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Jesuit and Catholic and Brophy

A Reflection From Fr. Bill Muller, S.J.

Vice President for Mission and Identity

Last June, I suggested some summer reading and heard from a few folks that they enjoyed the suggestions and even read one or more of the selections. So, here are some thoughts to consider for this summer’s reading list:

“The Year of Lear” by James S. Shapiro (Simon & Schuster, 2015)

If we think we live in turbulent times, try 1606 England. A Shakespeare scholar, Shapiro puts “King Lear,” “Macbeth,” and “Anthony and Cleopatra,” all written in 1606, in the context of a divided kingdom, religious divisions (the Gunpowder Plot, for one) and the plague. “His great gift is to make the plays seem at once more comprehensible and more staggering” – The New York Review of Books

“A Table for Two” by Amor Towles (Viking, 2024)

Wonderful short stories set in New York. I found the short stories witty and profound. And there’s a novella set in Los Angeles; a character from Towles’ “Rules of Civility” (another recommendation) shows up in “Eve in Hollywood.” Last June, I suggested Towles’ “The Lincoln Highway.”

“The Diary of Jesus Christ” by Bill Cain, S.J. (Orbis Books, 2021)

Orbis Books writes: “Bill Cain, SJ, is a Jesuit and an American playwright, whose work wrestles with the great themes of Catholic faith. He is a Peabody Award-winning screenwriter and the creator of the TV show “Nothing Sacred”, and lives with his Jesuit Community in Brooklyn, NY.”

This is a first-person account of the life of Jesus. Though some may be uncomfortable with an imaginative rendering of Jesus’ life and ministry, it is precisely what Ignatius Loyola urges us to do when we pray.

“Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, 2022)

For me, anything by Kingsolver is worth reading. This Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (2023) is her take on David Copperfield if it were written in our time and set in Appalachia. Kingsolver borrows Dickens’ storytelling of a child born to mean conditions and growing up by his wits, sometimes succeeding at life and oftentimes not. Even today, children and young adults suffer by circumstances and poor choices. This is a sobering tale of modern-day poverty, neglect, addiction — and the hope for a better life around the corner.

“A Faithful Spy” by Jimmy Burns (Chiselbury, 2023)

Subtitled, “The Life and Times of an MI6 and MI5 Officer,” it recounts the life of Walter Bell as a British intelligence officer during the second world war (a passport control officer — spy — in New York) and into the 1960s with posts in Washington, Kenya and India. I am not normally a reader of history and there is so much in the biography I did not know about the British and American relationship; I learned a lot — and might be tempted to read more history! Full disclosure, I met the author a couple of years ago (Jesuit educated) so when I stumbled on the title, I had to read it.

“Come Forth” by James Martin, S.J. (HarperCollins, 2023)

Subtitled, “The Promise of Jesus’s Greatest Miracle,” Fr. James Martin, S.J., writes about the famous miracle in John’s Gospel, the raising of Jesus’ friend Lazarus. Martin uses his experiences of being in the Holy Land at the site of Lazarus’ grave along with biblical commentary, cultural concerns and historical circumstances of the time. He offers his spiritual insights as he suggests Jesus is calling each of us to “Come Forth.”

“The Radical Gospel of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton” by Peter Feuerherd (Orbis Books, 2019)

Bishop Gumbleton died at 94 on April 4 of this year. I had the privilege of knowing him fairly well over the span of some years because we were both close to the same family. He witnessed marriages, baptized and confirmed the children and grandchildren of the family — I was invited, too, and enjoyed seeing him for this family’s big events. The family was involved with his social justice work and peace activism; I learned a lot from them and from the Bishop Gumbleton, who was the founding president of Pax Christi USA and on the committee that drafted the U.S. Bishops’ pastoral statement on nuclear war. I know “radical” is one of those words — not everyone will agree with all that the bishop said and did — however, I can tell you I have not met a humbler priest who was committed to the Gospel.

Some Dates in June to Note

2 – Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

4 – Tiananmen Square Massacre, 1989

5 – World Environment Day

Robert F. Kennedy Assassination, 1968

6 – D-Day, 1944

7 – Solemnity of the Sacred Heart

8 – Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

10-16 – National Men’s Health Week

12 –  Medgar Evans Assassination

14 – Flag Day

World Blood Donor Day

16 – Father’s Day

19 – Juneteenth

20 – Summer Solstice

World Refugee Day

21 – Feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J.

World Music Day

24 – Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist

26 – UN Charter Signed in San Francisco, 1945

29 – Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

Pope Francis’ Prayer Intention for June

For migrants fleeing their homes

http://popesprayerusa.net/popes-intentions/

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