book reviews

The people must pray

YOU WILL MAKE THIS KNOWN TO ALL MY PEOPLE. 19th Century Apparitions in France. Edited by Brother Francis Mary Kalvelage, F.F.I. (Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, P.O. Box 3003, New Bedford, Mass. 02740, 1998), 182 pp. PB $12.50.

    The Blessed Mother appeared in France at Rue du Bac, La Salette and Lourdes. Everywhere her message was the same. The people must pray. Again and again this has been her plea. This book tells the story of these apparitions.

    The world sinks deeper and deeper into materialism and our heavenly Mother, loving with all her heart her children, comes to warn us we are on the wrong road. All mothers warn their children when they go astray.

    There are many pictures in the book to help a person understand these stories. The preface is by Father John Hardon, S.J. He states that we are living in extraordinary times. We need to read about how Mary has come to us and warned us to change our ways. She, the Refuge of Sinners, the Gate of Heaven, will help us, as every mother helps her children. And she loves us even more than our earthly mother.

    Father Hardon points out how this book shows our Blessed Mother’s interest in our world and in her children.

    The first apparition, Rue du Bac, was to St. Catherine Laboré. And the result of these appearances to Catherine, the kitchen Sister, was the Miraculous Medal. It has brought about many miracles and is worn by millions of people who put their trust in Mary.

    At La Salette the Blessed Mother appeared to two children. She told them to tell the people, “How long I have suffered for you! If my Son is not to cast you off, I am obligated to entreat him without ceasing.” We must pray, she told them, and change our ways.

    At Lourdes Mary, the beautiful lady, was seen in a series of visions by little Bernadette. Even though no one would believe her, Bernadette told of Mary. Her father at first thought she was imagining things. He slapped her. “Bernadette,” he said, “this cannot be true.” The little saint said, “But, Poppa, I did see the beautiful lady.”

Rev. Rawley Myers
Colorado Springs, Colo.

Exploring the mystery
of iniquity

CHILDREN OF THE BREATH: A Dialogue in the Desert. By Martin Chervin (DMJ Associates, P.O. Box 661, Oak Lawn, IL 60454, 1998), 242 pp. PB $14.50.

    Chervin is a name recognized and respected among those who read Catholic spirituality and philosophy. However this piece is not another by Ronda Chervin. Children of the Breath, which combines the clarity of philosophy with the music of poetry, is authored by Ronda’s deceased husband, Martin.

    Children of the Breath is a dialogue in the desert between Jesus and Satan, Jesus fasting and Satan sated, Jesus meek and Satan sadistic, Jesus sincere and Satan sly. For 242 pages the reader is privileged to oversee and overhear the great encounter between the Word and the liar from the beginning.

    We see the disguises of Satan, his repulsive nonchalance, his feigned reverence. We hear the pained response of Jesus to blasphemy. We learn not only about the nature of fallen Lucifer and the nature of the God-man, but also about our own nature. This is a wordsmith’s creative exploration of the mystery of iniquity, a literary examination of the roots of the modern angst and its cure.

    We see in Satan’s twisted intellect the source of much of the sacrilegious ignorance of our day. Questioning Jesus about the Father’s reason for Creation (which he refers to as the “crime of light”), Satan asks, “Was He [the Father] careless? Could it be called indolence? Was it less pride than playfulness . . . as simple as a cat’s paw in a ball of twine? The end product of boredom? In between a yawn and a snore? What ended the benign will that had left all at rest and motionless? Suddenly, the Word, the COMMAND! Why?”

    This is a work that Ronda Chervin describes as the work of a lifetime. Martin was a convert from Judaism and a teacher of philosophy in an age of atheist existentialists, and we find here answers to some of the questions that troubled him for decades. This is truly a composition from the soul and a composition directed to those troubled souls who ask how ugliness, lies and evil can be reconciled with the God of beauty, truth and goodness. If indeed we are Children of the Breath, clay given life in Genesis by the breath of God, then how is it that we feel such alienation?

