takes place.  The product of sin could never be otherwise, except insofar as it is accepted in love and humility and united to the death of Christ.  There was no less dignified death than that of Christ on the cross.  Stripped of his clothes, naked, beaten, humiliated, and “lifted up” before a crowd, Christ died.  Yet this is what we as Christians are called to embrace.

Pope John Paul II not only embraced the indignity of his cross but embraced it publicly, as Christ had.  Throughout the many years of his illness he continued his public ministry, making himself, and his suffering, visible to the world.  He continued to make pastoral visits around the world through 2004.  It had always been a trademark of John Paul II to kiss the ground when he arrived in a new country.  By the time of his 1998 visit to Cuba it had become difficult for him to do this, due to the nature of his disease.  In an act of love, several children approached the Holy Father with a bowl of the country’s soil as he disembarked from his airplane.  They lifted this up to him so that his lips could touch the dirt without enduring the struggle of bending to the ground.

The last public appearance of John Paul II occurred 4 days before his death, when he struggled to bless the crowd in St. Peter’s Square from his window.  Throughout his illness this man gave the world a public demonstration of the second approach to disease, disability, and depression.  This approach says, in contradiction to the “I want” mantra, this suffering is not about my wants.  This suffering is an opportunity to practice love and humility.  The love which offers suffering for the salvation of souls, which sacrifices its own wants and dignity for the good of others.  And the humility which does not insist on independence but allows oneself to be cared for by others and to appear weak and sickly in the eyes of others.

I’ve been privileged to witness this embrace of suffering on a very personal level, with the illness of my grandma.  When her health began deteriorating, and it became apparent that she needed full time care, my aunt gave up her job and her life in upstate New York to come home and care for her mother.  For the past 15 years my aunt has taken over increasing responsibility for my grandma, to the point that she now does literally everything for her.  There is nothing more humbling than having to rely on another person for everything that is necessary for your life.  There is no dignity in my grandma’s situation, except the dignity that comes from love.  There is no dignity in death, except the dignity that comes from love.  

Administering a lethal injection does not give someone a dignified death.  Rather, it strips them of the opportunity to sanctify both themselves and others.  The love which offers suffering for souls sanctifies oneself and the humility which allows others to sacrifice for you sanctifies them.  If we truly want to offer “death with dignity” we will abandon our wants and engage in the hard work of caring for the diseased, disabled, and depressed.

During my pilgrimage to Poland I had the opportunity to visit the Divine Mercy Shrine, dedicated to the message of Divine Mercy which Our Lord communicated to Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska (now St. Faustina).  One of the Sisters of Divine Mercy, the religious order which runs the shrine, gave a talk to our group on this message.  She finished by inviting each of us to take a Divine Mercy holy card.  They were not for us to keep, however, but to give to someone who needed to put their trust in Jesus.

My grandma had been on my mind since I had noticed the similarity in appearance between her and the Holy Father.  I had been praying for her throughout my Polish pilgrimage and I sent the holy card home to her, to strengthen her in her suffering and to thank her for the example she has set for me.

What's In A Name?

What term would you use to describe the action of taking a person's life? Murder and killing are the first that come to my mind.

What term would you use to describe the procedure in which a mother “terminates a pregnancy?” Society uses the word abortion.

This past week Alisa LaPolt Snow made headlines when she testified on behalf of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates at a legislative hearing before the Florida state legislature. On behalf of Planned Parenthood she opposed a bill mandating life saving medical treatment for children born alive after botched abortions. The Weekly Standard article making the rounds, which documents this incident, is entitled “Planned Parenthood Official Argues for Right to Post-BirthAbortion.”

Forty years ago headlines could have read “Supreme Court Okays Pre-Birth Murder.”

The Weekly Standard's headline clearly demonstrates, in a way that only a national newspaper could, that the words murder and abortion are interchangeable for they describe the same action.

