Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: September 20, 2020
All of us have lots of “things.” Most of us have more than we need. Chefs have their knives and pots and pans, hunters have guns and lots of camouflage, fashionistas have outfits and accessories, and so forth. The younger you are the more “apps” you have and use on your mobile phone. The older you are you tend to keep photographs and souvenirs that keep treasured memories alive.
It’s books I accumulate. I’ve got lots of religious volumes, of course, including at least 30 versions and translations of the Bible, and lots of texts and commentaries on Church history and canon law – these last being my personal professional “specializations” I guess you could say. I’ve kept – and actually do re-read – many of my favorite novels, from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings to Dumas’ The Three Musketeers and Wouk’s The Winds of War, as well as Asimov’s Foundation space trilogy and O’Brien’s “Aubrey Maturin” seafaring series. Yes, I like big, thick volumes! I have to admit a weakness for classic science fiction and detective stories. I also have more cookbooks than I’ll ever need, but still eagerly browse through them whenever I need an idea for the kitchen.
In this coronavirus pandemic my favorite way of coping with silence of empty buildings and empty calendars – and their accompanying frustrations and worries – is to read. Considering how others – in fiction or “real life” – cope with lives of challenge and stress helps me do the same with my life. Seeing others’ challenges can make me comfortably grateful as well as inspire me. And I hope my tendency to bury my nose in a book is the good kind of escapism that doesn’t keep me from my responsibilities. I know I’ve learned a lot from reading, certainly more than from being entertained by movies, videos and musicians, fun though these last can be.
So I’ve decided to recommend a few books to you! I don’t want you to miss out on some of the valuable lessons and insights I’ve found. I want to equip you for a life of fulfillment. I honestly don’t know how one can find contentment without the companionship of books.
Let’s start with the most useful thing you can have in your life of faith. No, it’s not a Bible, but for Catholics, something a bit better. It’s a Missal, that is, a special prayerbook used to follow the Mass and derive spiritual benefit from it. The one I recommend is the Daily Roman Missal from MTF (the basic edition is here: http://bit.ly/3kf93uA, but more costly leatherbound and large-print editions exist too). It’s not that expensive when you realize that it will last for years. While many folks do subscribe to disposable “missalettes” like Magnificat magazine, I think it’s better to have a resource that’s more complete as well as long-lasting. This is something that Cathedral parishioners are always asking: should they want one? And my answer is a definite “yes!”
That’s actually the last individual title that I’ll recommend. What I’ll suggest next is that you pick two or three categories of writing, and try to read at least one book from each every now and then. (Don’t say to yourself “I’ll read one from each category every year.” That’s just setting yourself up for guilt-induced failure! “Every now and then” is an attainable goal!)
The first category I recommend is Biographies. I find you learn so much by reading about fascinating people and their lives. Notice I don’t say “famous,” although some fascinating people do get to be celebrities of one kind or other. I’ve loved reading about American heroes in history (like Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage, about the Lewis & Clark expedition, or Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton – which by the by is even better than the musical based on it!). Just google “best biographies” for lists of wonderful suggestions.
The second category that has often kept me spellbound is Classic Fiction. These are the kinds of things that you might have detested if a high school teacher or college professor assigned them, but which are wonderful to a grownup! I’m thinking of enjoyable reads such as Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Orwell’s Animal Farm, and Tolkien’s The Hobbit, that sort of thing. I don’t recommend you pick up Tolstoy’s War and Peace, or Melville’s Moby Dick, good as they are, for you’ll just get discouraged – until you want to read them, of course.
But there are lots of other categories: for instance, Mysteries (from Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tales to Christie’s Hercule Poirot stories to modern “whodunnits”); Science Fiction (I like almost everything Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke and Heinlein ever wrote, but more modern ones like Weir’s The Martian are quite good); Horror stories (such as Mary Shelley’s original Frankenstein, Hawthorne’s classic Young Goodman Brown or Steven King’s more modern takes), and Fantasies (like Rowling’s Harry Potter series). I don’t particularly go for Romances, but many do of course (just be careful that “love” and not “sex” is the main ingredient!). And if you find yourself loving Westerns, or Non-Fiction, or even just Best Sellers (here I’m thinking Larsson’s Millennium series or Collins’ The Hunger Games stories), as long as your mind and spirit are being interested and even stretched you haven’t made a bad choice. Happy reading!
Yours in Christ,
Very Rev. Paul D. Counce
