The Great American Read

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books, literacy volunteers, reading, teachers, The Great American Read, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Sometimes I feel like a schoolgirl who gets so hooked on a story that she stays up half the night, disregarding the curfew, just to finish the book she has been reading or what she has been watching on some electronic device. The only difference is that my curfew is self-imposed so it’s easier to disregard. One of the most enticing places that calls to me is our Public Broadcasting System. PBS always has something to offer when nothing else suffices.

Last night, after an obedient nod to the clock, I went to my bed, turned out the light and proceeded to try all my usual tricks to fall asleep when my brain won’t give in and stop thinking. I finally gave up the effort and did a rare thing for me: I got up again and clicked on what would have been a wonderful program if I had found it in the afternoon. It was a two-hour PBS offering – most likely from a previous summer – called The Great American Read. Meredith Vieira led the way to a search for the best American novel ever written. Canvassing the country, speaking with authors and readers who gave her their choices of a favorite book, her task was to amass a list of 100 novels from which all comers could vote for the best one. I only got through the first half of the program; by then it was 1:30AM!

What was engaging and uplifting for me was the diversity of the choices and the willingness for whoever had made the rules of the process to accept any novel ever written that was published in this country as a valid entry. From Charlotte’s Web to The Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter to A Prayer for Owen Meany, the books were not only named but touted as the best with lines like: “that book saved my life” or “I learned to delight in the magic” – and passionate explanations that made me want to stop all other activity and just read for the rest of my life! (That isn’t really a stretch for me; I come from a family of readers.)

I will have to return to hear the rest of the listed choices and hear the excitement of  those interviewed about their choices – like all the people whose favorite activity is reading to their children or grandchildren, or the group of six year old girls who were so articulate about Charlotte’s Web or the woman who has sailed the oceans all her life and revels in the pages of Moby Dick…And then, if I’m lucky, I’ll get to know the winner.

Today I am grateful for those who taught me to read, those who give me the opportunity to lose myself in the occasional novel and for intelligent and interesting efforts like the Great American Read that remind us what richness is ours if we take the time to pick up a book. Most of all I am grateful for literacy volunteers who open the world to the eyes of people who do not know how to read, and for those who record books for the blind to do the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

School Days

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Catholic schools, education, grow, prosper, school, schoolchildren, St. John Neumann, teachers, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning as I try to get my mind back into a routine after two days away, I am thinking of the youth of our country – and others – whose  vacation came to an end yesterday. Their return to school must’ve been a shock, not only for those who love to sleep late and did for 11 days, but for all who walk to school or wait on a corner for a school bus. After an unusually balmy “green Christmas” here in the Northeast, the temperature was (and is today) hovering around zero degrees Fahrenheit. I have great compassion for school children on days like this, remembering well those days of shivering and hoping that the heat in the bus was functioning!

Aside from the weather, the impetus for my thoughts today derives from the fact that today is the feast of St. John Neumann, one of a growing number of canonized individuals claimed as a saint of the United States of America. Although born in what is now the Czech Republic, John Neumann came to the United States in 1836 at the age of 25 doing missionary work first in New York and then in Maryland, Virginia and Ohio. It was as bishop of Philadelphia, however, that he organized the Catholic schools which had up until that point been run independently by parishes into a diocesan system. He drew many teaching communities of religious Sisters as well as the Christian Brothers (a teaching community of men) to this well-organized system and engaged his own community, the Redemptorists (Congregation of the Holy Redeemer), in this work as well. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is still widely noted for its school system with 148 schools across 5 counties.

Today, then, I send blessings to teachers on all levels of education, whose work is essential to the future of humanity, that they may open not only the minds of their students but also their hearts so that they become good and loving citizens of the world. In addition, I bless the children, that their schools may be safe and inspired places, giving them what they need – mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually – to grow and prosper, thus changing the world for the better. May it be so.

Thank a Librarian

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Bethlehem, Christ, librarian, St. Jerome, teachers, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today my Church celebrates St. Jerome who is the patron of librarians. I always knew he was the person who first translated the Bible into Latin but was astonished by a few facts that I learned as I checked on his birth date. I knew he lived quite early in the days of Christianity and found that his life span was from 345 to 420. What astonished me was that in order to do such a monumental work as the translation to Latin, he studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Chaldaic  – this over 1,000 years before the invention of the printing press! He did this by studying in his birthplace, Dalmatia (in the former Yugoslavia), Rome and Germany – where all the best teachers were. After this preparation he traveled all over Palestine, “marking each spot of Christ’s life with an outpouring of devotion” and spent five years in the desert of Calcis in prayer, penance and study. He finally settled in Bethlehem, where he lived in the cave believed to be the birthplace of Christ. This biography would be remarkable even in today’s world, but think what it must have entailed to accomplish what he did as well as the difficulty of travel in the century in which he lived!

We often hear or see the adage, “If you can read this, thank a teacher.” Today I would add thanks to librarians who dedicate themselves to facilitating our search for knowledge every day and to Jerome, tireless disciple of the Word of God, who gave himself totally to opening access to the Scriptures to so many people in the Western world in his day and in ours.