Sex Obsessed

Five years ago I went to the doctor for a check-up.  After a couple routine questions she asked if I wanted to get the Gardasil vaccine.  This is a vaccine which supposedly protects against 4 (out of over a hundred) strains of the sexually transmitted disease HPV (human papillomavirus).  Given the prevalence of extra-marital sex in our society (though it is not nearly so rampant as some would have us believe) I can understand the question.  But I politely informed the doctor that, not being sexually active, I was not at risk for HPV.  Rather than accepting this answer the doctor insisted that someday I will be at risk.  Not may be.  Will be.  Excuse me lady, but that ain't happening.  Know why?  Because I am an intellectually capable human being.  I am not some sort of animal that can't control myself.  I have committed to saving myself for marriage and I am perfectly capable of holding myself to that.  Therefore, I have no need for a (potentially harmful) STD vaccine and no desire to be unnecessarily poked with needles.

Last year my new doctor was, nearly literally, shoving birth control down my throat.  For an account of that experience see my article from last summer: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/cw/post.php?id=669.

Two days ago I went to the emergency room in excruciating pain.  Before I could be admitted I had to answer irrelevant questions and sign a mountain of paperwork (which raises the somewhat unrelated question of what idiot bureaucrats who have never had to go to the emergency room mandated paperwork before you can get medical treatment).  In the course of that conversation this exchange took place:
Receptionist: "Would you like to be tested for HIV?"
Me, out loud: "No."
Me, subtext: "Can you give me morphine immediately?"

How sex obsessed has our society become that you can't even get help at the emergency room without first being asked if you want to be tested for a sexually transmitted disease?  Is the moment when I'm doubled over in pain really the appropriate time to be dealing with this?  How about you give me a painkiller and then sometime before I check out you can ask me if I'm at risk for HIV and, if I am, do I want to be tested for it.

Because here's the thing that really bothers me: all three of the medical professionals that I've mentioned just assume that I need, or will someday need, a vaccine for an STD, birth control, or an HIV test.  If it were mentioned in passing at the appropriate time I might understand.  Well, not the birth control, but maybe the other two.  As I said, extra-marital sex, which leads to STD's, is prevalent in our society today so it's understandable that medical professionals would suggest tests and vaccines for these diseases.  But the way they've been pushed down my throat over the years is completely inappropriate and unworthy of the medical profession.

How about we challenge our young people?  How about we hold them to a higher standard?  Rather than the "safe sex" attitude which says "they're gonna do it anyway so let's give them all sorts of drugs to limit the damage" why don't we challenge them to do better for themselves?  No one says, "well, kids are gonna smoke anyway so let's make sure they use filtered cigarettes."  Instead, schools are doing anti-smoking campaigns from the very early elementary school years.  Why aren't we insisting on the same kind of awareness campaigns when it comes to sex?  With a few rare exceptions, the only kind of sex campaigns kids are getting come courtesy of Planned Parenthood.  And the only "safe sex" PP knows anything about is the kind that comes through inserting loads of harmful drugs in women's bodies.  I've chosen better for myself.  And I expect the medical profession to respect that.

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - The Sorrows of Young Werther***

"This is an epistolary and loosely autobiographical novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, first published in 1774; very dramatic and even overwrought it is nonetheless very moving."

I loved the first three quarters of this book!  The writing is simply exquisite; it is one of those books in which I would read a paragraph, or a whole page, over and over again because it's beauty so touched my heart!  However, towards the end of the book the main character becomes kind of ridiculous and then the whole thing just gets depressing.  So I highly recommend most of this book and leave the rest to your judgment.

Some snippets of beauty from this work:

• "misunderstandings and lethargy perhaps lead to more complications in the affairs of the world than trickery and wickedness"
• "In the same way, the most restless of travelers ends up pining for his homeland once again, and discovers in his cottage, in the arms of his wife and amidst his children, and in the labours that are necessary to support them, that joy he sought in vain in the wide world."
• "If you could but see me, my dear friend, amidst that whirl of trivial amusements!  My senses are quite dried out!  There is not a single instant when the heart is full, not one single hour of bliss!  nothing!  nothing!"
• "I am also disturbed to find he values my mind and abilities more highly than my heart, which is my only source of pride, and indeed of everything, all my strength and happiness and misery.  The things I know, anyone can know - my heart is mine and mine alone."
• "the reason why those times whose recollection so torments me now were so blissful was that I awaited His spirit with patience, and received the joys he bestowed upon me with a full and deeply grateful heart."
• "Think of you! - I do not think of you; you are always before my soul."

