Pope For A New World, Pope Francis, by Howard Chus-Eoan and Time Contributors

This ninety-six page special edition of Time Magazine is devoted to the Roman Catholic Church, and particularly to its leadership during the 2,000 (+) years since its foundation-- from St. Peter to its latest successor, Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, the "New Shepherd," who "brings a spontaneous approach to a church full of old problems." He was born in 1936 in Buenos Aires, of an immigrant family from Turin, Italy. As he began college he chose the priesthood over a career in chemistry. He was eventually ordained a priest, shortly before the difficult and dangerous 1970's and early '80's, when Argentina was ruled by a military regime. Instead of becoming involved, as some priests were, he stayed close to the church. He became a Jesuit, and after a number of years was elected Provincial of the Order. He was appointed Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and three years later was made a Cardinal by Pope John Paul II.

Despite his positions of honor, Pope Francis is noted for his humility. As a cardinal he rode on the bus and the subway. He lived in a simple apartment and made his own meals. For years he visited regularly a large slum in the district of Barracas where 45,000 people lived, the poor, unemployed, laborers, servants--humble people who were considered of no account. Each year on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, he would celebrate Mass in the tiny church of the Virgin of Caaupe, dressed as n ordinary priest . And later he walked among the people and blessed every image of The Virgin that was held out to him. It is said that 60% of the homes there have a photo of him, and he was universally venerated by the people.

Even after his election, Pope Francis continued in a humble way--choosing to stand while greeting the Cardinals instead of sitting on the papal throne, walking down to greet a Cardinal in a wheelchair, and appearing for the first time as Pope wearing a white Cossack and with an iron cross, not the customary red cape and the ornate golden cross. The next day he took the bus with the rest of the Cardinals instead of riding in the papal limousine, and he stopped by personally to pay his bill at the hotel where he stayed before the conclave. He considered his main task as leader of the Church was the one given to Peter: "Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, " --to be a lowly servant of his people. Undoubtedly his service as Pope Francis, as well as choosing the name of Francis of Assisi, the "Little poor man," will reflect his humble stance, and his ideal of humble service.

More details are given regarding Pope Francis' election and his first days in office, his life as a Jesuit, the papacy in general, and his immediate predecessors, Benedict XVI and John Paul II and the legacy they left, including some unfinished business. Pages are devoted to the 265 popes who have gone before -- the famous and the infamous, those who "changed history" , and the present state of the Church. Pope Francis has many challenges: to meet the needs of the rapidly growing flock in Africa and Latin America, to spur on and re-energize the Catholics in Europe and North America who appear to be growing tepid, to reform the Curia, to continue to heal sex-abuse victims, to give an active role to women in Church service and leadership, to improve the relationship between the Church and non-Christian religions, and to re-fashion the Church into a body of humble service in the way of St. Francis He asks for our prayers.

Book Review - A Promise of Presence (Second Form) by Bridget Mary Meehan and Regina M. Oliver

Book Review - A Promise of Presence (Second Form)
Weekly Reflections and Daily Prayer Activities, by Bridget Mary Meehan and Regina M. Oliver.

This small book is a gem! Each of the fifty-two chapters, for the fifty-two weeks of the year, is divided into seven segments, for the days of the week. The chapters begin with a Scripture quote and a reflection, followed by prayers and activities related to the Scripture theme, for each day of the week. Some of the prayer activities are brief, interior love responses, and others are longer, including many suggestions for concrete actions on behalf of the person or the intention being prayed for, and also suggestions for journaling. Each chapter includes additional Scriptures and ends with a prayer from the heart directed to our loving God. Love and genuine concern permeate the book -- a tender, shared love between God and the person praying, and a benevolent love of God for each person and for all of creation.

Bridget Meehan and Regina Oliver are members of the Sisters for Christian Community. They wrote this book collaboratively, but each is the major author of their particular section and has left her initials to indicate that. They intend the book to be only a guide to prayer, letting God take the lead. The titles of the chapters include "Opening to Our Gifts", "Discovering Your Vision", "Seeing as God Sees", "Infinite, Boundless Love", "The Oneness We Share", "Becoming Christ's Presence", "Life Eternal--Now", "The Reality of Peace", and "Something to Die For." Each of the twenty-eight chapters is an entity in itself with its own theme and not related to the others. The Power of Presence is beautifully written, and besides being a wonderful prayer guide it can also be an inspiration to the reader and a help to deeper her love of God and love for others.

