Brian's reading and music blog

  For some time as an adult I have struggled with a dependency on alcohol and have been attending twelve step recovery groups, in particular Alcoholic Anonymous. The primary book of AA fellowship is the Big Book, as it is called, written by the cofounder of AA, Bill Wilson. It has become a large part of my life. Like Holy Scriptures it offers the possibility of finding a life on a new footing, based on a spiritual life. One of the more interesting chapter in the book describes how a hopeless alcoholic received therapy from the eminent  Dr. Carl Jung in Switzerland before the development of AA. He asked Dr Jung in desperation if there was any hope of him recovering from his alcoholism. Dr Jung remarked that there was little hope for such serious alcoholics as himself except for the possibility of a total spiritual reorientation of his being,  which he says has occurred in some alcoholics. He had been trying to encourage this in his patient.  As a Roman Catholic one wi...

  For many years now, particularly since becoming a Catholic, I have been reading theological works, not solely literary or secular philosophical works as I used to. I have tried to immerse myself in the best of them. For some time now I have been periodically dipping into the works of the Angelic Doctor, St Thomas Aquinas. I have had many different feelings about Thomas, not always totally positive, but slowly growing much more positive with age.  His method has often been viewed as cold, dry and hyper rationalistic by some detractors as well as an over reliance on Aristotle’s philosophy . His thought and writings were  taken by the Catholic Church to be canonical and authoritative and after Pope Leo XIII, the primary theologian and philosopher taught in all seminaries and Catholic schools. His actual works were not always read but outlined in manuals. During the time of Vatican II this official Thomism or neo-scholasticism was challenged and there came about a new plura...

    Lately I’ve been on a Russian literature kick, reading in particular Leo Tolstoy. I have always been a big fan of Dostoyevsky, but I have never read Tolstoy.  So I started with a volume of his later short stories in the Everyman library edition. There are a  lot of his short stories. Some of his stories are simple folk tales with very clear ethical messages. Some seemed similar to Jewish Hasidic folk tales or Aesop tales. Tolstoy's later writings are imbued with radical Gospel moral themes, such as non-violence and turning the other cheek, as well as stories of moral regeneration and redemption.  One of his more famous short stories in this collection is the work, the Death of Ivan Illich, which explores the question of how we should die,  and by extension how we should live our life in the knowledge of our own mortality. It is considered one of his masterpieces. After reading some of his short stories the main novel I read by Tolstoy was Resurrection. ...

I've chosen as the subject of my blog meditation today a book which, like the Philokalia and the BCP, has deeply nourished my spiritual life and transformed me. The Confessions of St Augustine. Everything changed when Augustine came onto the scene. Augustine has been the dominant figure of Christian theology after St. Paul. He has been one of  the main authority for Catholics and an important inspiration by for Protestant reformers like Luther and  Calvin. What has interested me lately in ´ Augustine is the current postmodern readings of Augustine. Jacques Derrida and his student Jean Luc Marion have both written works on the Confessions. Jean Luc Marion in particular has written a commentary on the Confessions. What has been the main attraction of Augustine of Hippo? How does Augustine talk about God?  One main attraction which can be applied to Augustine when he talks about God is the evidential power of beauty. Augustine doesn’t just think of the divine in terms of the...

         A book that is important to me is the 1662 Book of Common Prayer,  mediated by the revised Canadian edition of 1962. The Book of Common Prayer has a complex history tied in with the history of England and its church which I won’t go into. Suffice to say that it has become part of the language of the English speaking world, as much as Shakespeare and the Authorized version of the Bible. Even when becoming a Roman Catholic,  I kept my mothers Anglican prayer book close to me and recited the offices of Matins and Evensong. What joy it was recently when I received a prayer book or breviary containing the hours of prayer as contained in the Anglican BCP officially approved by the Catholic Church with the offices and the readings of the lectionary all in one book. The Anglican Book of Common Prayer is designed for lay people,  being a simplified version of the Catholic prayer service. It has two principle offices, morning and evening prayer. In...

     I recently got in the mail a copy of the Philokalia. It’s the fifth and final volume of the English translation edited by Ware, Sherrard, and Palmer.  The five volume books have quite a reputation, though it’s not nearly  as popular in the West as in some Orthodox circles,  where it is second in stature only to the Bible. It was first compiled on Mount Athos in Greece by two monks,  St Nikodimos and St Makarios, and published in 1782 in Vienna. It was translated throughout the Orthodox world and had a huge impact in Russia. It is a spiritual anthology of many of the most significant monastic and spiritual writers in the Orthodox church.  I often wonder how much someone like me can even profit reading these books, being a lay person and a Roman Catholic. Some of these texts seem to be geared towards Orthodox monks.It's also important to have a spiritual guide or elder.  I was musing about this with a Jewish friend who shared with me that ...

  I’m just sitting in my basement listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Nick Cave really is a true poet. I’d be bold as to put him in the company of Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan which is the highest praise. Like the aforementioned singers Nick has a deeply spiritual side. There is a kingdom, there is a king And He lives without and he lives within There is a kingdom and there is a king The starry heavens above me The moral law within So the world appears Through this mist of tears Lately I've been really inspired by Cave. He has me re-interested in English poetical verse, like Thomas Treharne, John Donne and the devotional poetry of Christina Rossetti. I was particularly moved by Caves beautiful description of receiving the communion wine in the song Brompton Oratory. A beauty impossible to define A beauty impossible to believe The blood imparted in little sips The smell of you still on my hands As I bring the cup to my lips. Its hard at times to figure if its ...