The first official Friends in High Places book club gathering was a tremendous success!  Daring to schedule a night in May for our meeting, we ended up with a good turnout and a great discussion on Fr. Martin’s book My Life with the Saints.  I think we learned a few things in the process, too- first, that this is a gregarious group in which newcomers fit right in.  Second, that we need to “tighten it up” a little in terms of time- what was meant to be a 2 hour gathering easily turned into 3…granted, we are new at this book-club-thing and were feeling our way along as we went.  Lastly, by focusing our discussion on the chapters of the book highlighting St. Jude, Blessed Mother Teresa, and St. Thomas Aquinas the “homework” was less daunting and more participant friendly.  Cheers to Fr. Martin for giving us a book that taught us a lot while reading like a personal story!

Our next book can fit in your pocket, quite literally.  Scott Hahn’s A Pocket Guide to the Bible is 79 miniature pages short but chock full of information on how Sacred Scripture was canonized, the Church’s role in compiling the books of the Bible, how the Bible is structured, and how Sacred Scripture and the liturgy of the Mass relate to one another.  It can be ordered from Amazon and will be a wonderful choice for easy summer reading on vacation or at home.  

There are some other books that would make for great summer reading as well:

1. Mentioned in My Life with the Saints’ chapter on Aquinas was G.K. Chesterton, a convert to Catholicism who is often called “the apostle of common sense.”  The Catholic Church and Conversion is his autobiography on his conversion process to becoming Catholic.  Also, Fr. Charles Connor has written a book called Classic Catholic Converts, in which he devotes a chapter to Chesterton.

2. To learn more about Blessed Mother Teresa and three other holy Teresas whose lives were exemplary models of fidelity and faith, read The Four Teresas by Gina Loehr.  You will enjoy their stories and appreciate their Christian witness.

3. Finally, for those of you who have a short attention span like I seem to have these days, there are two books that will enlighten you on Catholicism topic by topic- making them easy books to pick up and put down all summer long.  Catholic Answers to Catholic Questions covers everything from why Catholics and Protestants number the 10 commandments differently to why St. Timothy is the patron saint of stomach disorders.  Light of the World, a conversation between Pope Benedict and Peter Seewald, enlightens the reader on everything from the sex abuse scandal to the Church’s dialogue with Islam.  Seewald, a veteran journalist, was himself agnostic when he began his relationship with Pope Benedict, interviewing him on several other occasions.  Benedict XVI’s witness was a contributing factor to Seewald’s conversion to the faith.

Finally, we can’t forget the food from our gathering…all Italian related since we were officially honoring St. Catherine of Siena and her feast day of April 29.  Pizza, spinach orzo pasta salad, italian green salad, and lemon berry trifle were on the menu.     The pizza was different and easy to make- here is the recipe:

Take one Boboli pre-made whole wheat pizza crust.  Spread basil pesto on top (rather than tomato sauce).  Sprinkle goat cheese on top of the pesto.  Cut up figs and sprinkle them on top of the goat cheese.   Bake on pizza or cookie sheets at 450 degrees for about 12 minutes. I had never used figs before I tried this recipe, and I learned that they can be found in dry packaging in the fruit section of the grocery store.

So, three cheers for Fr. Martin, the communion of saints, and our book club members.  See you in mid-August!

Chick B