    Satan’s answer to that question is that, “The flaw was already in Adam! The flaw entered the clay, Jesus! The flaw was the breath of God.” According to Satan, the world is flawed because it comes from the hand of a selfish God. “Why does God tolerate me?” Satan asks, “You want to know, why does God tolerate me? . . . Perhaps I, too, am a part of Him?”

    In a century in which the Jewish holocaust has been dwarfed by the holocaust of the unborn innocents, in a nation in which school children turn guns on one another, iniquity is ever more mysterious. Satan’s questions are ever more confusing.

    Chervin’s Jesus has the answer. Not so much in his reverence for his Father, not so much in his correction of Satan’s perverted beliefs, but in Jesus’ selfless, sacrificial love, he demonstrates that goodness is possible, that God is good, and that life is worth living.

    Jesus’ loving fast is the joyful contradiction to sad Satan. Jesus loves fallen man; he loves his Father, he loves Satan himself!

    Christ’s love is Chervin’s answer to Sartre and Nietzche, and Christ’s love is our way to become, more fully, Children of the Breath.

Rev. Anthony Anderson, S.O.L.T.

Friends in Christ

MAURICE AND THERESE: THE STORY OF A LOVE. By Patrick Ahern (Doubleday & Co., 1540 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10036), 284 pp. PB $19.95.

    One of life’s joys is finding a letter waiting for you in the mailbox from a friend, and what is more treasured than the cherished letters received long ago from a now departed loved one? To reread such letters is to feel very close to them once again.

    Bishop Patrick Ahern, auxiliary bishop of New York and an expert on the spirituality of St. Therese of Lisieux, has given us an opportunity to read “over the shoulders” of St. Therese and Maurice Belliere the letters they exchanged over a period of two years until Therese’s death. Maurice was aspiring to be a priest in 1895 when he wrote to the Carmelite Monastery in Lisieux requesting “that a nun devote herself particularly to the salvation of my soul, and obtain for me the grace to be faithful to the vocation God has given me, that of a priest and a missionary.” St. Therese was the nun chosen to pray for Maurice, and thus began a fascinating correspondence between a very ordinary seminarian and the greatest saint of modern times and future Doctor of the Church.

    The letters Maurice and Therese exchanged in the final years of Therese’s life are presented chronologically in Maurice and Therese. Each letter is followed by commentary and background information from Bishop Ahern. The warmth and charm of St. Therese radiate in her letters to the struggling seminarian. We learn alongside Maurice as Therese tutors him in her “Little Way” of spirituality. Even if you’re already familiar with St. Therese of Lisieux, you will get to know her better by reading these letters. Maurice was not of Therese’s caliber, but the encouragement and tenderness Therese offered him is beautiful to see and a real encouragement to all of us who feel weighed down by faults. Bishop Ahern’s comments reveal his love for the subject and provide behind-the-scene details about each letter, such as the state of Therese’s health as time went on, or Maurice’s setbacks in the seminary. I found Bishop Ahern’s description of Therese’s Little Way alone worth the price of the book. Bishop Ahern includes many interesting stories from the life of St. Therese in his comments. (You will want to find out what a famous person happened to be staying in the same hotel in Paris while Therese was a guest there before she entered Carmel!) The final section of the book deals with Maurice’s years in Africa and his subsequent physical and mental problems due to the disease he contracted from the bite of a tse-tse fly.

    This excellent little book was a delight to read, and it would be equally appealing to priest or lay person interested in St. Therese of the Child Jesus and her spirituality. We are indebted to Bishop Ahern for this chance to draw closer to Therese and Maurice by reading their engaging letters.

Mrs. Betty Wittman
Manassas, Va.

About chastity

A CHALLENGE FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR CHASTITY PROMOTERS. By Margaret Burleigh and Moira Vogel (Challenge Task Force for Chastity, 443 W. Main St., Cheshire, Conn. 06410, 1999), 122 pp. PB $45.00, plus $4.95 for P&H; tel 203/271-0185; e-mail: ctaskforcemv@hotmail.com.

