Befriending the Stranger

Jean Vanier is a remarkable man, a master of the spiritual life and a man of practical action as the founder of L'Arche. Befriending the Stranger, one of his many books, is a series of retreats conferences he gave for workers at L'Arche. For this reason, the book is great for reading aloud: down to earth and illustrated with wonderful personal anecdotes, some extremely touching.

Vanier's humility and humanity shine forth on every page. His living interpretation of the gospel: fellowship with all persons, no matter how lowly, hurt, angry, or disappointed, is steeped in a profound encounter with the Word of God. His is a radical message of hope and love, presented with no distracting frills. He makes the life of service sound possible and desirable. An excellent read so far! Highly recommended.

Brothers' rating: 5 of 5

current page as of Jan 19: 45

“Living in community I discovered who I was. I discovered also that the truth will set me free, and so there's the gradual realization about what it means to be human. To be human is that capacity to love which is the phenomenal reality that we can give life to people; we can transform people by our attentiveness, by our love, and they can transform us. It is a whole question of giving life and receiving life, but also to discover how broken we are.”
- Jean Vanier

Two Books by Raymond Brown

December 17-January 12:
A Coming Christ in Advent and An Adult Christ at Christmas by Raymond E. Brown

We had not known that Fr. Raymond Brown was controversial in some quarters until recently. Before that, we thought that he was just the greatest modern American Bible scholar and prominent former member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. We decided to take a chance on these two books, based on the recommendation of a Christian Brother. We thought it more monastic to get in the Christmas spirit by reading good Scriptural commentary, than, say, drinking hot chocolate.





Fr. Brown's scholarship is a remarkable gift, and he is also blessed with the ability to condense scholarly argument into real doctrinal teaching when the audience calls for it. Some of his suggestions about the meaning of the Infancy Narratives might not be to everyone's liking, but they are stimulating and doctrinally powerful (and orthodox!). Another merit of Fr. Brown's work is that he is careful to separate what the texts meant from how the Church has interpreted them traditionally, and while he has no objection to the latter development, he does a great service to all Christians by returning us to the Biblical roots of our faith.





The community felt that the Advent book was definitely the stronger, and that these were not the best table reading. However, we all enjoyed hearing good, close readings of familiar stories that brought them vigorously to life.





Brothers' Rating: 4 out of 5

Monastic Pilgrimage by Guy-Marie Oury

November-December

We have twice read with enthusiasm another book by Abbot Guy-Marie, written while he was the Abbot President of the Subiaco Congregation. The present book is a series of retreats given at one of our sisters' houses in Petersham, Mass. The reflections follow the opening chapters and the closing chapters of the Rule, and read them in a creative manner, perhaps more 'pious' than the average Catholic would find helpful today. A solid book, but we preferred Letter to My Brothers.


Brothers' rating: 3 out of 5