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When you haven’t got a prayer . . .

August 31st, 2010 by Bob Zyskowski

notre dame book of prayer cover

“The Notre Dame Book of Prayer” may very well be the most beautiful collection — and most beautifully printed collection — you’ll ever find of a volume of its kind.

This is a masterfully crafted work of art. It’s filled with satisfying words of praise, petition and gratitude, a gorgeous book you’ll want to keep nearby to search through for just the right words to pray yourself or to share with others. Skim it as I did, stopping by happenstance and being inspired, surprised and challenged at the wonderful spiritual lift that black letters on white pages offer on literally any and every page.

The authors of the prayers are an eclectic sort — Notre Dame grads and teachers but literally hundreds of others from Dag Hammarskjold to Knute Rockne, from St. Bernard of Clairvaux to Virgilio Elizondo.

There are prayers for every occasion you can think of, and for some occasions you’d likely never have thought of. Need a prayer as you begin retirement? It’s in there? How about a prayer for grandparents raising a grandchild?  And then there is the ”Prayer for Openness to New Experiences” by 9/11 martyr Father Mychal Judge:

“Lord, take me where you want me to go,

let me meet who you want me to meet,

tell me what you want me to say,

and keep me out of your way.”

The familiar and the new

You’ll recognize prayers you haven’t prayed since childhood (like the “Morning Offering”) and find new prayers you’ll wish you had known (like Pam Weaver’s “For Conflict with a Co-worker or Friend”).

If you do it, there’s a prayer for it. A Prayer for Librarians, a Prayer for Actors, a Prayer for Coaches. There is a prayer for pain and comfort, after suicide, for those with cancer, for those who cause suffering, and “A Couple’s Prayer to Heal a Hurt.”

Each of the book’s dozen sections includes a brief introduction, sometimes inspiring anecdotes, sometimes catechesis, all masterfully organized by editor Heidi Schlumpf. An index of titles and names joins a helpful subject index to make prayers on a specific topic or by a favorite author easy to find.

It’s all good. Blessings on the University of Notre Dame’s Office of Campus Ministry and Ave Maria Press for gracing our lives with something so richly diverse and inclusive to carry along on our journey back to the Father. — bz

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Reading about murder of Minnesota Catholic priest 10 years ago makes my blood boil all over again

August 31st, 2010 by Bob Zyskowski

collar and gun cover

“The Collar and the Gun,”

by Dean Urdahl

It took three weeks, but I finally finished Dean Urdahl’s historical fiction about the life and death of Father John Kaiser, a Minnesota priest who was murdered in Kenya in August of 2000. “The Collar and the Gun” is only a 232-page paperback, but for the sake of my rising blood pressure I found I had to put the book down after just about every chapter.

Each successive section of the story adds to the damning portrayal of corruption in government and to a horrific ending. And the reading of this North Star Press work brings an element of shame to Americans for what our own government did and did not do before and after Father Kaiser was shot in the back of the head.

Urdahl, a teacher and member of the Minnesota House of Representatives who lives near Grove City, MN, gathered the data and the stories about the missionary who spent 36 years ministering to the people of Kenya. Urdahl interview people there as well as those in this country who kept in contact with the priest who always kept his connection to his home Diocese of St. Cloud.

“The Rhino of the Poor”

We meet John Kaiser as a boy growing up on a Minnesota farm, but his story quickly jumps to Africa and the work he did as a member of the Mill Hill missionary order. He built churches and schools by hand, setting the beams and bricks himself, and he used the hunting skills he learned as a boy to help feed his parishioners in the Rift Valley area of Kenya.

He served several parishes and thousands of people, and became involved in seeking justice after watching his parishioners chased off the land they held deeds to, sometimes being murdered for resisting forces backed by ruthless, land-grabbing elected officials, including the leaders of area in which his missions lay and the president of Kenya himself, Daniel arap Moi.