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - The Life of Samuel Johnson***

This is an astonishingly good, fun read despite the fact that it weighs in at about 5 pounds.  We love that a 1200 page book can be so immensely readable.

Immense, yes.  Readable, eh.  That's up for debate.  I appreciate Boswell's effort to make this biography not a mere recitation of facts about a person but rather an opportunity to really get to know the person Samuel Johnson.  He even makes the point that a biography should have a moral, a biography should be penned because there is something to be learned from this person's life.  However, this book is absurdly long.  It can be rather dry and certainly gets tedious after the first hundred pages.  In order to help us get to know Johnson, Boswell seems to feel the need to include every letter Johnson ever wrote and record every miniscule action he ever performed.  Heaven forbid we should not know that Johnson sneezed.  That being said, this work does contain many tidbits of wisdom, some of which I have included below.

Possibly another reason I was rather down on this book was because Johnson and I would not have gotten along.  Boswell was his biggest fan and definitely tried to paint him in the best light possible and yet I could not bring myself to like the man.  I found him to be an argumentative know-it-all and I have enough of those to deal with in real life without also having to read about them.  As Boswell says, "there is no disputing with him.  He will not hear you, and having a louder voice than you, must roar you down."

• "In a man whom religious education has secured from licentious indulgences, the passion of love, when once it has seized him, is exceedingly strong; being unimpaired by dissipation, and totally concentrated on one object."
• "Though no comets or prodigies foretold the ruin of Greece, signs which heaven must by another miracle enable us to understand, yet might it be foreshewn, by tokens no less certain, by the vices which always bring it on."
• "he would not be accessory to the propagation of falsehood"
• "Distant praise, from whatever quarter, is not so delightful as that of a wife whom a man loves and esteems.  Her approbation may be said to 'come home to his bosom'; and being so near, its effect is most sensible and permanent."
• "I who have no sisters nor brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends; and cannot see, without wonder, how rarely that native union is afterwards regarded.  It sometimes, indeed, happens, that some supervenient cause of discord may overpower this original amity; but it seems to me more frequently thrown away with levity, or lost by negligence, than destroyed by injury or violence."

• "Madness frequently discovers itself merely by unnecessary deviation from the usual modes of the world.  My poor friend Smart shewed the disturbance of his mind, by falling upon his knees, and saying his prayers in the street, or in any other unusual place.  Now although, rationally speaking, it is greater madness not to pray at all, than to pray as Smart did, I am afraid there are so many who do not pray, that their understanding is not called in question."
• "A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see."
•  "we live in a critical, though not a learned age" 
• "without truth there must be a dissolution of society"

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - 1984**

The next book on the list was actually Brave New World by Aldous Huxley but as I had already read that and had not read Orwell's classic 1984 I decided to substitute in the later. 

To be honest, I was somewhat disappointed with 1984.  The power of post-apocalyptic and dystopian novels lies in the fact that they are believable, that it is possible that this kind of society could come to exist.  I found that Orwell's novel went rather outside this realm of believability.  I must say that I have never encountered a better description of hell and if that were what Orwell had set out to describe in this novel I would say that he had done a masterful job.  However, what he set out to do was describe the ultimate end of socialism.  I felt that the novel lost much of its power because it was unrealistic, because it is very hard to imagine society ever coming to the point described in 1984. 