    Margaret Burleigh and Moira Vogel are the national directors of the Challenge Task Force on Chastity. Together with other young women—Elizabeth Husted, Shannon McDonald, and Ellen Marie—they have put together a remarkable set of guidelines and recommendations about how to talk to students in grammar, high school, and college, as well as to adults, about chastity. Their approach is not, as they indicate, simply an “abstinence” program but one that presents and argues the positive contribution of chastity both to personal and public life. The program includes a 23-minute video entitled “Reality Check: The Truth about Sex,” a video, intended initially for teenagers, that the authors consider basic to their program.

    On first encountering this approach, one is not quite prepared for its thoroughness and even aggressiveness. Often the general practices and dubious customs of our society place on the defensive anyone speaking positively on a Christian and reasonable understanding and practice of sex. Burleigh and Vogel are, in fact, quite surprised by this situation in the light of the evidence. This is not a program that begins with Christian principles and argues deductively from them, though its understanding of these principles is often quite profound. Rather, it begins with what is happening, what are the facts, what is going on in our society. They do not talk, for example, about all the methods and devices to protect oneself from “unsafe sex.” Rather they consult the facts. How “safe” in fact are all these devices and chemicals? What do the facts say? The facts say that they are not safe. It is simply not true that the alternatives to chastity “work.” They don’t.

    Likewise, when it comes to the question of the sorts of diseases and to the extent that they are supposed to be “prevented” by various devices and pills, the facts again tell something quite different. “Safe sex” as it is taught and believed in our society is anything but safe, not to mention its permanent lethal-ness when it comes to abortion. The sexual revolution in our times has spread more disease than practically any other epidemic in human history. And the programs that claim to prevent it, probably contribute in various ways to its promotion. The thoroughness and frankness with which these consequences of our sexual deviations are treated are very effective.

    This program is designed as a teaching tool, but it is well worth reading by parents and others looking for some sane approach to guiding children or others in this delicate area. It is, in its own right, likewise as good a book on elocution as I have seen. Burleigh and Vogel are convinced that the case for chastity can be made to the young, especially by the young themselves. Therefore, there needs to be a frank, thorough plan for making the facts known. Thus, the book knows and teaches about the dangers of sex in terms of health and degradation of society. Yet, it is designed especially to teach why and how sex is a positive part of human life in the conditions of marriage and chastity in which this meaning can alone be seen.

    The book is well designed to accomplish its purpose. Each step of the way is presented in an orderly, straight-forward manner. Some of the chapter headings are: “What Does Chastity Have to Do with Me?” “How to Speak about Chastity in Public,” “Ice Breaking: Setting the Groundwork for Your Talk,” “Keys to a Challenging Chastity Presentation: Supplement: the Reality of Sexually Transmitted Diseases,” “How to Answer Questions before an Audience: Supplement: The Challenge Task Force on Chastity and Birth Control.”

    The problems that might come up are thoroughly anticipated. This book and video are not merely to be seen but to be used and passed on. It can be read independently but is most effective as a guide on how to present the case for chastity in a hostile, yet needful world. Once the program is mastered and organized, it is obviously a most effective teaching method. Even more, it is a very positive way to see the spiritual side of sex, something very much needed in all our schools, homes, and institutions. What is striking is the understanding of marriage and its importance that these young women present.

    Burleigh and Vogel carefully explain how to get started, how to become known, how to practice and present the case. Above all they insist on learning the facts and knowing where they can go to find further proof and discussion. They do not neglect prayer and have a realization that many will reject or be skeptical of their presentation. There is an excellent bibliography that indicates further information on any of the matters considered in the book.

    Margaret Burleigh is a graduate of the University of Dallas with a Master’s Degree in English from the University of St. Andrew’s in Scotland. Moira Vogel is a graduate of the Franciscan University in Steubenville. Both have taught in Catholic schools; Burleigh has worked for a year in a Crisis Pregnancy Center. This book makes clear how valuable these institutions like Dallas and Steubenville are for producing leaders who can think their way through the maze of modern ideology to devise programs to counteract it with well considered reasons and facts. This is a program that deserves widespread attention. It is one that will, I think, prove very useful to parents, schools, Protestant and Catholic clergy, and bishops who are looking for positive ways to teach this vital area of personal and religious life.