When he challenged the country’s so-called “big men” they denied wrong doing yet warned him to end his involvement or suffer the consequences. No threats could stop Father Kaiser’s determination to help the Kenyan people be treated justly by their own leaders. Those he served came to call him “the rhino of the poor” for his refusal to back down in the face of danger to his life. When he collected statements from displaced farmers and publicly accused government leaders of stealing the land to line their own pockets, he became a marked man.

When two teenage girls came to him to tell of being raped by another civic leader, Father Kaiser challenged him personally and for all intents and purposes sealed his fate.

Moi and other Kenya politicians got rid of any opposition by simply having those people killed, and the newspapers that were controlled by Moi’s KANU party dutifully reported that the murdered either committed suicide or died in an auto accident. Father Kaiser avoided attempts to run him off Kenya’s rutted roads, but eventually he couldn’t escape his murderers.

Our FBI falls in line with dictator

As was the way in Moi’s Kenya, the first police on the scene declared Father Kaiser’s death a homicide, but soon after they were overruled and a suicide theory proposed.

Urdahl wrote that to verify the finding, “The Federal Bureau of Investigation was asked to come in from the United States. They agreed with the Kenyan pathologist that it was likely a suicide.” Urdahl implies that the U.S. made a deal with Moi to cover up Father Kaiser’s murder, because Moi offered access to the harbor at Mombasa in any Middle East conflict.

Suicide, however, appears to be frankly impossible. The Catholic Church asked a Norwegian doctor to do a post-mortem on his body, and he found that the gun that killed Father Kaiser was fired at a distance of approximately three feet from the head. To shoot himself in the back of the head, Father Kaiser would have had to have arms that were six feet long.

Of course we want to think the best of our country, but reading Father Kaiser’s story will make you wonder what it might take for the U.S. government to come clean on the cause of death of one of its own citizens, and on what it may have received in trade for our FBI lying about the murder of a priest at the hands of a corrupt and greedy dictator like Kenya’s Moi.

Besides crying out for justice for Father Kaiser, “The Collar and the Gun” should serve as a catalyst for Americans to do more reading about Kenya and other nations that receive U.S. foreign aid.

“The Collar and the Gun” is available for $14.95 at www.northstarpress.com.

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So your Catholic parish is asking you to be a catechist. Say ‘Yes’ with help from this planning aid

August 18th, 2010 by Bob Zyskowski

creative catechist planning guide cover

If you’ve ever been asked to teach a faith formation class and hesitated because you didn’t know if you could do it well, there’s an inexpensive booklet that will not only give you the confidence to do so but will assist you all throughout the class year.

Creative Catechist’s “Praying and Planning Guide” for 2010-2011 is readable for any adult, and as a teacher’s aid it offers ideas that are simple to put into practice.

It’s just 40 pages, but it includes:

  • Record keeping pages for 25 students with an attendance chart;
  • 2 helpful calendars — one a list of well-known saints’ feast days and the other a walk through the church year;
  • 5  no-fail suggestions for starting the year off right;
  • Tips for planning lessons;
  • More than a handful of good ideas for activities;
  • A very good breakdown of the Nicene Creed that would be a great beginning for any class.

The bulk of the booklet is its most useful part. For each month there is an example of a lesson plan to give catechists ideas about what to teach, what to stress, what to discuss and how to help that lesson be better absorbed. The three keys are 1) focus, 2) activity, and 3) materials.

Each week there is a blank space for catechists to write in the focus, activity and materials they need for that week’s lesson. It’s a great organizational tool that channels the focus on a lectionary-based path, but its greatest benefit may be that it has the potential to draw out the creativity of both catechists and their students. There’s a real emphasis on prayer, too.

Not every idea will be everyone’s cup of tea, of course. But using Creative Catechist’s methodology can’t help but give the most nervous volunteer the confidence to take on the great ministry of sharing the faith with young people. — bz

Creative Catechist’s Praying & Planning Guide is $5.95 per copy, with bulk rates available. See www.creativecatechist.org.

