Catholic Book Club

I applied for, and quickly received, the free Catholic.com booklet by Jimmy Aikin entitled Inside the Mind of Pope Francis, which I recommend. It's very short (49pp) but well-written and raises numerous interesting issues. Curiously there is no table of contents, here are some of the most interesting sections:
Biography p4
Learning About Pope Francis p 14
Simplicity, Humility, Opposition to Abortion p15
Defence of Marriage p16
Recognizing the Reality of the Devil p17
Aikin's comments about certain church issues are useful, although his remarks about what the Pope will do seem presumptuous, despite his using a question to introduce the section p30. The issues he comments briefly on are the poor, reform Curia, Vatican Bank, Secretary of State, and evangelization.

Hi eschator83,

Yes, I do realize that we have had almost no response in regards to this book. It has been my observation that most people do not want to make the commitment that it takes to read faithfully and then to post it here on the group. Some are bashful, but many want to go off on tangents and bring up fiction books etc. I had to stop that and when I did that I lost one of the members. I also wanted to limit the books being covered at one time and that seemed to be a problem also.

This is one of the reasons that I began to type out some of the sections. I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to learn from reading, if not from discussing. You ask detailed questions and even if the others don't always understand them, as you explain why you think the way you do, then others have the opportunity to learn from your words. That is valuable, I believe!

As to the link to "groups." Quite frankly it is a pain the way they have cut the groups off! I either get on by following a link in my email or I go directly to my profile and click on the groups there. I have no idea what their reasoning was for their decision! If you think it will help, then please complain!

I haven't had the time to really sit down and read through the books that I purchased, but what has been observed about his life speaks much more loudly to me than the words that he speaks. Words are easily misconstrued--lives that are lived are not.

What little I have read about his previous life, it sounds like he is a humble man with no need for the fancy trappings that other people in his place might be tempted to make use of. He lived in a small apartment and paid his own bills. He has been elected Pope of Our Church and while that may pose problems for some, I figure that the Lord has all of this under control and he is not worrying that Pope Francis will take off with his own agenda

As to wanting a "poor Church," would that be so bad? I appreciate all the beautiful Churches that are out there around the world, but in the end, the Church is more than its economic worth--is it not? I don't think the Lord is worried about the gold and precious stones, I think he is more concerned with the condition of our hearts and just between you and me I would say that we, as a people, are loaded with heart trouble!!

Let's give Our Pope some time and space to see what he will do and who he will be. In the meantime, lets pray and draw ever closer to Our Lord so that we will each know how we are to live in our everyday lives. Because its this that we are responsible for; not the affairs of the hierarchy. We need to trust that God is indeed in control and that He will see us through whatever comes!.

________________

After the Corpus Christi reflections, we have just 3 more groups in the Seek book, a total of 9 reflections. It might be nice to do the May Devotions in May, if we have time, although it is sad there has been so little response. Does anyone know why the link to groups was removed? Could it have been an error, maybe the powers that be don't see it?
I suspect that interest in Pope Francis might be higher; I've now read most of the New World book. Much of info comes from just a few sources, but it's interesting, although the author's comments on Church problems seem rather arrogant. I've been fretting about the Pope's repeated remarks about wanting a poor Church--but friends tell me he means poor in spirit, not giving away our buildings and relics, although they are vague about how they know this. Anybody know?

Over the years, several of my teachers have stressed that I would learn much more if I read the actual writings of great authors, rather than just reading books about them by authors who were much less great. That made sense--and eventually (c1980) I bought the Encyclopedia Brittanica Great Books set of 54 volumes, plus a wonderful summary called the Great Conversation (as if the writers could respond to the ones who had written before them--which in essence they actually did) and another two-volume summary called the Great (100) Ideas.
I think it is still generally believed that Socrates never wrote anything, and Plato is by far the best source of Socratic teaching--mostly by questions. I keep promising myself I'll get through at least some of the first few Dialogues (Socrates talking with others, written by Plato) especially those on Tolerance, Friendship, and Courage, but there is so much allusion to sensuality and sodomy I get turned off and give up. Aristotle is much different and better--I'm struggling to read both Rhetoric and Logic--but the complexity of both may be more than I can handle on my own. I wish I had a class or book club session.
As for Fr John--his last poem in my edition is this:
The Sum of Perfection
Forgetfulness of creation,
Remembrance of the Creator,
Attention to what is within,
and to be loving the Beloved.

I cannot understand what seems dreadfully ego-centric,
nor Fr John's hyper- sensuality, even though I well know it has precedent in the Bible Song of Songs. But why--this is not Caritas--where is Awe, Reverence? I think we forget--at our peril--that fear is the beginning of wisdom. I might have voted to leave Fr John in jail.

Well, I haven't read that much philosophy yet, I've been looking for a book to help introduce me to it, what got me started was when i was reading Ascent, Holy Father John quoted Aristotle a lot. That book sounds like a good read, what have you learned about the Holy Father so far?

God bless,

@ eschator83 (Sorry for the late reply ) oh cool you take philosophy, is there any books you'd recommend on Socrates or Aristotle? And I'm sorry, but i don't know any books on Pope Francis.

God bless,

A book by or about Pope Francis is an excellent idea, although I would have no objection to finishing our conversation on the Seek book. There are 10 forum threads on Ascent--so we can join any of those too. I just can not find the spirituality, nor the virtue, of that Dark Night poem, and I can't seem to get far beyond it, either. Could there be some fundamental message that I'm missing?