Another Chevrot: The Woman at the Well: "The Well of Life"

Scepter Publishers, which also published/sells my book Supremacy and Survival, publishes several works by Monsignor Georges Chevrot (1879-1958). He was pastor of Saint Francis Xavier from 1930 to 1958 (priests have long tenures there!) and preached during Lent at Notre Dame de Paris in 1938, 1939, and 1940 and received the Medaille de la Resistance Francaise for his efforts during German occupation of Paris during World War II. 

I've now purchased/read three of his works: The Beatitudes: How God Saves Us, The Easter Impact: How the Resurrection Restores and Strengthens Our Faith, and The Well of Life.

I recommended The Beatitudes for the Son Rise Morning Show's Summer reading lists in June last year, and mentioned The Easter Impact earlier this month!

In The Well of Life, Monsignor Chevrot goes through the story of the woman at well of Sychar verse by verse, offering commentary on the dialogue between Our Lord and Saint Photina. As Scepter describes it:

This book leads the reader to understand in a deeper way the meaning of the unusual encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacobs’ well. It starts in a casual conversation between a thirsty traveler and a woman engaged in the ordinary work of drawing water from the town well. From her questions about the “living water” that the Lord tries to explain, her soul’s blind and ignorant condition is only penetrated by Jesus’ straightforward questioning about her married life. In her sincerity she freely admits the truth. In short order she enthusiastically reaches out to her entire village, bringing them rushing to the feet of Christ and to their conversion to his message of universal salvation.

Chevrot adds further commentary and details which show that something extraordinarily new is taking place. Sinful but repentant people, not only the faithful and justified, are now also entrusted with spreading the new kingdom of Christ. In other words, everyone is called to holiness. Salvation is not only for the just, but also for the world’s low lifes. The book’s 24 chapters tackle prejudice, of what use is religion, not being scandalized, confession of sins, Christian obedience, optimism, witnessing in ordinary circumstances to Christ, and the experience of faith and how it changes peoples and societies.

Originally translated from French and published in English by Scepter in the 1950s. This book is newly edited and released again after an absence of 60 years.

Table of Contents, including chapters, subheads, and quotations:

Introduction

1. Tired (John 4:6)

    A School of Humility

2. Providential Meetings (John 4:7)

    Freeing Ourselves from Evil

3. The First Steps (John 4:7)

    Penetrating Souls

4. Prejudice (4:9)

5. The Gift of God (4:10)

6. Who It Is (4:10):

    In Jesus Christ, the two natures form a single person in such a unity that the solder which joins them cannot be seen. Jesus is fully God and also fully man. He teaches us both the human knowledge of God, and the divine knowledge of man, in showing man as God conceives him and wishes him to be. Christ is our brother without sin, you will object. Yes, without sin, because it is not essential to sin in order to be a man. . . . As man, he can reveal to us what we are, not because he was a good and just man whom the admiration of his fellows later defined but because he is God made man. . . .

    How consoling it is to consider our humanity through him!

(cf. Pope St. Leo the Great on the Incarnation)

    The Duty of the Normal Man

    Knowing Our True Selves

7. Our Need for God (4:11-14)

8. What Good is Religion? (4:15)

    Source of Progress

    Cooperation with God's Gifts

9. The Knowledge of Sin (4:16-19)

     Advancing Toward Sanctity

10. The New Worship (4:20-22)

    Photina points to Mount Gerizim on which the temple of Manassas had been built. Even after the Jewish high priest John Hyrcanus had destroyed it, the Samaritans had continued to come to this place to offer ritual sacrifice.

11. Unity in Truth (4:22)

    No compromise

12. Adoration in Spirit and in Truth (4:23-24)

13. The Messiah's Work (4:25-26)

    Apostolate is Not Optional

14. Do Not Be Shocked (4:27)

15. God's Pardon (4:28-30)

16. Confession of Our Sins (4:29)

    Confession . . . satisfies man's nature and God's rights at the same time. . . . This is why Jesus brought the forgiveness of heaven to earth and left it there.  