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Library find: Heroine considering abortion gets tangled in ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland

August 17th, 2010 by Bob Zyskowski

Night Crossing cover

“Night Crossing,”

by Don J. Snyder

Authentic history of the not-long-ago “Troubles” in Northern Ireland mix with a mid-life crisis for an American woman in “Night Crossing,” a compelling read that caught my eye in the library.

It was a 2001 release by Alfred J. Knopf, so this fast-paced, 277-page novel isn’t new. It is, however, one of the few works of fiction that I’ve come across that deals with the subject of abortion in more than a cursory, matter-of-fact, approving way. In real life abortion isn’t an easily made decision, and author Don J. Snyder does a good job of bringing the abortion decision-making process into his story without making it the focal point.

What is the focal point is the conflict that caused bloodshed in Northern Ireland for so many decades. Snyder uses the Aug. 15, 1998 car bombing in Omagh as the jumping off point for what turns out to be a chase-filled drama across the counties in the north of the Irish island. In real life, 29 people died and more than 200 innocents were injured from the blast that was pinned on a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army, a group that opposed disarmament and a peace settlement. But what role did the British government play in the affair?

Snyder hooks his readers early with the thought of complicity in the evil. How it rolls out makes for great reading. — bz

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Builder of first church in St. Paul had no easy life

July 27th, 2010 by Bob Zyskowski

Galtier biography cover

“Lucien Galtier — Pioneer Priest,”

by Marianne Luban

Minnesota history buffs, and especially Minnesota Catholic history enthusiasts, will appreciate the research that author Marianne Luban has gathered for this first biography of the priest who built the very first log church in St. Paul.

A street, a school, a plaza, an apartment tower and a handful of other entities in the Minnesota capital bear the name Galtier and pay homage to the interesting French missionary who saw a promising future for a bend in the Mississippi River and had the wisdom to force the former Pig’s Eye Landing to be renamed after the great Apostle to the Gentiles.

Father Lucien Galtier’s letters are the major source for this story, along with the letters of the pioneer bishops and priests who established the church in the Upper Midwest and historical records of the dioceses in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. Luban does an excellent job of getting across this tale of hardship and suffering, and her research gives new insight into the iconic figure whose name lives on long after his death in 1866 at the age of 54.

The French missionaries arrived in the New World zealous to convert the “barbarian” native people to Christianity, and they suffered greatly in their efforts. Luban helps us see Galtier as a somewhat different missionary:

“Galtier clearly did not view himself as an expendable sacrifice to the cause. He was a man who knew his own worth and became troubled when he thought his talents were being wasted. He did not shrink from his duty, as he saw it, but preferred to do it with a modicum of dignity. Comfort, of course, was out of the question, but the sheer deprivation Galtier face year after year seemed to him in aid of nothing but the breaking of the spirit.”

A complex man

The bulk of Galtier’s letters, then, are complaints to his bishop — nagging, whining and demanding. But Luban helps us see another side of the missionary through other sources.  The priest is said to have had a remarkable personality and power — “the face of a Caesar and the heart of a Madonna” — a strong, rich singing voice. And he was a workaholic.

We learn that although Father Lucien was sent to Minnesota to convert the Indians, he struggled with the Sioux language, and found that he preferred ministering to those who were already committed Catholics. Sent to build a church in Keokuk, Iowa, he took over an old house, “covered part of the back room, made a door, placed a small window, laid out a wood floor and plastered a little,” he wrote to Bishop Mathias Loras in Dubuque, but as was his want, he added:

“I don’t want to be all the time a plasterer, a carpenter, a cook, and others, but only a priest, a holy priest, and a priest a little more involved than in Keokuk.”

As interesting as the reading is and as informative as it is about the pioneer church in the mid-19th century, the material has the potential to be a much more.

What if…

First, the work needed a stronger editor and proofreader. There is a bad typo that moves an action inexplicably from 1843 to 1943. Also, no professional editor would have allowed an author to acknowledge that she asked an astrologer to come up with a personality profile of her subject.

No editor worth his or her salt would have allowed the text to go off on so many tangents.

