Summer Reading

[veritasluxmea]

​

 

My priests told me to avoid HP  

My parish priest once told me, to my face, that I (and everyone) should always receive on the hand and never the tongue. Priests can say what they want. 

However if you feel uncomfortable with HP it's perfectly fine explain why and avoid it, just don't expect everyone else too. Because of the controversy around it I don't promote it in Christian circles or allow it in my classroom, although I think it's fine. 

I know that people CLAIM to be witches, but that doesn't mean that their spells actually work (any more than the spells in HP are real).

I could claim to be a bird, but that doesn't mean I could fly. 

​From a Catholic perspective we do believe that Satan is real, and that curses and the like come from him. Some people do "work magic" (for a lack of a better term) by using his "power," similar to possession and the like. Like you said not everyone who into the occult does and claims to does "magic," but some actually do. However, through prayer and the Eucharist, specially the occupation and protection of the Holy Spirit, his work is rendered powerless. 

[HopefulHeart]

Today I also started to reread The Castafiore Emerald, one of my favorite Tintin graphic novels.

[PhuturePriest]

I know that people CLAIM to be witches, but that doesn't mean that their spells actually work (any more than the spells in HP are real).

I could claim to be a bird, but that doesn't mean I could fly. 

​You don't know how actual spells work, do you? I have extensively researched witchcraft and Wicca, and spells in reality have absolutely nothing in common with spells in books and Hollywood.

[TheresaThoma]

I'm still working on St Thomas Aquinas' Commentary on the Gospel of St John.

I'm also getting into CS Lewis' other works. I just finished The Great Divorce and loved it. I finished Out of the Silent Planet (loved it)  started the second book of the Cosmic trilogy but one of the characters started annoying me too much. (WHY did Weston have to show up again????) so I stopped. I suppose I will finish reading it at some point.

I'm also rereading "Wherever He Goes" by Fr Marie-Dominique Phillipe. It is a retreat on the Gospel of St John,

[marigold]

You're all a varied and interesting lot, aren't you?

Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works seems to have unintentionally become a summer tradition - I'm enjoying it *so much* this time around.

And I just finished I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and felt like I'd spent the summer lazily fishing by the edge of an English river. It's English McEnglishson ‌@HopefulHeart so you may well like it!

 

[beatitude]

I have three novels on my list in English (All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, A Year of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman, and The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien) and two novels in Hebrew (לתרגם את חנה by Ronaldo Wrobel and תאונות by Yael Hedaya). My spiritual reading is Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal: Letters of Spiritual Direction.

And then there is the long long list of non-fiction to be read for my PhD, but I'm not even going to go there.

[IgnatiusofLoyola]

My parish priest once told me, to my face, that I (and everyone) should always receive on the hand and never the tongue. Priests can say what they want. 

However if you feel uncomfortable with HP it's perfectly fine explain why and avoid it, just don't expect everyone else too. Because of the controversy around it I don't promote it in Christian circles or allow it in my classroom, although I think it's fine. 

​From a Catholic perspective we do believe that Satan is real, and that curses and the like come from him. Some people do "work magic" (for a lack of a better term) by using his "power," similar to possession and the like. Like you said not everyone who into the occult does and claims to does "magic," but some actually do. However, through prayer and the Eucharist, specially the occupation and protection of the Holy Spirit, his work is rendered powerless. 

​Quick comment--then I won't derail this thread again. To clarify, I DO believe in Satan and that there are people who worship him. I have not read in depth about Satanism so I can't comment on whether those who worship Satan can do actual "magic," although I have seen firsthand the works of evil Satanists have done as part of their worship. And, I do agree that Christ can render Satan powerless, if we ask Him.

Personally, I think HP is no more dangerous than "Cinderella" when a "fairy godmother" turns a pumpkin into a coach. However, in hindsight, I do wish J.K. Rowling had chosen to classify her main characters using totally imaginary (and meaningless) words rather than potentially "loaded" words such as "witches" and "wizards," and had not them perform "spells" but chosen some other word to describe their special powers.

As for books, I am a voracious (and fast) reader, so much so that I've read all the roughly 1,500 books in my personal library (weeded down from 2,000) at least twice--some many more than twice. I've been watching Netflix recently instead of doing as much reading to keep myself from buying books. (I'm not physically able to get to the library without paying someone to drive me.) But, even though I have seen some good movies on Netflix, in the end, I am a reader and will always prefer books to movies.