    Proof of Regret

    Perfection is a drawn-out business.    
17. Our Reason for Living (4:31-34)

    Principle of Unity

18. Christian Obedience (4:34)

    A Higher Plane

19. Christian Optimism (4:35)

    Apostles in the World

20. Sowers and Reapers (4:36-38)

    God Chooses Us to Help Him

21. Witnesses to Christ (4:39)

    The unexpected conversion of the village of Sichar made an unforgettable impression on the disciples.

22. Prayer and Faith (4:40-41)

23. Experience of the Faith (4:42)

    Personal Influence of Jesus

24. The Savior of the World (4:42)

    Interior Reform

    Personal Sin

Epilogue: The Supreme Testimony

    (the martyrdom of St. Photina and her sons Joseph and Victor celebrated on March 20)

    

I finished the book on March 20! I recommend The Well of Life highly: it offers scriptural exegesis, doctrinal instruction, and spiritual counsel.

Book Review: "Holiness in a Secular Age"

National Catholic Register published my review of Father Juan Velez's new book on Blessed John Henry Newman in the October 1 print edition. NCReg then published it on-line yesterday!

When young John Henry Newman experienced his first conversion to an evangelical form of Anglicanism, he was inspired by two maxims of Thomas Scott. One of them — “holiness rather than peace” — became a motto for the rest of his life.

In this introduction to Blessed John Henry Newman’s example of pursuing holiness in 19th-century England as it was becoming more secularized, Father Juan Vélez guides readers through Newman’s life, projects and published works. He presents Newman as a man of faith evangelizing a world that was moving away from Christian doctrine and morality.

After a succinct survey of Newman’s life, including his leadership in the “Oxford Movement,” his conversion to Catholicism, his foundations of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England and the short-lived Catholic University of Ireland, and his struggles and eventual acceptance within the Catholic Church in England, the author addresses a number of themes in Newman’s life.

Please read the rest there. I just love the cover of the book, which is a detail of the stained glass window behind the altar of the chapel for the Newman Center on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Note that Father Velez has produced a study guide, which he is sharing for free on his website, www.cardinaljohnhenrynewman.com/

Blessed John Henry Newman, pray for us!

O God, who bestowed on the Priest Blessed John Henry Newman the grace to follow your kindly light and find peace in your Church; graciously grant that, through his intercession and example, we may be led out of shadows and images into the fulness of your truth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Blessed John Henry Newman and the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Gracewing in the U.K. publishes this book:

Mary: The Virgin Mary in the Writings of Newman

Editor: Philip Boyce

In this rich anthology of John Henry Newman’s writing on Mary, we are invited to join in the spiritual journey and personal devotion of perhaps the greatest churchman of the last two hundred years in the English-speaking world. Drawn from the full range of his work, expertly and deftly brought together, it creates for the reader both a clear guide to the progression of Newman’s thought, and a deeply devotional volume of readings on Our Lady.

Here is material from Newman’s liturgical, pastoral and theological texts, from letters and sermons, and from spiritual and poetical works. Elegantly written, with a warmth of language and spiritual intensity that speaks directly to the heart.

And Scepter Publishers also has this paperback edition of Newman's meditations on the Litany of Loretto:

From the pen of the most renowned Catholic thinker of the nineteenth century comes this explanation of the Church's devotion to Mary. Newman examines the New Testament and the writings of the Church Fathers to show that this devotion is on a firm apostolic foundation. Then he explains the doctrinal bases of the titles given to Our Lady in the Litany of Loreto: Mystical Rose, House of Gold, Mirror of Justice, Queen of Angels, Tower of Ivory, Singular Vessel of Devotion, Queen of Martyrs, and more. Newman's deep insights into Our Lady will deepen your love for the Mother of God.

Just as Newman was devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, he practiced devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary, even composing a Litany to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which we celebrate today. The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary provide these insights into Newman's devotion to Mary:

Not only did Newman spend his 89 years on earth writing about and defending the truths of the faith, he wrote much on the Blessed Virgin Mary. He lauded her praises while an Anglican and a Catholic. He answered concerns about Mary’s role, wrote meditations on her titles and even some prayers extolling her virtues. In his Apologia pro Vita Sua, he recorded, “I had a true devotion to the Blessed Virgin, in whose College I lived, whose Altar I served, and whose Immaculate Purity I had in one of my earliest printed Sermons made much of.” But one of his greatest tributes to honoring the Immaculate Heart of Mary is his Litany of the Immaculate Heart of Mary which he wrote shortly after his reception into the Roman Catholic Church. 

