Yesterday I mentioned needing a new bookcase. Well, I didn't get one, but I did spend about an hour rearranging things so I could put more books on shelves (rather than on the floor, or criss-crossed on top of the books that are actually sitting on shelves). I do try to keep books in some sort of order: Pauline Family books on these shelves, books on St. Paul and his writings continuing from there, followed by... Ignatian stuff. And then Liturgy (which was already pretty together). I had a lot of work to do in Spirituality: keeping von Speyr and von Balthasar together (appropriate, don't you think?), Pieper (to me, he counts as a spirituality writer), others of that ilk. And then Merton books kept popping up one by one.
When I picked up a torn, ancient hardcover of "The Seven-Storey Mountain," I got thinking about various kinds of earthly treasure. (Today's Gospel is "where your treasure is...") This old book (older than I!) wouldn't fetch much on eBay, but it was the most treasured of the books I had handled so far. It had been Dad's. (I laid claim to the whole Merton library at home; it's just a matter of bringing them to Chicago bit by bit...when I get a bookcase!)
What's your bookshelf "treasure"? Why?
Friday, June 18, 2010
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4 comments:
My favorite book is the Holy Bible. That is my treasure! I've read many good books but it's only in the Holy Bible where I find the definitive answers in life.
I find that Thomas Merton pops up all the time --mine is "No Man Is An Island" --it seems one can pick it up and read anywhere in it (even perhaps for the 90th time), yet it will seem new, deep, and wise. Also, I am very fond of (Byzantine) Fr. Abbot Joseph's books --they make me think, laugh out loud, and want to be better for God, which are also available at his "Word Incarnate" blog.
When I was little, my mother was in charge of bringing new books to the church library and also for arranging their sale. I remember the books she gave me for being a catechism teacher helper (popular at the time--von Trapp family stories), and the ones for helping her with her Altar Society obligations in Saturday cleaning of the church, the ones for First Communion, etc. Books by T. Merton and others were part of the family library along with many others that siblings 'earned'. Maybe, that love of reading, and possessing books is part of the reason why sisters joined the DSP.
Please get a bookcase. Remember "Books are our friends", and order is Heaven's first law.
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