[PhuturePriest]

Fast readers are the worst. 

I like to read slowly and take my time with books to enjoy them. I read everything at a conversational pace, particularly if people are speaking. If it's specifically said that someone is speaking slowly, I'll read it more slowly when that person is speaking, or if a character is said to speak slowly in general. And, of course, I give each character their own voice, which greatly adds to the experience, and I don't know how you can do that if you're ripping through the pages at lightning speed.

[IgnatiusofLoyola]

Fast readers are the worst. 

​

Being a fast reader is not a character trait, it's something that simply "is." Being a fast reader was a HUGE help in college, especially since I was a history major. 

Or are you jealous? 

[Nihil Obstat]

I am rather a fast reader too. It is just something that is, not something I am conscious of.

[HopefulHeart]

Fast readers are the worst. 

I like to read slowly and take my time with books to enjoy them. I read everything at a conversational pace, particularly if people are speaking. If it's specifically said that someone is speaking slowly, I'll read it more slowly when that person is speaking, or if a character is said to speak slowly in general. And, of course, I give each character their own voice, which greatly adds to the experience, and I don't know how you can do that if you're ripping through the pages at lightning speed.

​I tend to read slowly and at a conversational pace as well. I have to take at least several days to read a novel, unless it's a very short and/or simple work. 

​

[PhuturePriest]

Being a fast reader is not a character trait, it's something that simply "is." Being a fast reader was a HUGE help in college, especially since I was a history major. 

Or are you jealous? 

​I can read fast. I've done it before, and sometimes do it if I'm reading directions in a hurry. However, I do not in any way enjoy it. I like taking my time with books and soaking them in. After all, a walk through Yellowstone gives you a much more detailed understanding of it than driving through does.

[MarysLittleFlower]

​Huh? I always thought that the controversy about HP was limited to illiterate Evangelical Protestants. 

Last I heard, witches aren't real. 

It is not the issue whether they're real or not... Although there are people who practice witchcraft. The issue is that its something offensive to God but the books show it like a neutral thing that depended on how you use it. That is misleading.. My priests advised to avoid it and they are very educated well formed priests. At the end of the day, I don't feel like reading books with "good characters" who do objectively grave actions that are presented as good.. 

[MarysLittleFlower]

Fast readers are the worst. 

I like to read slowly and take my time with books to enjoy them. I read everything at a conversational pace, particularly if people are speaking. If it's specifically said that someone is speaking slowly, I'll read it more slowly when that person is speaking, or if a character is said to speak slowly in general. And, of course, I give each character their own voice, which greatly adds to the experience, and I don't know how you can do that if you're ripping through the pages at lightning speed.

That must be nice... I read way too hurriedly 

[MarysLittleFlower]

​Quick comment--then I won't derail this thread again. To clarify, I DO believe in Satan and that there are people who worship him. I have not read in depth about Satanism so I can't comment on whether those who worship Satan can do actual "magic," although I have seen firsthand the works of evil Satanists have done as part of their worship. And, I do agree that Christ can render Satan powerless, if we ask Him.

Personally, I think HP is no more dangerous than "Cinderella" when a "fairy godmother" turns a pumpkin into a coach. However, in hindsight, I do wish J.K. Rowling had chosen to classify her main characters using totally imaginary (and meaningless) words rather than potentially "loaded" words such as "witches" and "wizards," and had not them perform "spells" but chosen some other word to describe their special powers.

As for books, I am a voracious (and fast) reader, so much so that I've read all the roughly 1,500 books in my personal library (weeded down from 2,000) at least twice--some many more than twice. I've been watching Netflix recently instead of doing as much reading to keep myself from buying books. (I'm not physically able to get to the library without paying someone to drive me.) But, even though I have seen some good movies on Netflix, in the end, I am a reader and will always prefer books to movies.

If the characters were made up creatures, not humans, and had powers we don't have that are explained naturally, that would perhaps be different than having humans do witchcraft. Its a fantasy description of witchcraft but what if kids get interested in the real thing thinking its like HP. I'm thinking of myself... I almost became pagan because of a TV show, as a pre-teen.