A Momentary Taste of Being

In this House of Brede reviewed Superb film, I haven't gotten to the book yet--at least I don't think so.

Silence by Shusaku Endo reviewed If you're anything like I was, I had heard about the necessity of this book for years before I picked it up.  Having picked it up, I feel like I will never put it down.  It has become emblematic for me.  I push it upon anyone who will listen long enough for me to get through my spiel. But, I do know, if you want to split a roomful of Catholics faster than lightning--toss this book in the room and then ask them whether what the protagonists does at the end was right or wrong.  Guaranteed, you'll split that room--perhaps not right down the middle--but there will be at least two groups each adamantly holding to their point.  I know, been there, done that.  I'm with the group that agrees with the Priest and with the voice from the fumie .  But to quote an American Literary Figure recently in the news, "without you having read it, you ain't gonna know what I'm talking about."  If you haven't done so, this is one...

But nevertheless a masterpiece of its own kind--a review of Helena

A notable article on Catholic Novelists in Asia, Africa, and South America

And, of course, who isn't.  Father Longenecker has a slightly self-aggrandizing, but tempting book on offer .  I'm a bit tired of Screwtape Letter knockoffs, having read about half-a-dozen by now--but his work on Benedict and Therese was highly literate and readable--so this might make a good light Lenten read.

via Reading for Believers this new discussion by Michael O'Brien on the most recent peril to young people's souls. While it happens that I tend to agree with the thrust of his criticism -- the transmutation of vampire from horror to suffering wimp and romantic victim--I have a lot of difficulty with the "support" lent to the argument. I have said consistently, and will continue to say, that there is nothing like a guiding adult hand to help a child through literature.  If some books are "off-limits" because of potential peril to the soul, they become the forbidden fruit that will eventually undermine faith.  A friend of a friend once commented to me, not entirely accurately, but certainly with a scintilla of truth, that the great problem in the history of the Jewish people is that the insistence on education often led to people smart enough to abandon the faith.  (It's the latter part of the statement--whether smarts equals leaving faith--that I qu...

A nice review at The Silver Key.

A suggestion, an analysis, here.

Here. I have not read nearly as much as I would like of Powers's works, and I often see it acclaimed.  Most of the books are still available, although far from popular.  Perhaps it is time for a reexamination.

Archbishop Charles Chaput suggests Note the presence in the sidebar of other such lists by the likes of James Schall and Dave Armstrong via  TSO