Much of the reason that 1984 was a good description of hell, but also utterly unbelievable as an earthly society, was the complete hopelessness of the situation.  Hopelessness or despair is antithetical to Christianity and to true humanity.  An earthly situation could never be entirely without hope as the situation in 1984 is.  There is also a disturbing absence of forgiveness, not in that it is rejected but in that it does not even exist, there is not one mention of it throughout the book.  If one were to mention the term to a citizen of the country of Oceania it is presumed that the word would be alien to them.  Furthermore, there is frequent reference to human beings behaving like animals or beasts.  The more one sins the less human one becomes and so what has been revealed in private revelation is logical, that persons in hell no longer appear to be persons but horrible beasts, creatures that C.S. Lewis said we could not imagine in the darkest nightmare.  The masses in Orwell's novel often give the appearance of being such creatures.

That being said, Orwell is a fantastic writer.  Despite the book's overall lack of believability it is chock full of nuggets of truth.  Here are a few:

• "He wondered, as he had many times wondered before, whether he himself was a lunatic.  Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.  At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the earth goes round the sun; today, to believe that the past is unalterable.  He might be alone in holding that belief, and if alone, then a lunatic.  But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him; the horror was that he might also be wrong."
• "The heresy of heresies was common sense."
• "His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer.  And yet he was in the right!  They were wrong and he was right.  The obvious, the silly, and the true had got to be defended.  Truisms are true, hold on to that!  The solid world exists, its laws do not change.  Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the earth's center."
• "Anything old, and for that matter anything beautiful, was always vaguely suspect."
• "A curious emotion stirred in Winston's heart.  In front of him was an enemy who was trying to kill him; in front of him, also, was a human creature, in pain and perhaps with a broken bone.  Already he had instinctively started forward to help her.  In the moment when he had seen her fall on the bandaged arm, it had been as though he felt the pain in his own body."
• "In a way the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it.  They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening."
• "Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad.  There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad . . . He fell asleep murmuring 'Sanity is not statistical,' with the feeling that this remark contained in it a profound wisdom."
• "What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?"

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - Fahrenheit 451***

"Wonder why we're recommending so many books? Read this and feel the urgency, the necessity of literacy and education. Also it is just a great read!"

This book is incredibly well-written. I can not even adequately describe the way Ray Bradbury strings together words into a beautiful masterpiece of a literary work. It absolutely must be read, if only to appreciate the verbal jewel which Bradbury has constructed. Indeed, Bradbury's writing is so superb that I was not satisfied just to read the book but also eagerly devoured the Afterword and Coda. As a sidenote, I highly recommend reading the Coda at the end of the book.

In addition, this book's message is spot-on. It forces one to see the importance of the written word and the dangers of technology. In some ways this book reminded me of the Disney/Pixar movie Wall-E, except that it was better and made more sense. It is a particularly fascinating read at the present time, as our society steadily transitions to a technological society, a "culture of the image," if you will, with increasing dependence on electronic devices.

I especially appreciated how Montag was totally lost until Clarisse's simple love came into his life. All it took was for someone to pay attention to him, to look "straight at me as if I counted." Our simple acts of love can do so much, they can prove to others that they do matter, that they are worth something, and they can change hearts.

Oh and I love that the book ends with a quote from the Bible!

This book is an absolute must-read!

Some quotes:

• "Well, after all, this is the age of the disposable tissue. Blow your nose on a person, wad them, flush them away, reach for another, blow, wad, flush. Everyone using everyone else's coattails."


• "I like to watch people. Sometimes I ride the subway all day and look at them and listen to them. I just want to figure out who they are and what they want and where they're going."


• "We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?"


• "The home environment can undo a lot you try to do at school. That's why we've lowered the kindergarten age year after year until now we're almost snatching them from the cradle."


• "But Clarisse's favorite subject wasn't herself. It was everyone else, and me. She was the first person in a good many years I've really liked. She was the first person I can remember who looked straight at me as if I counted."


• "I often wonder if God recognizes His own Son the way we've dressed Him up, or is it dressed Him down? He's a regular peppermint stick now, all sugar-crystal and saccharine when He isn't making veiled references to certain commercial products that every worshipper absolutely needs."


• "The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies."


• "In the silence our stage whisper might carry."


• "Mistakes can be profited by."


• "remember that the Captain belongs to the most dangerous enemy to truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh the terrible tyranny of the majority."


