As I have reported earlier in this series of columns based on Josef Pieper’s book “Leisure The Basis of Culture” (New York: Pantheon Books, translated by Alexander Dru, 1952, pp. 127), though I am re-reading Pieper’s book for the third time, in some ways, it seems as though I am reading it for the first time because I am discovering insights in the book that I have no recollection of discovering in my previous readings.
Re-reading Josef Pieper’s Leisure: The Basis of Culture (Translated by Alexander Dru, with an introduction by T.S, Eliot, New York: Pantheon Books, 1952, pp. 127) has been a wonderful experience for me.
I have not kept count of the number of books that I have read or re-read during the pandemic, but they have been many.
From 1953, my first year in college, until today, wherever I have lived, I guess has made my residence a Commonweal-reading household.
My experience of reading Msgr. John Shea’s essay “From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age” (Bismarck, North Dakota:University of St. Mary Press, 2020 pp. 94, $13.95) has been that each time I pick it up to read or re-read some section, provocative insights seem to leap off the page at me.
As I mentioned in last week’s column I am hoping that Msgr. James Shea’s Essay “From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age” (University of St. Mary’s Press: Bismarck, North Dakota, 2020, pp. 94, $13. 95) is both read and discussed by many.
Reading Msgr. James Shea’s “From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age” (Bismarck, North Dakota, 2019, pp. 94, $13. 95), I had a strong experience of nostalgia. The book reminded me of my experience as a seminarian when I read Cardinal Emmanuel Suhard’s marvelous “Growth or Decline?”
I have dreams every night, but usually I don’t remember them. In fact I usually cannot even recall whether the dreams were pleasant or unpleasant.
As far back as I can remember, certainly as far back as when I was a student in college, I wanted to try to center all my studies and reading and my intellectual life in general around my Catholic faith.
There is so much in theologian Father Michael Himes’ essay “Finding God in All Things: A Sacramental Worldview and Its Effects” (Biblio) that I have re-read it several times. I plan to save the essay and refer to it often in the future.
