Untitled 0

Any woman in the Parish of Saint Patrick's Church or Saint Rose of Lima is welcome to join the on-line version of the Saint Catherine of Siena Book Club. The new book is announced below. The books will be announced in the church bulletin and here on the WPC website. To participate in the book club: Read the book, Check this site for response questions, share your thoughts in writing and (to post them) email them to mspagnola@parishmail.com.

The books being read by the St. Catherine of Siena Book Club are listed below. When the readers have finished reading the selection they submit their thoughts. Below are the response questions to the content of the book.

Choose any of the above questions to respond to, or feel free to just respond in your own way.

Book to be read by January 15th. You may order the book from the parish office. Blogging here may begin any time you have finished the book. Submit your blog to mspagnola@parishmail.com .

In the Gospel of John, Jesus promised that even the most ordinary believer could work the mightiest miracles: "Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing." In Mystics and Miracles, author Bert Ghezzi takes Jesus at his word, describing the paradoxically exalted and down-to-earth characters of Catholicism’s greatest saints. The book collects almost two dozen brief character sketches composed of lively and often humorous anecdotes, most of which concern the role of the Holy Spirit in empowering believers, and the ways that saints both desire and resist the Spirit’s power. St. Lutgarde of Awyieres, for instance, asked God to take back her healing powers when the lines of petitioners grew so long that she barely had time for prayer. Mystics and Miracles offers an easy-to-read introduction to saintly lives that will particularly appeal to young people. --Michael Joseph Gross -

From Library Journal
Ghezzi (Voices of the Saints) here offers simple but engagingly written accounts of the lives of 24 saints of considerable variety: St. Lutgarde of Aywieres, Padre Pio, St. John Bosco, St. Martin de Porres, St. Joan of Arc, and so on. Told in an intimate, grandfatherly manner, the profiles may not satisfy the scholar or the experienced reader, but they should suit the needs of the ordinary devout very well. Highly recommended.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Book to be read by October 30th. You may order the book from the parish office. Orders will be taken until September 19th. Blogging here may begin any time you have finished the book. Submit your blog to mspagnola@parishmail.com .

This book reached me on so many levels. I don't know that I can verbalize all of them and still fit my blog on this page. I am going to attempt being clear and not to ramble on and on. I would like to talk about the part of the book when Mack was at the Shack.

At first I was perplexed about the way the Blessed Trinity appeared to Mack. Then I came to realize that they appeared to Mack in a way that he was able to process and accept their reality. What struck me about that is that they accepted Mack for who he is. So too, does God accept and love each of us for who we are. He is everything that we need Him to be and more.

As I continued to read it occurred to me that Mack is "Everyman". His feelings, attitudes and reactions were universal. We have all experienced them at some time or another in our lives. So as God reached out to Mack we can be assured that he reaches out to all of us in the same non-judgmental way. The catch is we have to be aware of and open to it.

While Mack one only one man in all of God's creation, God was not about to let him go. God was not going to settle for losing the love of one mere man. This underlines the truth that we are all important and special in the eyes of God. He is willing to go to great lengths to retrieve even one "lost sheep".

I thoroughly enjoyed "The Shack". There is so much to be gleaned from this book. I know I will have to go back and read it again and again in order to digest all that Young has packed into his book. Marietta

I absolutely loved this book. My sister had insisted that I read it and I am so glad that she did. This man just amazes me. He has devoted so much of his life to helping others, much like the disciples did. In so many ways he literally up and left his family to follow his mission. What impressed me the most was how he treated everyone he met with such dignity. In that respect he is much like Jesus. No matter what their status in life, how offensive their body odor, or how repulsive their food, he treated them with the utmost respect. In the eyes of Greg Mortenson every human is equal and deserving of respect, dignity and equal opportunities in life. Without much thought this man is following in Christ's Footsteps. What an example for us all.

It is truly eye opening to me to see what others must endure in their lives. I feel truly Blessed to have had such a stable, loving and secure upbringing and my heart goes out to Melanie for all she physically endured…..yet perhaps a price to be paid for her priceless encounters with the Lord……Melanie was Blessed to have experienced visions, apparitions and the love of Jesus….something we all would love to experience……I call it the Holy Longing….looking for God’s love, yearning to feel it….it is often hard to have the yearning for our Lord and still be able to “fit in” with what we must do in our ordinary daily lives. Jesus was with her, comforting and healing her wounds yet still she experienced physical pain. I’m sure we can all relate that to our own lives. It is also distressing for me to believe that child abuse does exist. Clearly Melanie lived in a different era with different forms of abuse but abuse exists in today’s society. I want to reach out and put an end to it all and comfort and heal the afflicted, be Jesus’ hand in the world today…….hopefully I do so in small ways every day…the message of Our Lady of LaSalette is one that needs to be explored more deeply in my life and I don’t think was the focus of this book….so we will leave that to another blog session!

i thought this was a simple book to read. I found all the details to be a little tedious, and I kept wondering how the author could have come to know all the tiny details of Melanie's life. This made me a little skeptical of the authenticity of the information in the book. I think this detracted from the enjoyment of the book for me. I felt a little guilty after reading the other response to the book. I didn't come away with the same feelings. I was also impressed with the suffering s of her life, but I think too much was made of the secret. I kept expecting some amazing life changing information, and it was only about the corruptness of the French clergy. I found myself feeling doubtful about the whole thing. I'm not sure why. Having said this, I will say that Melanie's life was inspirational. We are so comfortable today as a culture, it seems almost unthinkable that only 150 years ago, the world was so awful to children and very little was done about it. Melanie had such amazing faith in the face of a harsh existence! It is all very difficult for me to make any parallels with Melanie in my own life. I focused on her relentless in pursuing a holy life. Am I even attempting such devotion? Sadly, I have the intention, but fall so far short of the mark that it is truly pitiful. I will be thinking of her sacrifices and suffering when the air conditioning isn't cold enough, or gas prices are too high. It is embarrassing to think that my little inconveniences bother me. Having the memory of the apparition of the Blessed Mother must have been an incredible consolation for her. I'm sure none of us can even imagine the effect that would have on a life. God Bless you, Melanie!
Donna

When I first began reading the book, I have to admit, I was a bit of a skeptic. The first descriptions of Melanie, as a three year old, had her speaking quite fluently with complicated sentence structures. I found it hard to take seriously. Then as I kept reading I realized that through Jesus and the Blessed Mother anything is possible. Obviously, Melanie was blessed by the Spirit in order to endure her trials and to accept and welcome them freely. I try to remember every day before my feet hit the floor to offer my day up to Jesus. My trials are meager compared to Melanie but Jesus accepts all offerings.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse's unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson's efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way. As the book moves into the post-9/11 world, Mortenson and Relin argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism in the region through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers' hearts. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine
While critics agree that Three Cups of Tea should be read for its inspirational value rather than for its literary merit, the book's central theme, derived from a Baltistan proverb, rings loud and clear. "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger," a villager tells Greg Mortenson. "The second time, you are an honored guest. The third time you become family." An inspirational story of one man's efforts to address poverty, educate girls, and overcome cultural divides, Three Cups, which won the 2007 Kiriyama Prize for nonfiction, reveals the enormous obstacles inherent in becoming such "family." Despite the important message, critics quibbled over the awkward prose and some melodrama. After all, a story as dramatic and satisfying as this should tell itself.