Rev. James V. Schall, S.J.
Georgetown University
Washington, D.C.

Confession to a priest

CONQUERING YOUR SINS WITH HEARTFELT REPENTANCE. By John A. Kane (Sophia Institute Press, Box 5284, Manchester, N.H. 03108, 1943/1999 reprint), 87 pp. PB $11.95.

    Fr. John A. Kane, a priest of the Philadelphia archdiocese, was the first pastor there to introduce all night adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. He had a flourishing school and a weekly class for adult Catholics. He was noted for his love of prayer and meditation. This book is a fruit of the wisdom he acquired during years of study and prayer.

    We are living in a period during which the Sacrament of Reconciliation is greatly neglected. Pope Pius XII warned European priests not to discourage people from going to confession. That error crossed the Atlantic and affected some priests and lay people in the United States. I can remember a time when Catholic priests heard confessions for an hour and a half on Saturday afternoons and for two hours on Saturday nights. As a member of the Dominican Mission Band I remember feeling exhausted from hearing confessions on a typical mission day. This book’s message is very appropriate, as would be a return of mission bands, so stupidly abandoned after Vatican II.

    On the mission bands there would be a good discussion of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. People would be urged to go to confession and to do it well. That is what Fr. Kane does in this book in a profound fashion. In the first chapter Father urges us to enter into a perennial penitential state. In the next chapter he tells us Jesus was seeking a permanent penitential state in St. Peter. He said after Peter denied him three times: “Lovest thou Me?” Jesus said that three times, perhaps reminding Peter of his threefold denial of Christ.

    Fr. Kane reminds us of the humiliation Jesus suffered for us. Confession to a priest may be humiliating. No one enjoys it. It is easier to do it in the Protestant way—to just look up to God and say: “I’m sorry.” However, as Father says, the seen affects us more deeply than does the unseen. We are more affected by confessing to a minister of Christ, the confessor, than we are by confessing sorrow before a God we cannot see. Also we have Jesus recommending auricular confession when he says to his apostles: “Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them, whose sins you shall retain they are retained.” Father gives another argument. He says: “A thought expressed is a more palpable reality than when it remains a mere mental existence.” A Catholic who has to examine his conscience and put into words what he has done, realizing he must have contrition and the purpose of amendment, is engaging in a very practical exercise. Jesus was very practical. That is why he gave this Sacrament in which one human being helps another human being along the rough road to sanctity.

    Read Fr. Kane’s book. Read it if you see you have been neglecting the Sacrament of Reconciliation. To neglect this Sacrament is to neglect the medicine prescribed by the Heavenly Physician.

Father Matthew V. Reilly, O.P.
Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary
Summit, N.J.

Tips on survival

HOW TO STAY CHRISTIAN IN COLLEGE: AN INTERACTIVE GUIDE TO KEEPING THE FAITH. By J. Budziszewski (NAV Press, Box 35001, Colorado Springs, Colo. 80935, 1999), 143 pp. PB; no price given.

    J. Budziszewski is a professor of philosophy and government at the University of Texas in Austin (see review of his Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law, in HPR, March 1999, 74-75). Budziszewski is something of a phenomenon. He writes frequently and brilliantly in, among other places, First Things and in the Human Life Review. He is a Protestant (of what denomination I am not sure) and, along with converts like Thomas Howard, Peter Kreeft, and Scott Hahn, one of the really effective and sane voices in explaining and promoting Christianity in the public order.

    This particular book, How to Stay Christian in College, is extremely valuable, witty, frank. It covers most of the bases—all that you really wanted to know but were too distracted to ask. Budziszewski knows the mind and soul, or lack of it, in academia—student, professor, administrator. He knows the sorts of problems students will meet in college life, the intellectual problems, the moral problems, the religious problems. Obviously, Budziszewski has talked to many students. He knows what sorts of temptations and enigmas they will meet at any college. He sees, to tell the truth, that there may be just as many problems at secular as at religious-based colleges and universities.

