Catholic Thought discussion

Hi all! I've been a lurker on this group for a couple months but I think now is the time to come out of hiding so I can discuss the Benson book.

I entered the Church in 2009. I'm married with 2 kids, a mechanical Engineer, a philosophy/classical theology buff, and am a Lay Dominican. I love the writing and thought of Benedict XVI, Sheen, Newman and O'Connor.

Tim wrote: "Hi all! I've been a lurker on this group for a couple months but I think now is the time to come out of hiding so I can discuss the Benson book.

I entered the Church in 2009. I'm married with 2 ki..."

Welcome Tim! That is awesome. We must be soul brothers. I too am a mechanical engineer (almost 35 years now) and I too am a Lay Dominican! I'm in the St. Joseph Province (East Coast).

Welcome Tim!

Hello all, I hope you're having a blessed day!

My name is Florence Bernice, born and raised Catholic. I have recently just become a Marian devotee and had my consecration to the Blessed Mother last January 1st.

I am currently exploring the Dominican spirituality in the chapter that Manny is in, and Manny is the one who introduced me to the book club. I am delighted to find a Catholic reading group here in Goodreads, since I'm more active here than in any other social media platforms! I am excited to read Lord of the World with you guys!

Feel free to add me as a friend, always happy to meet new people!

Welcome Florence Bernice!

Welcome Florence Bernice. This is a coincidence but I just read an essay by G. K. Chesterton ““Where All Roads Lead” which he published in a magazine of the Dominican Order.

Welcome Florence! I'm glad you joined and introduced yourself.

Florence Bernice, welcome to the group.

Welcome to our group, Florence Bernice. It's great to have you.

Welcome, Florence Bernice!

Hi everyone, it’s been exciting stumbling upon this group and reading some of the discussions. I’m here to learn because it seems like most of you are, by far, much wiser than I am. My name is Nicky and I’m 20 years old. I love love love to read and have recently wanted to focus this love on enhancing my knowledge and wonder at the faith. Im most interested in Catholic poetry, but have found it difficult to know where to begin or who to read. If any of you have any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it!!

Welcome Nicky. Glad you found us. In our short reads you can find discussions of a few poems by Gerard Manly Hopkins that might interest you. Also, we've read and discussed all three canticas (Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso) from Dante's Divine Comedy. I would love to read more Catholic poetry. We'll see if we can squeeze it in.

Let me think over where I can point you. You know, there is a magazine called Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry that you might want to check out. Also there is a magazine called Dappled Things that has stories, poems, art, and essays from a Catholic perspective. You might want to check that out. I subscribe to Dappled Things.

Actually Nicky, I was incorrect. We set aside a whole folder for discussing the poems of Gerard Many Hopkins. It is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

There are only three poems there now. We'll get to more in time.

Welcome Nicky! Great to have you here.

Frances and I have been discussing our favorite poets recently. Hopkins was high on my list when I was in college, and decades later, still is. I was not aware of any specifically Catholic poetry magazines, (unless I can count our long defunct college journal) and will check those out. Welcome, Nicky! It's great to have younger voices with us!

Hi All, I'm Mark. Former seminarian. Former technical writer. Published author of technical books. Aspiring novelist. Lover of all things Waugh and some things Greene.

Hi Mark, and welcome! If you like, jump into the discussion of "Brideshead Revisited" we're currently reading.

Mark wrote: "Hi All, I'm Mark. Former seminarian. Former technical writer. Published author of technical books. Aspiring novelist. Lover of all things Waugh and some things Greene."

Welcome Mark. I'm so happy you joined us!

Hi there, Mark. Am looking forward to your insights.

Hi. I am a revert after 27 years and joined to find some fiction recommendations.

George wrote: "Hi. I am a revert after 27 years and joined to find some fiction recommendations."

Hello George and welcome to the group. Prayers and thanksgiving to your return to the Church. As for fiction, laugh if you must, I have not read much Catholic fiction (though I know I should). I mean I have all of Tolkens' works on my need to read list and G.K. Chesterton's fiction works are now on that list. I do hope that many of us on this group can help with getting those recommendations to you.

God Bless,
Nikita

George wrote: "Hi. I am a revert after 27 years and joined to find some fiction recommendations."

Hi George

Welcome to the book club!

You can check out the number of Catholic fiction reads we have read here as a group. If you click the Catholic Thought link on the top of this page, it will take you to our discussion boards. If then you click more discussions toward the bottom of the page it will expand to all our discussions. Some of the Catholic fiction books we have read are Brideshead Revisited which we just finished, Lord of the World, Mariette in Ecstasy, Death Comes for the Archbishop, The Divine Comedy (all three canticas), Joan of Arc, and maybe one or two others.

Every fourth read is a Catholic fiction read for our book club. Also I just found that Goodreads has a Catholic fiction list, here:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...

Now that you've joined our book club, we are currently voting on our next read. It is not fiction though. Perhaps you will join us anyway. You can vote here:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

I hope I helped.

Hi, George! Welcome home!

Hello Everyone, I’m delighted to have found a group that reads and discusses Catholic literature. Looking forward to getting involved. Thanks!

Welcome Kirs! We are delighted to have you.
You are in the right place. We like to read everything Catholic from spiritual classics, Catholic fiction, long works, short works, Church Fathers, and more! Right now we are in the middle of reading St Augustine's 'The City of God' - a really long work - but we don't do it in one setting. We are reading five chapters this time (6 - 10, the first chapters we read earlier this year), feel free to join us where we're at right now. Sandwiched in-between these chapters we'll have our Christmas read starting on the 20th. We haven't decided yet which one of the three choices we're going to read. Under "Discussions -> Near Term Calendar" are the options and you are more than welcome to voice your preference.