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

Blessed John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Book Review: A Trio of Works by St. Thomas More

Scepter Publishers combines three works by Thomas More in this volume (which I purchased for my study of More's works). From the publisher:

In The Four Last Things, More prescribes frequent meditation on Death, Judgment, Pain and Joy in order to combat the spiritual diseases of pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth.

The Supplication of Souls is More's vigorous, humorous, and artful defense of one of the flashpoints of the Reformation: the Catholic dogma of Purgatory. It is his devastating response to a defamatory political tract that claimed that the greed and corruption of English clergymen stemmed from their insistence on being paid to pray for the dead.

A Dialogue on Conscience sets forth More's reasons for refusing to abjure his Catholic faith by taking the oath of allegiance to King Henry VIII as the head of the Church in England. It illustrates why More has a deserved place among the Church's greatest saints and martyrs.

The first work is unfinished: what is signifies is another nail in the Wolf Hall "Thomas More is a misogynist and mean to women" coffin. Thomas More and Margaret More Roper worked together on a set of meditations on the Four Last Things. All we have is More's section on Death, but the fact that he wanted to collaborate with his daughter on such a classical philosophical and theological subject indicates how much he valued and admired her education and wisdom (she was 17 at the time, per the introduction). He examines how thinking of Death, which each of us will encounter, can keep us away from the Seven Deadly Sins. This excerpt demonstrates the range of More's learning and his appreciation of human vices and virtues. 

The second is the major work in this volume. It is More's answer to Simon Fish's Supplication of Beggars, in which Fish told Henry VIII that he was not in control of his country which is filled with poor beggars because of the priests whose demand for alms to pray and say Masses for the dead--a classic zero-sum view of salvation economy. According to Fish, if people are giving alms for prayers they aren't giving alms for the poor. More writes his answer representing the Poor Souls in Purgatory, who beg for prayers and penance from the living as they suffer for the effects of their sins on earth after death. 

Neither More nor Fish can prove their statistical points (I have not read Fish's Supplication)--Fish thinks that there have been more poor in England since people started praying for the dead while More contends that "the poor you will always have with you" and that the poor on earth as well as the poor in purgatory benefit from the alms given to the Church as well as to the poor, arguing that the economy, both temporal and spiritual, is more complex and interconnected than Fish thinks.

More notes that Fish is using subterfuge, attacking the doctrine of Purgatory and prayer for the dead as a way to attack the entire sacramental system. He cites Fish's complaint about Henry VIII's one error--The Defense of the Seven Sacraments--and Fish's hatred of the priesthood as the real reasons for this attack on the Poor Souls in Purgatory. 

Fish wants all the priests in England to be tied to carts, dragged through the streets, beaten, forced to marry, and get jobs. More asks, on behalf of the Poor Souls, how is this to be enforced, even if Henry would issue such commands. Are women to be forced to marry former priests? What jobs will they do? How will Fish prevent this sudden influx of unemployed priests from increasing the number of the poor? Has Fish really figured out the financial situation? What about all the poor the clergy and the Church assist everyday? What about the people the clergy employ--the builders, carpenters, laborers, etc? Where will they find employment?

Fish promises that the lame, the leprous, and the deaf, dumb, and blind will be healed, that Henry VIII's power and authority will be strengthened, and that the true gospel will at last be preached. Aha! say the Poor Souls: the supplicant for beggars must be as great as God in Genesis for he speaks and it IS. 

More takes each point of Fish's argument and counters it, several times revealing More's experience of legislation and his knowledge of the courts and the law to expose Fish's errors. There is none of the personal invective so often highlighted in discussions of More's apologetic or polemic works. More does employ exaggeration, mockery of Fish's ignorance, irony, and sarcasm. He offers scriptural examples and arguments from the Fathers, appealing to the authority of the Church through the centuries against these new views of Christian doctrine from Luther and Tyndale.