Since it is meant to be used daily, it would be best for each reader to have an individual copy, or at least one readily available. It is a small book, and inexpensive. I think it would be difficult to find a prayer guide better than this!

Sr. Ruth Nistler, OSF

Book Review - FALLING UPWARD, A Spiritually for the Two Halves of Life, by Richard Rohr.

Fr. Richard Rohr, director of the Center of Action and Contemplation in Albuquerqe, which he founded, is the author if over twenty books and an internationally known speaker and retreat director. In this book he uses the term "Two Halves of Life" introduced by Carl Jung, and he elaborates on each of these halves with countless descriptions of each. He claims that no one can reach the "Further Journey" without undergoing the first journey, with its falling, stumbling, learning, growing, conversion and discovery of the True Self.

In the first half of life we build a "container" or self-identity ; in the second we fill it with what it was meant to hold. Much of this is encountered rather than planned, as the future is an unknown mystery and adventure to the "first-half traveler." Our life is meant for returning to God the "blueprint" we were given, with our own personal stamp. Without doing this, our life has little meaning. Fr. Rohr says that finding our True Self in the first half of life depends on the time allotted to us, and how we use our freedom. And some of us may never find our True Self. He uses Homer' The Oddesy, with the trials, falls and errors he endures as he returns home from the Trojan War, symbolic of our life's journey. No one can escape the falls, trials and suffering that are an inevitable part of the first life. In fact, these become the building blocks for a satisfying second life.

The author uses the trampoline as a symbol of the falling down and falling upward that is a part of all human life, and he points out that often the farther we fall down, the farther we can fall upward. He also speaks of Christianity and Scripture and our relationship with God throughout the book and gives endless descriptions of persons still in the first half of life and those who have "made it" into the second half, where life's problems, dilemmas and difficulties are now resolved by falling upward into a larger "brightness." You will find the book insightful and thought-provoking.

Book Review - The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison.

This small novel, Winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature, is the story of an 11-year old black girl in America, Pecula Breedlove. Her love for blonde, blue-eyed children is so great that she prays constantly for her eyes to turn blue -- so others would look at her and admire her. She feels she is ugly and that no one likes her. Children won't sit by her in school, and she has few friends. If only her eyes would be blue she would be loved and admired…she thinks.

She has no love at home, with her father a drunkard and wife-beater, her mother a strange sort of woman with strange friends. In fact, the book itself seemed strange to me when I began reading it. But "strange" is not what one calls a Nobel Prize book! I soon found it most unique, different, and at times most creatively written, as: "Hereisthehouseitisgreenandwhiteithasareddooritisverypretty…" There are escapades that Pecula and her black friends are involved in, pages of conflicts between blacks and whites depicting stereotype racial patterns, colloquial language at times, such as: "What's she gone do? The mama?" "Keep on like she been, I reckon. He taken off."--(after a friend discovers that Pecula, then 12, is pregnant, having been raped by her father.)

The book is a bit raw at times, and puzzling. The author ends with an 8-page "Afterward" that explains some of what could puzzle the reader. A review in the New York Times offers the comment that "Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye is an inquiry into the reasons why beauty gets wasted in this country. The beauty in this case is black. (Her) prose is so precious, so faithful to speech, and so charged with pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry… but it is also history, sociology, folklore, nightmare, and music." I invite you to read the book and see what you think.

Book Review - The Making of the Pope, 2005, by Fr. Andrew M. Greeley.

Fr. Greeley is a distinguished sociologist and bestselling author; a professor of social sciences at the Universities of Chicago and of Arizona, and a research associate at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. He has done perceptive analyses of events and political forces in the Roman Catholic Church. He tells of the daunting task of selecting the next pope after the twenty-six year's leadership of the charismatic and socially conservative Pope John Paul II. The potential candidates were as many as twenty shortly before the conclave began in 2005.

American Catholics admired and loved John Paul, but were less prone to respect his authority. Following Vatican II, American Catholics were increasingly dismissive of papal authority, Europe appeared to be more and more secular, and the more conservative Catholics of the Third World were seen as the hope of the future. The Catholic Church since the Vatican Council had become destabilized, causing crises, confusion and conflicts. In analyzing the Post-Vatican Church, Fr. Greely claimed that the most serious problem was communication on every level. The new pope, along with other Church leaders, would need above all to listen. It appears that Pope Benedict XVI was considered to be the one who could best ensure stability and continuity after Vatican II and John Paul II's long term of leadership. At 78 and in poor health, he himself said his would not be a long papacy. His principal aim was to renew the faith in Europe and around the world. (He very likely did not know in those early days that he would soon resign.)