Thanks so much for the warm welcome, Kerstin!

Welcome Kirs. It's so nice to have you hear. Here is a link to the near term schedule Kerstin is talking about.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

We're going to break after this week to shift to a Christmas read. That might be a goodplace to join in. Let us know if you have a preference of the books being considered.

Thanks a lot Manny. I looked at the 3 different Christmas book choices but don’t know enough to have any valuable input. I’ll happily follow the experts on their choice. Looking forward to it.

Greetings! I’m a lifelong Catholic. I’ve been trying to learn much more about my faith lately and the more I learn the more I love the Holy Catholic Church. I want to be a saint but I’ve still got a long long long way to go. I am a veterinary nurse by profession. I love the Traditional Latin Mass, but I have attended Mass in the Novus Ordo if I’m somewhere that that is what is available. I’m currently reading Fr. Ripperger’s “Deliverance Prayers,” Marius’ biography of St. Thomas More, “The Beauty of the Mass,” St. Teresa of Avila’s “Way of Perfection,” and I have read some of Dr. Taylor Marshall’s books. I love St. Jean Vianney and I’m reading a biography of him. I also plan to read the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” and its companion book “A Year with the Catechism.”

Riobhcah wrote: "Greetings! I’m a lifelong Catholic. I’ve been trying to learn much more about my faith lately and the more I learn the more I love the Holy Catholic Church. I want to be a saint but I’ve still got ..."

Welcome Riobhcah! You sound like a perfect fit for our book club. We’ll be starting a Christmas read next week. Perhaps that’s a good time to get integrated.

Welcome Riobhcah, we are happy to have you here!

Hello everyone! I am a relatively new convert and I just finished my first semester of my Theology degree. Just joined Goodreads and obviously my first thought was to find a Catholic group. I am usually relegated to course work and assigned materials, but whenever I get a few days off I try to knock out some stuff collecting dust that I want to read.

Pax Christi,
Zac

Zac wrote: "Hello everyone! I am a relatively new convert and I just finished my first semester of my Theology degree. Just joined Goodreads and obviously my first thought was to find a Catholic group. I am us..."

How wonderful. Welcome to both our humble book club and our wonderful faith. We’re glad to have you. Right now we’re doing our Christmas read, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It’s hard to link you to it off my phone. I’ll provide a link tonight if you don’t find it.

Welcome Zac!
I'm a convert too :-)

Zac wrote: "Hello everyone! I am a relatively new convert and I just finished my first semester of my Theology degree. Just joined Goodreads and obviously my first thought was to find a Catholic group. I am us..."

Zac, our Christmas read of Sir Gawain is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The Christmas read was supposed to end at the end of this week, but we may have to extend it a week. I'm trying to catch up on some previous reads and have not had time to read it, and I do want to.

Welcome, Zac!

Hi, new here and wanted to find a small group of like-minded readers with a monthly book club type feel. I like lots of different books, but I would like to delve deeper in my Catholicism, so I figured I might find something to read here.

Welcome Danah

Welcome Danah!
You've come to the right place :-)

Welcome Danah and Raychel. That's great you found us. Right new we are in the middle of our Christmas read, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. You can find the discussion board and links to free online versions here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

We have one more week with this read, and then we will be resuming our read of St. Augustine's City of God. I think we have two more weeks of that and we will be voting on a new read once that is done.

Welcome Rachel

Hi!! I'm Clara from the Philippines. I am a Religion Teacher of High School students. Looking forward to this group :)

Welcome Clara!

Welcome Clara, it is nice to have you here.

Fantastic Clara! The Philippines in my mind has become the most Catholic country in the world. Welcome.

Hello, my name is Casey and I was invited here many moons ago by Manny. Though I check in often, I've always found it difficult to align my own reading with that of others. However, I'd like to join in with your Lenten read and therefore I feel it only proper that I come out of the shadows for a time.

I promise I won't break or spill anything while I'm here.

Casey wrote: "Hello, my name is Casey and I was invited here many moons ago by Manny. Though I check in often, I've always found it difficult to align my own reading with that of others. However, I'd like to joi..."

Casey! That's great! I'm so happy you joined us. I agree. It's not easy to align one's reading with others. As moderator I don't have a choice. But when there are difficulties you are free not to join in. Heck, most people don't join in on most reads. That's life on an online book club. If I can get a quorum of a half dozen for any particular read, I'm usually happy. It makes discussion more interesting.

If you don't know, we are voting for our next read here:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/4...

And if you like, we have a short read of a Bible book to fill the interim. We are reading Acts of the Apostles for the next couple of weeks. Here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Welcome my old friend!

Welcome, Casey. It will be good to have you join us for Lent.

Welcome, Casey and Clara. Please feel very free to add your comments, once you feel comfortable with the group.

Hi everyone! I’m Catherine, named for St Catherine Laboure. My mother was Parisian and she and my grandmother would stop by the Chapel where Our Lady appeared to St Catherine. Currently I live in Denver, Colorado in the US. I love my Catholic faith and am always seeking to learn more. At this time I’m in a four year Bible study program through the Lay Division of St John Vianney Seminary here. It’s been amazing. I love talking about the Faith and look forward to being active in this group.