He ends the Supplication with pleas from the Poor Souls for prayers. They also advise the living on how to prepare for death by recounting their own regrets. They warn against preparing more for the funeral arrangements and less for death and judgment. They regret that they relied so much on comforts and luxuries in this life and did not do penance for their sins to expiate the temporal punishments that remained even after they repented and confessed their sins. They beg for our prayers and promise theirs for us once they are in heaven.

The final work is actually two letters from the end of More's life while he was in the Tower of London. The first is a letter from his step-daughter Alice repeating two of Aesop's fables cited by Sir Thomas Audley to persuade More to take the oath and get out of jail. The second is Margaret Roper's reply to Alice that describes More's responses to Audley's stories and message. In it, More anticipates the plot of the play and movie "Twelve Angry Men" by telling Margaret the story of a man named Company who disagrees with the other jurors and won't just go along because it will violate his conscience. He notes that the other jurors won't bear the punishment for that violation when it comes time for him to face judgment. More reflects some of the advice he wrote about in The Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation: the Four Last Things are more important issues than material comfort and goods; he and his family must take comfort in God's mercy and in the fact that He knows the burdens they bear.

These three works demonstrate how deeply Thomas More had thought about the Christian life and Church doctrine. As a lay defender of the faith he holds fast to Holy Scripture as interpreted by the Church and the teachings of the Fathers. His charm and wit often come through these works, as serious as their subjects are. 

Next up on my reading list of Thomas More's works: Dialogue Concerning Heresies, which C.S. Lewis called the one of the greatest Platonic dialogues in the England language:

Considered by C.S. Lewis as perhaps the best dialogue written in English, this friendly, spirited, and often merry exchange takes place at St. Thomas More’s peaceful and cultured home in Chelsea.

Dialogue Concerning Heresies is a conversation between the experienced humanist and statesman More and an intelligent college student who has been influenced by the spirit and ideas of the new men and reformers, especially Martin Luther and William Tyndale. It addresses questions that continue to be discussed today:

Isn’t it idolatry to pray to saints, venerate images, and go on pilgrimages?
Why listen to what the Church teaches? Shouldn’t we go only by Scripture, since it is the word of God?
Why didn’t the Church want laypeople to have their own Bible, and in English?
How do we know which church is the true one?
Why waste time on philosophy and other secular studies if the Bible is God’s revealed word?

This modernized edition of More’s Dialogue brings this masterful work into wide circulation for the first time since its publication in 1529.

St. Thomas More on How a Christian Responds to Suffering

In the Introduction to this edition of A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation from Scepter Publishers, Gerard Wegemer comments that this English masterpiece of Thomas More is less well known than his famous Latin work, Utopia. That's because Utopia has been translated from Latin into accessible English while this Dialogue's Renaissance era English has been an obstacle. So this "translation" into modern English by Mary Gottschalk is very helpful, as are the indices, outline, and other supporting material.

There are two good reasons for reading this book:

First, because of its content and purpose: explaining how Christians should respond to trials, suffering, poverty, and even persecution. Uncle Anthony helps his nephew Vincent deal with his fears of suffering in the course of the Turkish invasion of Hungary. While he is on his sickbed, he counsels the younger man on facing those fears by relying on his faith in Jesus Christ. Anthony and Vincent discuss many aspects of life on earth: poverty, riches, ambition, power, charity, the four last things (death, judgment, Heaven, and hell), purgatory, repentance, torture, imprisonment, etc. In every situation, Anthony reminds Vincent that our time here on earth is short and that what really matters is how we prepare for the life to come. Blessed John Henry Newman offers a famous summary of what Anthony tells Vincent: "Life is short; death is certain; and the world to come is everlasting." Ever tribulation we may suffer should be considered in the context of eternal life. We have to imitate the early Christians as described in the Letter to Diognetus:

Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign.

And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives.

They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. . . . 

We all face tribulation: my brother and sister and I have been helping our elderly mother settle into a nursing home. The transition may have been easier for her than it has been for us; a little thing like cancelling her phone service and eliminating our parents' home phone number for the past 56 years and more is troubling to us--and there are bigger things to come with the dissolution of our family home. But as I've read this dialogue, I'm reminded that these little burdens, oppressive as they might seem to us, are nothing compared to the joys of the life to come. Our bearing them with patience and fortitude prepares us for those joys, detaches us from our life here on earth, and reminds us that we have no lasting city here on earth. Much as we love our life, love all our family and friends, love the earth and nature, our true and first love must be for God--He loved us first, He wants what is best for us; we should and must trust Him.

