Our Lady of the Woods

Posts Tagged ‘Book Club’

Review of the OLW Spirituality Book Club of Monday, February 15, 2010

“Doomsday Book” by Connie Willis.

Everyone reports they were very glad they read this one. To learn about the black death in 1348 as well as an account of what people might do when dealing with a plague in 2054. All was intensely interesting and insightful. Most readers noted about the ways people react to the most terrible situation. Those who run or deny, and then those who stay and inspire dignity in the most disastrous and horrendous of situations. The question is “What would I do? How would I react?” Yes, a spiritual question about living in the reality of dreadfulness. The ending was a surprise also.

Our next meeting is the 2^nd Monday of month as usual (weather permitting) which is March 8, 6:30 p.m. in admin building.

The book chosen is Roger Housden’s “Ten Poems to Change Your Life”. A “soul’s journey” book to fit with our book club theme.

OK we all hate poetry …. There are those recurring nightmares of teachers trying to make us “see the inner vision of what the poet is seeing” and all that stuff.

In this book Housden just outright tells us what the poem means …. easy stuff. I’ve copied a brief review below and the list of poems in the book.

Review

“In Ten Poems to Change Your Life Housden offers a unique map for the Soul’s journey and encourages us to begin. Accessible, elegant, luminous, and wise, this book is Soul food.”
– Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessings – Review

The Dark Night by St. John Of The Cross
Zero Circle by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
The Time Before Death by Kabir
Last Gods by Galway Kinnell
Last Night As I Was Sleeping by Antonio Machado Ruiz
For The Anniversary Of My Death by William Stanley Merwin
The Journey by Mary Oliver
Ode To My Socks by Naftali Ricardo Reyes Basuato
Love After Love by Derek Walcott
Song Of Myself by Walt Whitman

Discussion of the OLW Book Club – Focus on Spirituality, December 14, 2009

“Awareness, the Perils and Opportunities of Reality” by Anthony DeMello

DeMello’s book was appreciated by members in a variety of different ways. His deliberate presentation seems at first quite clear, but each idea stops the reader in a “what?” reaction. It’s as though he is looking out from the inside of each thought. Most intriguing to one reader was the difference between worldly feelings and soul feelings … worldly feelings are when we react to being successful or well thought of; soul feelings occur when you are in touch with nature or absorbed in work you love or music or art. All readers commented on the fact that negative feelings are in you, not in reality. All efforts to change negative feelings by changing your environment or the people around you will not address the issue … negative feelings are in you. This is what has to be recognized and addressed.

The group all agreed that spirituality as defined by DeMello is being awake, being aware of what’s going on within you and around you. Much of the discussion evolved around ways you can become more aware of your life and stop being asleep or even dead to your “real” life.

Our next book club date will be in two months … February 8, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. in the Admin Building at OLW.

The next book chosen considers human nature in love, courage, faith and the contrary qualities of indignity, fear and despair.

Doomsday Book is a 1992 science fiction novel by American author Connie Willis. The novel won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and was short listed for other awards, placing it among the most honored works of science fiction in recent history.

Mankind’s physical vulnerability in the face of infectious disease is hardly the only theme of this novel, whose true subject matter is the human capacity for love, courage and faith. Kivrin cannot save the plague victims from death, but— of course—defeating death was never a likely outcome. Time and again, Willis reminds readers that nobody escapes death, that every century (whatever its time-travel rating) has a 100 percent death rate for its contemporaries. What Kivrin does save the medieval villagers from is arguably more important: indignity, fear and despair.

A meticulous researcher who always imbues her time-travel pieces with a rich level of historical detail.  As answers emerge, the particular brilliance of Doomsday Book—its parallel storylines—becomes obvious. Even as Kivrin realizes she is in the midst of the plague, the influenza outbreak at home is killing people at the university. Both epidemics play out in detail, showing how far medical technology has developed in the centuries between 1348 and the present … and how little human nature has changed over the same period. The helplessness of the medieval villagers against the plague is contrasted with a frantic modern effort to fight the influenza. The results are humbling.

Books read thus far are:

Thomas Merton “New Seeds of Contemplation”

Tom Stella “The God Instinct”

C.S. Lewis “Mere Christianity”

Annie Dillard “For the Time Being”

Chaim Potok “My Name is Asher Lev”

Henri Nouwen “Life of the Beloved”

Anne Rice “Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt”

Ronald Rolheiser “The Holy Longing”

Henri Nouwen “Reaching Out.”

Anthony DeMello “Awareness”

vmr

OLW Book Club Report for August 17, 2009

Book Read … “Life of the Beloved, Spiritual Living in a Secular World” by Henri J. M. Nouwen

Comments on this book by the eight people present revealed that everyone did like the book. It is one of those books that help associate ideas and concepts with other books each of us may have read … kind of like a “connect the dots” model where hopefully it will all make sense.

It also read like a “how-to” book on building an intimate relationship with God.

At page 49+ Nouwen sets out three guidelines to making your life one in which we live as those we believe that we are unique and chosen as the “beloved” of God.  1) Unmask the world … say to yourself that negative feelings are not telling me the truth about myself … that I am a chosen child of God. Negativity blinds us to the truth of how blessed we are. 2) Opt consciously for our choseness … surround yourself with people and places and practices and books that affirm the truth. 3) Celebrate this truth with gratitude and acknowledging that you are not an accident, but a choice by God as his beloved.

Much discussion about mindfulness came to mind with personal examples by those present. This form of ‘attention’ helps us maintain our realization of our blessedness.

Each of the points in Nouwen’s book, Taken, Blessed, Broken and Given were discussed, but in a circuitous manner as we discovered that each in connected to the other, depends on the other and is a fruit of the others. Each help us connect with the truth … our true self.

Keeping the presence of God before us is a struggle … but this proves to be a good “how-to” book for those who wish to live in an intimate relationship with God … seeking to keep the deep currents of his love connected to the waves on the surface of our life.

NEXT Date: Monday, September 14, 6:30 p.m. in the Admin Bldg.

NEXT Book: Anne Rice’s “Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt.”

Review on Amazon:

In crisp, straightforward prose, Rice explores the mysteries beneath the childhood of Jesus. At age seven, the boy and his family leave Egypt to return to their home. They find themselves caught in a revolution after the death of the first King Herod, ruler of the portion of the Roman Empire that includes Israel. Although the historical and cultural details are authentic and well done, it is the character of Jesus that drives this novel. He feels like a typical seven-year-old, but he’s also suddenly discovering abilities that no one else possesses. He brings clay birds to life, makes snow fall, and even resurrects a dead playmate. The story is told from Jesus’ point of view, and the strength of the book weighs heavily on Rice’s ability to make him believable both as a child and as the son of God; she does a winning job. The wisdom of all things religious fills Jesus completely, but he’s naive about day-to-day events: he can’t understand why a young girl he used to play with prefers at age 12 to learn about weaving and rearing children. This new direction for Rice is both bold and reverent, and is bound to please fans and newcomers alike.

---

Always at your service,
Vicki
Vicki M. Rector ________________________________________________
Communications Coordinator
Teller County Catholic Community
Our Lady of the Woods Church – Woodland Park
St. Peter’s – Cripple Creek, St. Victor’s – Victor, Faith Community in Florissant
116 S. West St., P O Box 5590, Woodland Park, CO 80866-5590
719-687-9345 phone
719-687-0893 fax
E-Mail is OurLadyWoodsTCCC@aol.com
Website is www.OurLadyWoods.com
Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.