Friday, November 8, 2013

Here is the reading list for the St. Alphonsus Great Books group through April 2014.

Please note that the sessions in December and January will meet on the second Thursday of the month.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves.  In this work, Lewis explores the differences between four kinds of love: affection, friendship, romantic love, and Christian love (agape).

An online version may be found at:

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. 

There are numerous versions of A Christmas Carol online, some with illustrations, some without:


Thursday, February 6, 2014

St. Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle.  This is St. Teresa’s classic work on the contemplative life.

An online translation may be found at:

Thursday, March 6

David Bentley Hart, The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss.  In this work, Hart critiques the demiurgic notion of God assumed or proposed by both the advocates of mechanical Naturalism, the dominant worldview of our age, and, often as not, even theists.

Thursday, April 3

St. Thérèse of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul.  This is St. Thérèse’s classic and hugely influential autobiography.  A recommended translation is The Complete  Therese of Lisieux (Paracle Giants), translated by Robert Edmonson.

Online versions may be found at:

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/therese/autobio.html

Monday, June 10, 2013

The texts for our next four sessions will be as follows.  We will continue to meet in the rectory of St. Alphonsus Church at 7:45.  Please note that we will not be meeting in July.

August 1, 2013:

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, Parochial Sermons:
            “Holiness Necessary for Future Blessedness”
            “The Immortality of the Soul”
            “The Religious Use of Excited Feelings”
            “The Religion of the Day”

Online versions of these sermons may be found at: http://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume1/


September 5, 2013:

Flannery O’Connor, Short Stories:
            “Everything that Rises must Converge”
            “Judgment”
            “A Temple of the Holy Ghost”
            “The Turkey”


October 3, 2013:

The Letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch.  St. Ignatius, the third bishop of Antioch, was an early martyr of the Church, dying around the year 100 A.D.  He wrote seven letters to the Churches along his route to Rome.  We will focus particularly on his Letters to the Magnesians, Trallians, and the Romans.

 Online translations of these letters may be found at: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/ignatius.html


November 7, 2013:

St. Athanasius, The Life and Affairs of Our Holy Father Antony.  This work by St. Athanasius is one of the seminal texts in the development of the Church’s understanding of the spiritual life.

An online translation of this work may be found at (one needs to scroll down a bit; the text begins after the italics with “Athanasius: Life of Antony):
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/vita-antony.asp

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

As we begin Lent and head into Easter, we'll be discussing the following texts on the following dates:


March 7: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

April 4: The Dark Night by St. John of the Cross

May 2: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

June 6: The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton