Tag: Books
The Wizard of Oz, dog droppings and lots of grass to rub it off
Books are really mankind’s best friend, along with dogs I have always loved books. I remember when I was in the first grade at Good Shepherd in Desoto Mo. I was a small school with just three class rooms. The first room was for the first and second grades, the second room, third and fourth… Read More ›
In the time you spend on social media each year, you could read 200 books
Somebody once asked Warren Buffett about his secret to success. Buffett pointed to a stack of books and said, Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will… When I first found this… Read More ›
Summer Reading List
Fifty years ago, prior to my freshman year at Baltimore’s St. Paul Latin High School, the late Father W. Vincent Bechtel introduced me to The Summer Reading List, upper-case. Father Bechtel didn’t fool around: he tossed his teenage charges into the deep end of the English and American literature pool and told us, in effect,… Read More ›
Saint John’s Bible Completed
The Washington Post acclaimed the completion of the Saint John’s Bible with Hallelujah! in a headline. Abbot John Klassen OSB and Father Bob Koopmann OSB happily announced the completion of The Saint John’s Bible at a press conference at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) on Thursday, September 15. The Bible is a monumental work:… Read More ›
Ancient Books Uncovered in Jordan May Date to Start of Christianity
One of the largest and best-preserved collections of ancient sealed books has been discovered in a cave in Jordan and are believed to be some of the earliest Christian documents, according to the BBC. The 70 tiny books could date back to the first century. Carbon dating tests found that a piece of leather found… Read More ›
‘Visions, Trips and Crowded Rooms’
David Kessler’s latest book chronicles what we experience before we die. By R. W. Dellinger David Kessler had to author three books on grief, the needs of the dying and death, meet Mother Teresa and work with acclaimed thanatologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross before he could develop the maturity and muster the courage to write “Visions, Trips… Read More ›
Commentaries on the Rule Of St. Benedict
Several Oblates have asked for suggestions on commentaries on the Rule of St. Benedict (RB). The list is too exhaustive to list. Commentaries can be broken into three primary groups; devotional, line by line (exegesis), and a combination of the two. But before listing various commentaries, please remember that there are also quite a number… Read More ›
The Problem with Commercial TV and Monastic Life
TV favors a mentality in which certain things no longer matter particularly: skills like the ability to enjoy a complex argument, for instance, or to perceive nuances, or to keep in mind large amounts of significant information, or to remember today what someone said last month, or to consider strong and carefully argued opinions in… Read More ›
Alternative Brevaries: The Monastic Diurnal
The Monastic Diurnal (St. Michael’s Abbey Press): A diurnal includes all the traditional hours of the Divine Office except the Office of Matins. The Monastic Diurnal was created for the sake of Oblates and Benedictine Religious who must travel outside the monastery for the day and that is why the Office of Matins is left out. Including Matins for the traveling Benedictine would be unnecessary because the presumption would be that the religious would return before nightfall. Most Oblates would not be able to pray Matins simply because it is too long and quite complicated.
Materials for Lectio Divina
The Holy Scriptures: Many of the modern translations are well done with good, literal translations. It is recommended that you select a translation that includes the Deutocanonical, other wise known as Apocrypha, books. The translations most recommended are: Revised Standard Version (RSV) New Revised Standard (NRSV) New American Bible (NAB) The New Revised Standard (NRSV)… Read More ›