Reading

A Cry of Stone by Michael O'Brien

This is another fantastic novel by Michael O'Brien. If you have not already read his Fr. Elijah, then stop reading here, go buy the book and read it. It will be much better than anything I will ever write.

A Cry of Stone is the latest book in the "Children of the Last Days" series. It does something that I would have thought almost impossible before I read it: It presents true poverty of spirit as something desirable and attractive. O'Brien gives an account of the entire life of a poor (fictional) native woman from northern Canada. Her name is Rose, and she has known great deprivation from her earliest memory. The novel shows how God uses Rose in so many ways. She is constantly aware of her weaknesses and smallness, but she just as constantly offers her entire self to the Lord. It is an amazing book.

In the Fullness of Faith by Von Balthazaar

A series of reflections on the "distinctively Catholic" elements of the Catholic Church. Very insightful.