    Some of the chapter titles are “What God Thinks of the World,” “Myths about the Search for Knowledge,” “Myths about Love and Sex,” “Coping with Campus Social Life,” “Coping with Campus Religious Life,” and the “Meaning of Your Life.” One of the effects of reading this book for the average student is that he will be aware not just that there is a case to be made for Christianity, that is often obscured, ridiculed, or omitted in the university, but that it is possible to survive and cope with the often declining mores found in university social life in general.

    Budziszewski is nothing if he is not practical in these matters. He understands, for instance, what “dating” is—the serious search for a marriage partner. His discussions of sex of all forms outside of marriage is devastating in the way he reduces the arguments made for free love or alternative life styles to aspects of intemperance or selfishness. He outlines the sort of sneering attacks that students who seek to continue their faith will be met with in and out of the classroom. He also suggests calm and orderly ways to handle the typical arguments that will be presented against one or other Christian position. He points out that the main arguments against evolution today, for example, come not from Christians but from scientists themselves. He knows about relativism and post-modernism and the various other “isms” that students are likely to meet. He refuses to let the Christian student be naive or defenseless.

    The book also contains a very aggressive Protestant way to meet likely problems—find other believing Christians and campus fellowships, go to church, pray, read the Bible, find professors who are sympathetic to whom a student can talk. Budziszewski is quite convinced that the student is a social being and needs proper and reinforcing relationships that include a religious dimension. It would be difficult to find a better guide for college students who in fact seek to keep and indeed improve their religious faith while in college.

    This book will be quite useful for Catholics as well as Protestants. It is a very personal and engaging book. Budziszewski is frank about his own faith—he once lost it and came back —and its moral and intellectual supports. In the book, not surprisingly, there will be little or no mention of topics that are familiar to Catholics—Mass, Eucharist, Church, authority, bishops, confession, and so on. These are easily supplied. The book speaks of how to talk to non-believing friends, but little on, say, how to talk to Catholics, but that should not be a problem. The things in common are obvious, but it is well to recognize the differences and to be frank about them. Presumably, Protestant students will run into Catholic (or Jewish) students who will seek to “convert” them. Budziszewski knows that there is an evangelical aspect to the faith. Believers ought to make it possible to help others to believe—take them to church, give them a good book, give clear arguments and good examples, and so on. Budziszewski is not an “anti-reason” sort of Protestant, if there be such. He has done his intellectual homework on reason and knows its strengths and pitfalls, things often found in the university. He knows about Aristotle, St. Thomas, and St. Augustine.

    Certainly, I would give this book to any Protestant student I know. I would also, without hesitation, give any Catholic student in a college or university, secular or religious, a copy of this book. I would suggest for Catholic students—and this is not intended as a criticism of this book—that it needs to be accompanied by a copy of the following books: 1) The General Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2) Josef Pieper—an Anthology, 3) Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, and probably 4) John Paul’s Crossing the Threshold of Hope, with, at a minimum, his four encyclicals, Fides et Ratio, Evangelium Vitae, Centesimus Annus, and Veritatis Splendor. I would probably also include my own Another Sort of Learning. In fact, I am sure that Budziszewski would have no problem with any of these books and would recommend them for Protestant students as something they should know about. Certainly, this book will give Catholic students a very positive impression of the force of Protestant Christianity in particular. This is not a “denominational” book, but rather more in the spirit of C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, something that outlines the general problems and the Christian responses to them.

    But How to Stay Christian in College does something that is unique. Budziszewski is not a skeptic about knowledge, nor is he someone who shies away from citing Scripture as itself knowing something that we all need to know about human life and its purpose. Any student who reads this book, I think, will see here the work of someone who obviously knows college life, students, and what he is talking about. For those who worry about the condition of our colleges, this book is a breath of fresh air.

James V. Schall, S.J.
Georgetown University
Washington, D.C.

Back to Catholic Information Center Main Periodical Page

Back to Homiletic & Pastoral Review Table of Contents March 2000