Recently read.

Over Christmas break, I read The Chronicles of Narnia. You all already know how good that is, so I won't elaborate.

During our retreat, I read The Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux. There are few books that have held my attention like this one did. Therese was an amazing person and there is no doubt that she is in Heaven. Read this book.

Since returning to St. Vincent, I've read The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton. I just finished it on Wednesday. This one was a tougher read, but well worth the effort. It goes through all of human history, showing how humanity is ordered towards God and that Christianity is not only the answer to the human question, but how it is vastly different from anything that came before or after it.

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In the reading-for-fun category, I am now starting C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy with Out of the Silent Planet. I've read the second book of this trilogy (Perelandra) and started the last one (That Hideous Strength) but I've always wanted to read them in order. I have not been disappointed so far.

I am also looking forward to reading two more explicitly spiritual books. One, that all of us received from the rector for Christmas, is When the Lion Roars by Stephen J. Rossetti about mysticism and the other is The Passion From Within by Adrienne Von Speyr. Von Speyr was Hans Urs Von Balthasar's partner in much of his work. Fr. Justin talks about her quite a bit in our Von Balthasar class and I have heard that the book is a great meditation on Christ's passion, so I decided to pick it up at the National Shrine's bookstore while we were in D.C.

Yeah, I guess you could say I read too much, but I sure do like it. I have a lot to read for my classes this semester, but I find most of it interesting so it does not seem like a chore. Some of these reading include Plato's Phaedo (for Theories of Knowledge), parts of the Catechism and some Church documents (for Christian Anthropology & Grace) and lots of Von Balthasar stuff (including a book on St. Therese. I may write my paper for that class on her and his understanding of her).