Time after time Galtier’s biography wanders, sidetracked by anecdotes about other priests of the era. A good example is the tale about the  priest who shot one of the early bishops of Winona, MN. It’s as if in her research the author came across some juicy tidbit and couldn’t resist putting it in the book that was ostensibly a biography of just one priest.

Second, this really is good material — great research — but I couldn’t help but wonder how much impact it might have if done in another literary genre. Rather than the biography of one priest, the captivating stories of the lives of several priests who served the Upper Midwest in pioneer times would make an interesting and very readable historical novel.

Because Galtier wrote no autobiography, Luban has been led to make assumptions about him. That’s fodder more for a work of fiction, not biography. Second use of the material? — bz

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Best book you’ll read this summer has a quirky title

July 20th, 2010 by Bob Zyskowski

Guernsey-cover

“The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,”

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

A delightful read for any time of year, this New York Times #1 bestseller is a perfect summer treat now that it’s out in paperback.

The use of a string of letters to tell the story doesn’t even seem like a gimmick once Shaffer and Barrows pull you into this gem.

In the novel, Juliet Ashton is a journalist and author who finds herself intrigued by a request she receives in the mail from a resident of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands between France and England.

The setting is just a year after the end of World War II. Guernsey’s inhabitants had endured four years of occupation by the forces of the Third Reich, and woven through the novel is their telling what life was like as British citizens under German military rule.

Telling the story – all through “the post,” at Brits call the mail – are the members of the book club with the odd name, as cleverly drawn a group of characters as have ever won over your heart.

Not to give away the story, but there’s a bit of romance involved, a bit of drama, some must-turn-the-page excitement, but in a genteel, well-mannered, earlier-generations sort of way.

In the Dial Press small paperback version I picked up, this wonderful story is told in just 274 pages.

A yardstick I’ve come to use as my standard for good reading is if I don’t want a book to end. Suffice it to say that 274 pages were hardly enough. What a great work of literature. — bz

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Are Stieg Larsson’s novels really that good?

July 12th, 2010 by Bob Zyskowski

I’m behind the curve in getting to Stieg Larsson’s trilogy, but with beach time on vacation last week I finally got around to reading “The Girls with the Dragon Tattoo.”

It’s a page-turner, for sure, with unique story lines and original characters, pretty bloody and sexually wierd, demented in fact, promiscuous assuredly. But I had to keep reading, if only to see if my guesses to solve the mystery were on target.

Although I’ve read better books, on a 10-point scale the first book in the series is probably an 8. That’s better than average, and must have been because I went out and picked up book No. 2 — and the current bestseller — “The Girl Who Played With Fire.”

I’d love to know what others who’ve read any of Larsson’s works think.

One question that has popped up in book No. 1 and already in book No. 2 that I’m not even 100 pages into: Do the main characters have to have sex with everyone they meet? Like right away, too? — bz

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Did you ever want to be someone else?

July 12th, 2010 by Bob Zyskowski

sivu cover

“Sivu’s Six Wishes,”

by Jude Daly

Be careful what you wish for is advice that’s easy to give.

Be happy with who you are, and be grateful for the gifts you already have might be even better advice.

All are lessons storyteller and illustrator Jude Daly shares in this colorful book for children ages six to 10, a 32-page work from Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.

In this retelling of the folk tale of  “The Stone Cutter” from ancient Taoist China, Daly updates the story to modern times.

Her stonemason hero Sivu can carve marvelous objects from stone, but his desire  for wealth, possessions and most of all power leave him envious. His desires take over his thoughts to the extent that he mysteriously becomes whoever and whatever he wishes he were.

What happens to Sivu as a result makes for the kind of story that is sure to keep children’s interest.

Adults might encourage young people to take a longer and deeper look at the wit and creativity in the eye-catching illustrations that help tell the story. There are details that bring a chuckle or two and opportunities to make further points and teach additional lessons. — bz

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Catholic and want to know more about Jesus?