Second, because reading this dialogue, which Gerard Wegemer calls one of More's greatest works in the introduction, helps the reader appreciate the wit and wisdom of Thomas More. Throughout the text, he demonstrates his knowledge of Scripture and the teaching of the Church. He also displays great experience both in secular life and in the spiritual life, understanding the realities of public life and the depths of private life. More knows the weaknesses of humanity: one example is his description of sinners kept awake by the thought of their sins and the need to amend their lives. Finally, they turn over their pillows, plump them up a little, get comfortable, and go back to sleep! More is also aware of the pitfalls of power and influence; no matter how much power and control a statesman may achieve, unless he is the monarch, there will be someone else who tells him what to do and how. Even as he fulfills his ambition to achieve higher and higher rank, he still encounters setbacks and tribulations. 

By using the dialogue form, writing a fictional conversation between two characters, More thoroughly explores the themes of suffering and comfort. He also displays his humor through funny stories about people, like the nun who talks so much that her visiting brother can't get a word in; or the doctor who can cure others but not himself; or the prisoner who notes the incongruity of a visitor who locks herself in every night in her own house being upset that he is locked in his cell every night, or the man who plans to please him self during his life, planning to say words of repentance at the last moment to safe himself: his last words are "Well, I'll be damned", etc.

If we read this dialogue for its autobiographical insight, it shows us that Thomas More--just as he did in The Sadness of Christ and just as he told Cromwell and his daughter Meg--was distancing himself from worldly cares and preparing for death. He was thinking about Jesus in His Passion and how he should imitate his Savior. Many of the anecdotes are about his family, including his wife Alice and adopted ward, Meg Giggs, so he was thinking about them too.

Highly recommended. Scepter only has a few copies left, so order today!

480 Years Ago: St. Thomas More Writes to His Daughter Meg

While I am teaching about The Real St. Thomas More this morning at the Spiritual Life Center here in Wichita, I'll be sure to highlight the appropriateness of holding such a class on this date.

On April 30, 1535, Thomas More was called out of his cell in the Tower of London to be presented with the opportunity to swear the new Oath of Supremacy under the threat of the Treason Act. He learned that the Carthusian Priors and Richard Reynolds had been found guilty and were condemned to death. He would see them leave the Tower for Tyburn on May 8, 1535. These events took place 480 years ago. He wrote to his daughter, Margaret Roper, on May 2 to describe the discussion he and Thomas Cromwell had regarding his refusal to take this new Oath (when he had refused to take the former Oath of Succession in 1534, more than a year before).

More argued that he was doing nothing to oppose Henry VIII and that Henry VIII knew it:

I answered that in good faith I had well trusted that the King's Highness would never have commanded any such question to be demanded of me, considering that I ever from the beginning well and truly from time to time declared my mind unto his Highness, and since that time I had, I said, unto your Mastership Master Secretary also, both by mouth and by writing. And now I have in good faith discharge my mind of all such matters, and neither will dispute King's titles nor Pope’s, but the King’s true faithful subject I am and will be, and daily I pray for him and for all his, and for you all that are of his honorable Council, and for all the realm, and otherwise than thus I never intend to meddle. 

More writes to Margaret how they tried a different tactic with him to persuade him to swear and how he replied:

I am, said I, the King’s true faithful subject and daily beadsman and pray for his Highness and all his and all the realm. I do nobody harm, I say none harm, I think none harm, but wish everybody good. And if this be not enough to keep a man alive, in good faith, I long not to live. And I am dying already, and have since I came here been divers times in the case that I thought to die within one hour, and I thank our Lord I was never sorry for it, but rather sorry when I saw the pang past. And therefore my poor body is at the King’s pleasure; would God my death might do him good. 

More then went back to his cell. When he wrote to Margaret on May 2, he was preparing his family for what was was coming.