• "you can't make people listen. They have to come 'round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up under them. It can't last."

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - The Divine Comedy**

This work is toweringly beautiful and surprisingly deep. The punishments meted out in the inferno are shocking to modern ears but truly fascinating.

Well, first of all, since the library doesn't seem to understand this, I just want to clarify for everyone that this book is FICTION. Which, somewhat surprisingly, is actually something that I frequently had to remind myself of as I read it. This epic poem depicts Dante's symbolic representations of hell, purgatory, and heaven. The real things are probably nothing like what Dante describes.

If you are going to read this book I would suggest that you get a copy which includes an introduction to each Canto, so you know what's going on, and copious footnotes. I also suggest thtat you read these introductions and footnotes. For myself, I usually skip over such things and get right into the story. The problem with The Divine Comedy, however, is that you really can't understand it without these helpful additions.

T.S. Eliot once said "Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them, there is no third." In other words, these are the greatest writers of all time. After reading both Shakespeare and Dante I have come to the conclusion that they are so, not because their stories are particularly good (though Shakespeare does have an occasional gem), but because their poetry is superb. Undoubtedly, Dante's writing is exquisite. However, his story is a chore to get through. Frankly, I don't think it's very good. Which is a little ridiculous since he is writing about the afterlife, I mean who would've thought that could be boring? The one thing I can say for his story is that the symbolism is superb. However, you'll never even know it's there if you don't read the footnotes. And interrupting the story every two lines to see what he's talking about makes the experience quite tedious. So if you're about to pick up this book be prepared for a long journey through the labyrinth of Dante's poetry.

In addition, I take theological issue with Dante on several points. Now, as I said before, this is fiction, so I have to give Dante a certain amount of artistic license. But there are certain points in which I think he went too far. For starters, I'm really not a fan of Dante putting actual people in hell. When it comes down to it, it really seems like his entire purpose in writing The Inferno was so that he could put people he didn't like there. Furthermore, I was very annoyed with a particular scenario in which Dante puts the soul of a still living person in hell. This completely contradicts God's mercy and reinforces the theory that Dante is simply writing this poem as revenge.

A few good quotes:

• Speaking of Purgatory - "Next you shall see upon a burning mountain souls in fire and yet content in fire, knowing that whensoever it may be they yet will mount into the blessed choir."
  


• "O Christians be more careful as ye move! And be not like a feather to the wind, Nor think that every water will absolve you! Ye have the Testament, both New and Old, The Shepherd of the Church to guide your steps: Let these suffice to lead you to salvation!"
  


• "Christ did not say to His first company: 'Go forth, to preach vain stories to the world,' But for sure foundation gave them truth. So mighty did this truth sound from their mouths That in their battle to enkindle faith They made their shields and lances of the Gospel."

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - The Art of War***

This slender volume is a must despite it's seeming incongruity with modern female life. We have to be on our toes all the time and Sun Tzu fully understands and explains how to think about this.

This book had me humming "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan all afternoon.

This book is called The Art of War for a reason. It's all about strategy. Because of this much of it is applicable to everyday life.

Also, I think every Commander in Chief of the United States should be required to read this book. America's being involved in war also gives an interesting perspective to The Art of War.

Good Quotes:

• "The Way means virtue. It is first necessary to compare the political leadership of nations at war."


• "Therefore it is said that victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."


• "If you use the enemy to defeat the enemy, you will be strong wherever you go."


• "Using order to deal with the disorderly, using calm to deal with the clamorous, is mastering the heart."


• "So the rule of military operations is not to count on opponents not coming, but to rely on having ways of dealing with them; not to count on opponents not attacking, but to rely on having what cannot be attacked."


• "A government should not mobilize an army out of anger, military leaders should not provoke war out of wrath. Act when it is beneficial, desist if it is not. Anger can revert to joy, wroth can revert to delight, but a nation destroyed cannot be restored to existence, and the dead cannot be restored to life."

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - This Side of Paradise***

Another coming of age novel that will keep you at the edge of your seat. This one is all about discovering what one really thinks and why. An astonishing first novel from one of the 20th century's greatest.