Fr. Greeley's description of the 2005 conclave is most fascinating: First ballot… black smoke; second ballot…black smoke; third ballot…black smoke; fourth ballot…jet black smoke, then turned to gray. People shout, "It is white!" Ten minutes later the bells of St. Mary's begin to ring. Way up front German Flags are waving, especially flags of Bavaria. German bands are playing. The crowd is going wild! All are sure it is Cardinal Ratzinger. He is being received wildly by some people. Some women are squealing as though he were Frank Sinatra.! (shortened version.) Why did he choose the name Benedict? An Italian became pope in 1914,a pastoral and sensible man, and he chose the name Benedict. He wanted to be known as a healer. This is what our Pope Benedict XVI wants to be.

Fr. Greeley says Pope Benedict is misunderstood by many. He gave a brilliant homily in the Mass that ended the conclave, filled with grace and charm….and copied in full in this book. In his Concluding Reflections Greeley adds ten revealing quotes from our Pope Benedict on key concepts; and while John Paul II was still in office, the official survey center in Chicago asked a series of seven questions of the laity in 7 countries..Italy, Poland, Cermany, Spain, Ireland and the United States.

Vatican II, We've Only Just Begun, by M. Basil Pennington, O.C.S.O.

Book Review -

On October 12, 1962, over 2,000 Bishops, the largest assembly of bishops the world has ever seen, entered the largest church in Christendom, convened by the elderly Vicar of Christ on Earth, to begin Vatican II, a Church Council during which God would send the Spirit to the Council Fathers-- to listen to what the Spirit had to say to the churches today. They were men of every tribe and nation --men of great learning and little learning, pastors, thinkers, pragmatists, forward thinking and traditionalists, men who had very different ideas as to what the Spirit would be telling them.

The author assumed everyone knew who the convener was. It was "the old man who had ended up on top of the heap" as Venerable John XXIII called himself. And they soon knew that it was he who would be not only the convener, but also the inspiration of the Council --even though he was to die within the first year. The 4th morning Cardinal Lienart of Lille, whom Fr. Pennington called "a true Council Father", got up and declared his conviction that the Council would be these men assembled, who would tell the Church what the Spirit of God told them to say.

They worked hard, long hours, for four years .. 1962 to 1965 … honestly trying to discern the voice of the Spirit. As Christ, their Head, had become Incarnate, so this body of the Council Founders, were men, incarnate, with differences, insecurities and weaknesses as were the apostles they represented. Many became well-known in the course of time, but Cardinal Lienart was the only Father mentioned by name, (except for Pope John Paul II and a small number of other popes.) One other, not a Council Father, Thomas Merton, was given special mention as the person, more than anyone else, who inspired the faithful to a higher life in the Spirit during those four years.

Of all the documents of Vatican II, Fr Pennington highlights the following as of particular significance: The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy was one of the first document promulgated, --the first self-conscious statement of the council fathers as to " what they saw themselves to be about." Of The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, along with the Dogmatic Constitution concerning Church is " one of the foundational pronouncements of Vatican II." He calls The Pastoral Constitution on Church in the Modern World "the document that most properly belongs to Vatican II." -- It "consummates and completes" the work of the Father s." --" a very explicit call of the work of the Council to go on."

In the 30 years since Vatican II, some have said "Vatican II is dead." Others say "Vatican II is alive," but perhaps the truest evaluation is that this magnificent Council is not yet finished. As Fr. Pennington says in the title of his book, "We've Only Just Begun."

Ecological Footprints by Dawn M. Nothwehr, OSF, PhD.

Book Review – Ecological Footprints. An Essential Franciscan Guide for Faith and Sustainable Living, by Dawn M. Nothwehr, OSF, PhD., 2012 copyright,  St. John’s, Collegeville

This comprehensive book covers all aspects of Ecological study and it includes not only scientific data but also a vast number of writings from other sources, -- Sts. Francis and Clare, St. Bonaventure, John Duns Scotus, Ilia Delio and other well known Franciscans; quotes from The Old and New Testament and from Church Documents concerning the Care of the Earth. Each section ends with Reflection and Discussion Questions, comments on Franciscan Ecotheology, and practical suggestions for action., plus a sizable Index. It could very well serve as a valuable tool for a Book Study.