Whereupon I was delivered again to Master Lieutenant, which was then called in, and so was I by Master Lieutenant brought again into my chamber, and here am I yet in such case as I was, neither better nor worse. That which shall follow lies in the hand of God, whom I beseech to put in King’s Grace’s mind that thing that may be to his high pleasure, and in mine, to mind only the weal of my soul, with little regard of my body. 

 And you with all yours, and my wife and all my children and all our friends both bodily and ghostly heartily well to fare. And I pray you and all them, pray for me, and take no thought whatsoever shall happen me. For I verily trust in the goodness of God, seem it never so evil to this world, it shall indeed in another world be for the best. 

More remained in his cell until June 3, 1535, when he was questioned again--and then went to trial on July 1 and to Tower Hill for execution on July 6. My publisher, Scepter, has this book  (see the cover above) of selected letters of St. Thomas More in their catalog--fewer than 200 copies are in stock--that provides brief introductions to each of the letters in the book. It's an excellent resource.

Will the Second Printing Sell Out at Scepter?

My publisher, Scepter, updates their inventory of titles on their website. Once a book drops below the 500 copy mark, the exact number of copies starts counting down. Supremacy and Survival: How Catholics Endured the English Reformation is in its second printing--the first sold out in November 2010 after publication in January 2009. The book really benefited by the timing of current events: Pope Benedict XVI announced the Personal Ordinariate and then visited Scotland and England, beatifying John Henry Newman in September 2010. The second printing, slightly revised (correcting a couple of errors and omissions) came out in 2011.

We'll see if it sells out again--thanks to everyone who bought a copy, reviewed it, or recommended it! If you want to buy a copy, here's the link!

Book Review: Thomas More by Peter Berglar

Subtitle: A Lonely Voice Against the Power of the State. From the publisher (Scepter):

This book explores the conscience and motivation of one of the most admired persons in history: St. Thomas More. Most people know that Thomas More wrote a book called Utopia about a perfect society and got his head chopped off by King Henry VIII. But there was much more to the man. More not only occupied England’s most powerful position under the king as Lord Chancellor, but was also a devoted family man, a Renaissance figure of renown throughout Europe, and the author of works of apologetics as well as poetry, fiction and plays. Even while awaiting execution in the Tower of London, his multi-volume “Tower writings” poured out, evidence of his deep faith and life of prayer.

In Gulliver’s Travels, Protestant author Jonathan Swift named More among the six greatest defenders of liberty of all time, “to which all the ages of the world cannot add a seventh.” Erasmus praised him as one “born, created for friendship.” After his death, a popular tune sang the praises of his “gentle heart”:

When More some time had Chancellor been,
No more suits did remain;
The like will never more be seen
Till More be there again.

Peter Berglar, who has written ten biographies including one of St. Peter, and one of the earliest studies of Opus Dei and its founder, St. Josemaría Escrivá, deals in this new translation of the original German with the ultimate question: for what is life not worth living? When must it be purchased at a price that could devalue and perhaps destroy it? “It has been repeated in every generation. There will never be a lack of idols and dictators who demand this sacrifice.”

Peter Berglar organizes his biography of St. Thomas More according to the epitaph More wrote for his tomb in Chelsea, and even sent a copy of to Erasmus, after he had left the service of Henry VIII as Chancellor:

"Thomas More, a Londoner born, of no noble family, but of an honest stock, somewhat brought up in learning; after that in his young days he had been a pleader in the laws of this hall certain years, being one of the under-sheriffs of London, was of noble King Henry the Eight (which alone of all kings worthily deserved both with sword and pen to be called the Defender of the Faith, a glory afore not heard of) called into the court, and chose one of the Council and made knight; then made first under-treasurer of England, after that chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and last of all, with great favour of his prince, lord chancellor of England. But in the mean season, he was chosen speaker of the parliament, and besides was divers times in divers places the king's ambassador, and last of all at Cambray, joined fellow and companion with Cuthbert Tunstal, chief of that embassy, then Bishop of London, and within a while after Bishop of Durham, who so excelleth in learning, wit and virtue, that the whole world scant hath at this day any more learned, wiser or better; where he both joyfully saw and was present ambassador when the leagues between the chief princes of Christendom were renewed again, and peace so long looked for restored to Christendom, which peace Our Lord stablish and make perpetual.