I like this book. I wasn't sure if I would because the only other Fitzgerald book I've ever read just confused me. Fitzgerald doesn't always make his point blatantly obvious and so the last novel of his that I read went right over my head and I wasn't able to appreciate it. However, being aware of this problem, I paid attention this time, figured out what he was talking about, and more-or-less agreed with it.

What I got out of this book is that life without God is empty. The main character tries to fill this spiritual vacuum with all different things: ambition, love, etc. but nothing satisfies. The point is made that these idols are "a poor substitute at best."

The ending is well done. It lacks finality, allowing, rather, for the character to exit the stage and walk out into the unknown future; leaving the reader to wonder what path Amory Blaine chose for his life.

Good Quotes:

"I act as an escape from the weariness of agnosticism, and I think I'm the only man who knows his staid old mind is really at sea and longs for a sturdy spar like the Church to cling to."

"Whatever your meter proves to be - religion, architecture, literature - I'm sure you would be much safer anchored to the Church."

"If we could only learn to look on evil as evil, whether it's clothed in filth or mediocrity or magnificence."

"You make a great mistake if you think you can be romantic without religion."

"He wondered that graves ever made people consider life in vain. Somehow he could find nothing hopeless in having lived."

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - The Prisoner of Zenda****

Dashing adventure, fictional kingdoms and mistaken identity make Anthony Hope's novel sheer delight.

This book seems at first to be just a good story; well-written, clever, and all that, but the last two chapters make it a book that every woman should read. It is indeed a "sheer delight," a thoroughly enjoyable read. It is very well-written with beautiful description. The chapter "A New Use for a Tea-Table" is particularly enjoyable and every woman should aspire to fall in love with a man like Rudolph. I highly recommend this book!

Quotes:

• "I can thank God that I love the noblest lady in the world, the most gracious and beautiful, and that there was nothing in my love that made her fall short in her high duty.


• "if I can never hold sweet converse again with her, or look upon her face, or know from her her love; why, then, this side of the grave, I will live as becomes the man whom she loves."


• "It was a maxim of my Uncle William's that no man should pass through Paris without spending four-and-twenty hours there."

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - Paradise Lost**

This is an all-time world classic and well worth the extra effort. The language may be somewhat unfamiliar to most but will be readily understood with a bit of patience.

Well the first thing to remember is that Milton (the author) was a Protestant. Therefore, he necessarily makes doctrinal errors when discussing theology. Now, I do understand that this is meant to be a novel so there is some poetic license. However, Milton, speaking as a Protestant, does contradict some fundamental points of doctrine and that could be very confusing for someone who is not steeped in Catholic theology.

Paradise Lost is actually an epic poem which was kind of cool at first but gets kind of annoying after a while. The language is difficult to understand and the poetic rhythm gets a bit repetitive. And the book just seems to drag on. By the end I was just sick of it.

Honestly, if I want to read about the fall of man, I'll pick up the Bible.

Quotes:

"But their spite still serves His glory to augment."

"Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, Wasting the earth, each other to destroy - As if (which might induce us to accord) Man had not hellish foes enough besides, That day and night for his destruction wait"

"in mercy and justice both, Through Heaven and Earth, so shall my glory excel, But mercy, first and last, shall brightest shine"

"How few sometimes may know when thousands err"

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - The Witch of Blackbird Pond***

Although this is a young-adult novel, it's information and context may help illumine the period for you. Especially nice if you read it along with The Scarlet Letter.

This book was fine but I didn't really think it belonged on a list of books that you should read. I mean it's good if you want to read it but there's nothing about it that really makes me want to convince you to read it. If you choose to read it you'll probably like it. It's a good story, an easy read, enjoyable, and it does have a very good ending.

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - Seasoned Timber***

This novel about age, loneliness, and education, centers around a male lead and the wisdom and peace and intensity of the novel are all quite worthwhile. Very enjoyable.

This story turns on the axis of human dignity. Through all the plots and sub-plots runs this thread.