June 28th, 2010 by Bob Zyskowski

Jesus cover

“Jesus,”

by Paul Johnson

Ever felt uncomfortable discussing religion in a mixed-faith setting because you don’t feel you’ve really “kept up” with matters of faith?

Paul Johnson’s brief (226 pages) easy-reading story of Jesus — subtitled “A Biography from a Believer” — will get you up to speed with some facts Catholics should know. It will also remind you what Christianity values and why you value your faith life. Johnson is an unabashed cheerleader for the faith, and he writes early on that he wants to share “the joy and nourishment” of following Jesus’ footsteps and pondering his words.

Although I’ve read a lot of religious material, reading “Jesus” gave me a much better mental picture of the era in which he walked this earth, helping me place his life in the time of not just Julius Caesar but Ovid, Livy and Seneca, the Romans whose writing has put life in the Roman Empire into our hands.

But I’d hesitate before giving Johnson my complete trust as a biographer or historian, and I think he’d find that perfectly acceptable.

Meet a new Jesus

In my notes I kept jotting down “first I’ve heard of that,” which did make me suspicious that some of Johnson’s “biography” might be suspect. For example, he writes that Mary was a source for Luke’s gospel, that Jesus’ baptism was witnessed by a large crowd, that one task of the apostles was to “protect” Jesus, and that Jesus’ “few days of rest were spent fishing.”

What these might very well be called would be “guesses.” Johnson says they are “mere deductive supposition.” When he describes Jesus’ appearance and the way he held himself, I’d call that analysis without basis of fact. Yes, Jesus did teach at meal time, but did he “love” to?

But whether or not Jesus could recite Homer and Virgil is less important than the aura of Jesus that I think readers will get about the subject of this “biography.” You’ll meet a new Jesus here, one you’ve likely never thought about in the same way.

Johnson offers us a pleasant, colloquial way of absorbing Jesus’ teachings in somewhat of a condensed version of the gospels, and he follows up by explaining why Jesus taught those lessons.

Don’t miss the homilies

The most useful section of the book may be Johnson’s explanation of why Jesus came and what Johnson charges might be a “New Ten Commandments” Jesus taught. You can see the list below, but it’s Johnson’s writes a page or more about each, and every one could serve as a homily worth hearing.

Johnson calls Jesus’ teachings a moral and social framework that have been invaluable to our world, and, if this book were this section alone it would be enough to inspire every Christian to re-commit themselves to following Jesus’ more closely. Here’s the best part:

“Human progress has proved an illusion as often as not. In many ways our society is no better organized and led than in those weary days two m ago when men like Herod and Pilate ruled. Insofar as we have improved — in the way we look after the poor, the sick, the infirm, the powerless; in our treatment of children; in moral education and training; in penology and the redressing of grievances; in the effort to spread material welfare and to encourage people to show kindness to one another and help their neighbors in difficult times — these improvements have come about because we have had the sense, the sensibility, the intelligence, and the pertinacity to follow where Jesus led. If goodness has a place in our twenty-first century world, it is because Jesus, by his worlds and actions, showed us how to put it there. No other man in history has had this effect over so long a time, over the whole of the earth’s surface, and over such a range of issues.”

If that’s not enough evidence to believe in God, I don’t know what would be. — bz

“Jesus’ New Ten Commandments”

1. Each of us must develop a true personality. We have a duty to be aware of our existence as an act of God’s creation

2. Accept and abide by, universality. Each soul is unique, but each is part of humanity.

3. Respect the fact that we are all equal in God’s eyes.

4. Love is a must in human relationships, at all times and in every situation.

5. We are to show mercy just as God shows mercy to us.

6. Keep balanced; don’t be an extremist.

7. Cultivate an open mind.

8. The pursuit of truth, unabridged, simple and pure, unstained by passion, is the most valuable of human activities.

9. Use power carefully, and pay due respect to the powerless.

10. Show courage.

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Just what Catholics — and the world — need: Real-life advice for (almost) everything

June 14th, 2010 by Bob Zyskowski

Jesuit Guide cover

Are you curious about the Catholic faith?

