Dear Misfits,
Our meeting last Wednesday was a good
one...and very topical given the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East. We met to
discuss The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love and Terror in Algeria,
by John W. Kiser. The Monks of Tibhirine is the true story of seven
French Trappist monks who were willing to die serving a Muslim flock during the
political nightmare that unfolds in Algeria during the 1990’s. The the monks
were decapitated after being kidnapped from their monastery in the village of
Tibhirine. It is truly a story of sacrificial love. The
Christian Monks willingly gave their lives for their Muslim friends and
for their faith. The story of the Monks will bring great sadness to
some, deep admiration for others, and perhaps, anger at the seemingly senseless
violence now being committed in the name of Islam. Thee book offered no
clear cut solutions to the violence and challenges posed by
radical/political Islam. We also were unable to offer solutions to
the violence beyond putting this in the hands of our Lord through prayer
and petition.
Our November book is Fabiola or The Church of
the Catacombs by Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman. The story is set in Rome in the
early 4th century AD, during the time of the persecution of Christians under
the Roman Emperor Diocletian. The heroine of the book is Fabiola, a young
beauty from a noble Roman family who becomes a convert to the Faith. I think
the Misfits are going to really enjoy this story of conversion. The novel is no
longer in print but you can find it on-line as a used book at Amazon.com.
Better still you can read it on-line at:
The Internet Archive:
or you can go to Google Books:
For December and January we have decided to read a
book we have long considered reading: Confessions, the autobiographical
work of St. Augustine of Hippo, written between AD 397 and AD 398. The work
consists of 13 books which outline Augustine's sinful youth and his conversion
to Christianity. It is widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever
written, and was an influential model for Christian writers throughout the
following 1000 years of the Middle Ages. It is not a complete autobiography, as
it was written in his early 40's, and he lived long afterwards, producing
another important work (City of God); it does, nonetheless, provide an
unbroken record of the development of his thought and is the most complete
record of any single person from the 4th and 5th centuries.
We still haven't decided on a
translation of Confessions nor have we decided how we will divide the
book for December/January? Recommendations?
For February we will read another book that we
have long been planning to read: Marilynne Robinson's highly acclaimed novel, Gilead
which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was a 2004 National Book
Critics Circle Winner. Gilead is the fictional autobiography of the
Reverend John Ames, an elderly Congregationalist pastor in the small, secluded
town of Gilead, Iowa who knows that he is dying of a heart condition. The novel
begins in 1957 as the Reverend Ames explains that he is writing an account of his
life for his seven-year-old son so his son will have memories of him after he
is gone.
The story spans three generations from
the Civil War to the twentieth century. It is a profound examination of the
relationship of fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at
America's heart. “Writing in the tradition of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman,
Marilynne Robinson's beautiful, spare, and spiritual prose allows "even
the faithless reader to feel the possibility of transcendent order" (Slate)”.
The luminous and unforgettable voice of Congregationalist minister John Ames
reveals the human condition and the often unbearable beauty of an ordinary
life. The novel is available at Amazon.com.
Misfit Buzz
______________________________________
"There is a great deal of
difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and a tired man who
wants a book to read. ~G.K. Chesterton
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