There is so much to be gained from this novel. It bears incredible insights into human nature, life, love, etc. And it shows the centrality of the dignity of the human person in every aspect of life. This novel taught me about love, education, democracy, dignity, people . . . It taught me about life.

This book is fantastically well-written with beautiful, and startlingly accurate, description.

My only complaint is that there are socialist undertones.

Nevertheless it is a book that every woman (and every American) should read.

Quotes:

"the 20th century battlefield on which human dignity and decency fought for life against a reversion to savagery"

"What visual memories of beauty could be called up to stand against this sick exaggeration of ugliness?"

"Every time I look at a newspaper, these days, I want to hunt me up another kid and tell him, 'Load your gun and cock it and stand guard over the Bill of Rights with your eye peeled, American boy!"

"'Doesn't it sometimes make you wish you could die and get out of the mess?' 'It does not!' said the old man vehemently. 'What'd I want to die for? It makes me want to do something about it!'"

"Nobody's bound to get folks to do what he thinks is the right way. All that's laid on a man is not to let up on trying to."

"It doesn't make any difference whether it is literally illegal or not; it is wrong."

"freedom is not worth fighting for if it means no more than license"

"Timothy stood, not so much listening as borne up on this prodigious ocean of faith, in whose fathomless depths the ponderous, self-defeating, materialistic trust in Caesar sank like a stone"

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - The Master and Margarita*

I'm so confused!

So I started reading this book and I had no idea where the author was going with it. And then I finished reading this book and still had no idea where the author was going with it. So, despite my chronic laziness, I turned to the commentary and afterword to try and figure out what the heck I had just read.

From the dust jacket I got this description of the book: "Together they succeed in comically befuddling a population which denies the devil's existence, even as it is confronted with the diabolic results of a magic act gone wrong." So far, so good.

However, as soon as you open this book you are confronted with this quote from Goethe's Faust: ". . . and so, who are you, after all? -I am part of the power which forever wills evil and forever works good." This quote is explained in the commentary which states "the epigraph introduces the theme of heresy, one which will be reinforced throughout this novel . . . Goethe believed in the theory of polarities which is essentially a version of Manichean thought. In the Manichean view, there are two cardinal principles in the world, the light and the dark, the good and the evil. In this scheme of things, as stated by Mephistopheles in Goethe's Faust, God dwells in eternal light, the devils are consigned in darkness, and human beings have only day and night. This sort of dualistic thinking was unacceptable to the Christian faith, which requires that good be stronger than evil, not equal to it; therefore this kind of worldview was considered heretical." So the reader is supposed to understand right from the beginning what becomes clear as the novel progresses, that this is a heretical, and primarily Manichean, work. It comes down to this: "Yeshua (Jesus) does not appear to be more powerful than Woland (Satan), and it is left quite unclear whether there is a power higher than Woland himself." I'm not okay with that and I would never feel comfortable recommending this book to anyone.

In addition to being heretical the book also deals extensively with witchcraft in a way that I was not at all comfortable with.

Furthermore, one basically has to have a working knowledge of Christology and Goethe's Faust to fully comprehend this book.

The author is a good satirist but that's about all I can say for the book. And I'm still not sure what the point of the book was.

If anyone has insights on the book I'd love to hear them as I'm still rather confused.

Good Quotes:

• "'Keep in mind that Jesus did exist.' 'You know, Professor,' answered Berlioz with a forced smile, 'we respect your great knowledge, but we happen to have a different point of view regarding that issue.' 'No points of view are necessary,' replied the strange professor. 'He simply existed and that's all there is to it.'"
  


• "What is it with you? Whatever comes up you say doesn't exist."



• "'Why the icon?' 'Well the icon . . .' Ivan turned red, 'The icon was what scared them most of all"



• "Who ever told you there is no such thing in the world as real, true, everlasting love? May the liar have his despicable tongue cut out!"

Love Carefully

Every morning on my way to work I have to pass the local Planned Parenthood. A couple weeks ago I saw they had a new banner hanging outside proclaiming the message "Love Carefully."