Or are you a Catholic curious about a book with an intriguing-if-boastful title?

You both will love Father Jim Martin’s “The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything.”

First the curious: Read this 400-page HarperOne book from cover to cover and , well, if there was a test to get become a Catholic, you’d learn enough to pass, maybe even get a gold star!

And you faithful Catholic? This book is a powerbar that will build the intellectual muscle of your faith, fill in the gaps from the times you weren’t paying attention in religion or CCD class, remind you of  details about your faith you may have forgotten and fuel the love you have for being part of a vital, stimulating, tradition-laden church.

More than just empty calories

For a while after buying Father Jim’s book I would open it at random pages and browse, snack on parts of chapters and nibble at the dozens of boxed anecdotes and sidebars.

Distracted by real life, I’d return — like the snack-food junkie that I am — when I needed a burst of hope and enthusiasm for the my own spiritual life. Father Jim would hit the spot with his obvious love of his priesthood, his storytelling approach to explain complex theological nuances and his wonderful use of an incredibly diverse variety of sources.

Eventually the tasters weren’t enough, and I went back to read this excellent book from the beginning.

No matter where you are on your spiritual journey — and maybe especially if you don’t know what spirituality is and doubt you’re on that kind of journey — “The Jesuit Guide” will fill you up and satisfy.

Not just for Jesuits

Being the member of the Society of Jesus that he is, Father Martin’s base ingredient is St. Ignatius Loyola and the “way of proceeding” that that 16th-century Spaniard taught his followers. As Father Jim writes, it has “led people to more fulfilling lives for over 450 years.”

It’s not just for priests and brothers. The gift that Father Jim offers are ways that you and I can make use of Jesuit tools to live happier, holier and more satisfying lives. They’ll help you answer questions like the following that appear early in the book:

  • How do I know what I’m supposed to do in life?
  • How do I know who I’m supposed to be?
  • How do I make good decisions?
  • How can I life a simple life?
  • How can I be a good friend?
  • How can I face suffering?
  • How can I be happy?
  • How can I find God?
  • How do I pray?
  • How do I love?

Of course The Spiritual Exercises play a key role, and the “Examen” portion of the exercises leads the way. Father Martin makes them understandable and usable — and you’ll have such a good time reading about them that you may not notice that you’re learning.

What will you learn? Well, how to see God, for one thing. How, as an adult, to think about and relate to God. About desire and prayer and sex and “downward mobility.” About every other page, too, you’ll read a paragraph that you want to cut out and tape to your mirror so you read it every morning. For example:

“Religion can provide a check to my tendency to think that I am the center of the universe, that I have all the answers, that I know better than anyone about God, and that God speaks most clearly through me.”

There are dozens and dozens of those kind of wise statements from the author, but even better may be the myriad of sources he quotes about almost every topic he touches upon. Any they come from all worlds.

He quotes Henri Nouwen and Peggy Lee.

Quotes come too from C.S. Lewis, W.H. Auden, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and cartoons from the New Yorker magazine. Sprinkled throughout are pertinent anecdotes from the well-known and the unknown.

Easily digestible and good for you!

It’s deep thinking with a light hand on the tiller, great advice that’s not just for remembering but to lead his readers  to examine themselves and their lives and to act, to think and to change if need be. It’s all well and good to learn how to find God, how to see God’s hand in our lives and how to pray well, he points out, but eventually you have to do something.

“Prayer should move us to action,” Father Jim writes, “even if it simply makes us want to be more compassionate and faithful. Entering into a relationship with God will change us, will make us more loving, and will move us to act.”

Along the way Father Jim sneaks in stuff about the Jesuit saints, but more importantly he explains what the Catholic Church teaches and why on any number of subjects, including what happens at Mass, different forms of prayer, and Catholic ways of looking at human sexuality, among other things.

“The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything” explains in simple language, conversational style and a warmly pastoral personal touch what I wish everyone knew about our church and what it means to be a Catholic. It’s a catechism for real life. Get a copy, read it, and pass it on to someone you love. — bz

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