Love carefully.

I hate to burst your bubble Planned Parenthood but that's not possible.

The nature of love is a complete gift of self. To love is to give yourself entirely to another person, to abandon yourself for the good of another. To love is to forsake your desires in favor of your beloved's. To sacrifice. To make yourself completely vulnerable to another in order to lift them up. That's why the image of love is the cross.

Love is radical. "It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." Love is a total abandonment of self, to the point that you would give your life for the beloved. There is nothing careful about love.

Don't love carefully. Love radically.

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - The Human Factor**

"This espionage novel is a fascinating account of human weakness, wisdom and folly. Parsing the moral decisions would take months but the book itself can be read in but a few days. Graham Greene is rich."

This book was just kinda sad. It was cynical, God-less, and rather immoral. The one priest who shows up in the book does a pretty bad job of being a priest. And for an espionage novel it's not very exciting.

Also, it's kind of confusing, especially at the beginning because the author doesn't really tell you the setting or the time period or anything, you just kind of have to figure it out on your own. I'm not totally opposed to this, if the book had been a better book that might have been a really cool writing technique.

One good quote:

"'It's irreplaceable that one.' 'A man's dead,' said Daintry. 'He's irreplaceable too.'"

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - Death Comes for the Archbishop***

"Willa Cather has other books that one might think of as more 'womanly.' She does masterfully craft the strong female character, but this book has striking depth and richness and in our opinion ought to be higher on people's lists."

So this book is basically a Catholic western. I love it!

I wouldn't say that it's an amazing book but it's simple and beautiful. It's based on the life of the historical Bishop John Baptist Lamy, the first bishop of Santa Fe who, just like the Archbishop in the book, built a Cathedral for the diocese and brought from Europe a group of religious sisters to found a school for the Indian and Mexican children as well as other priests and religious to assist throughout the diocese.

The book gives a perfectly fair portrayal of the Church and does a good job of depicting missionary life. As a matter of fact, the chapter "The Month of Mary" is lovely! It gives a beautiful depiction of Fr. Vaillant's deep devotion to Our Blessed Mother and of his burning desire to bring souls back to God and the Church. Similarly, the chapter called "December Night" portrays a true childlike and deep faith. Also, the book devotes several pages to the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe which I greatly appreciated.

Some good quotes:

• "Father Joseph said that, as for him, he would rather combat the superstitions of a whole Indian pueblo than the vanity of one white woman.


• "The nursery tale could not vie with her [the Blessed Mother] in simplicity, the wisest theologians could not match her profundity."

100 Books Every Woman Should Read - The Mill on the Floss**

"This is the story of a young woman's struggle for independence. It doesn't end in a satisfying way but there is so much about youth and love and power here that the book should be re-read many times."

This is, without a doubt, the most depressing book I have ever read in my entire life. The moral of this story is: life stinks and then you die.

First of all, bad families upset me. And Maggie's family is bad. They treat her horribly and it broke my heart from the first page of the book.

This is one of those books that it's hard to say anything about without giving away the whole thing so it looks like this is gonna be a pretty short review. The book is not badly written, I found in it elements reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet, Jane Austen, and Jane Eyre, but it is so thouroughly depressing and disatisfying that it's hardly worth reading. It does have a lot of insight into youth and young "love" so that I can understand why it is on this list but I found it so upsetting that I would never want to recommend it to anyone because I would not want to encourage them toward depression.

Some good quotes:

"It was the first sign within the poor child of that new sense which is the gift of sorrow."

"Maggie, with all her keen susceptibility, yet felt as if the sorrow made larger room for her love to flow in."

"'I will not begin any future, even for you,' said Maggie, tremulously, 'with a deliberate consent to what ought not to have been. What I told you at Basset I feel now: I would rather have died than fall into this temptation.'"

"Faithfulness and constancy mean something else besides doing what is easiest and pleasantest to ourselves. They mean renouncing whatever is opposed to the reliance others have in us - whatever would cause misery to those whom the course of our lives has made dependent on us."