When he had thus gone through this course of offices or honours, that neither that gracious prince could disallow his doings, nor he was odious to the nobility nor unpleasant to the people, but yet to thieves, murderers and heretics grievous, at last John More, his father, knight, and chosen of the prince to be one of the justices of the King's Bench, a civil man, pleasant, harmless, gentle, pitiful, just and uncorrupted, in years old, but in body more than for his years lusty, after that he perceived his life so long lengthened, that he saw his son lord chancellor of England, thinking himself now to have lived long enough, gladly departed to God. His son then, his father being dead, to whom as long as he lived being compared was wont both to be called young and himself so thought too, missing now his father departed, and seeing four children of his own, and of their offspring eleven, began in his own conceit to wax old; and this affection of his was increased by a certain sickly disposition of his breast, even by and by following, as a sign or token of age creeping upon him. He, therefore, irked and weary of worldly business, giving up his promotions, obtained at last by the incomparable benefit of his most gentle prince, if it please God to favour his enterprise, the thing which from a child in a manner always he wished and desired: that he might have some years of his life free, in which he little and little withdrawing himself from the business of this life, might continually remember the immortality of the life to come. And he hath caused this tomb to be made for himself, his first wife's bones hither too, that might every day put him in memory of death that never ceases to creep on him. And that this tomb made for him in his life-time be not in vain, nor that he fear death coming upon him, but that he may willingly, for the desire of Christ, die and find death not utterly death to him, but the gate of a wealthier life, help him, I beseech you, good reader, now with your prayers while he liveth, and when he is dead also."

Using that epitaph, which is More's outline of his own life's story to that point, Berglar traces More's career in the courts and at Court, his family life, and his involvement in the great crises of the Reformation and Henry VIII's Great Matter:

Contents:
Foreword
Part One: The Upward Climb
Chapter One: The Epitaph in Chelsea
Chapter Two: A Statesman and Writer
Chapter Three: Political Practice
Chapter Four: The Heretics
Chapter Five: A Father and His Children
Chapter Six: Farewell and Parting
Chapter Seven: The Two Women

In the last chapter, Berglar explores More's relationships with his two wives, Jane and Alice, to whom More paid tribute in his Chelsea epitaph:

Within this tomb Jane, wife of More, reclines;

This More for Alice and himself designs.

The first, dear object of my youthful vow,

Gave me three daughters and a son to know;

The next—ah! virtue in a stepdame rare!—

Nursed my sweet infants with a mother's care.

With both my years so happily have past,

Which most my love, I know not—first or last.

Oh! had religion destiny allowed,

How smoothly mixed had our three fortunes flowed!

But, be we in the tomb, in heaven allied,

So kinder death shall grant what life denied.

In the second part, Berglar looks more closely at More's responses to those two crises mentioned above by examining his works, like Utopia and The Humble Supplication of Souls (defending Church teaching on Purgatory), his defense of Church teaching on the Holy Eucharist and other works against the Reformers (written at the request of the great Defender of the Faith), and the Tower Works, composed during the 445 days he spent as Henry VIII's prisoner:

Part Two: The Testimony
Chapter Eight: The World of Erasmus
Chapter Nine: The Souls in Purgatory
Chapter Ten: Corpus Christi
Chapter Eleven: The Kings Path
Chapter Twelve: Consolation in Suffering
Chapter Thirteen: In Conversation with God
Epilogue
Index

This is an effective overview of More's life and works, with an interesting organizing pattern, and the reminder, especially highlighted in the epilogue, of the integrity of St. Thomas More's life. He thoroughly integrated his spiritual and professional life, his religious and personal life, so that there is no division or compartmentalization. Berglar notes when More may have failed in this effort (as when he followed Wolsey too closely) and does not ignore the difficulties and balance More had to work to achieve.

This book was translated from the German and the author notes in the epilogue the scarcity of German translations of More's works. Even though it is meant for a German audience, to bring St. Thomas More's example of responding to the crisis of the State attacking the Church, it's a good reminder for English and American audiences too, especially when discussing the distinctions between More and St. John Fisher:

"The difference between them was the difference between layman and priest. Fisher was obliged to resist the regime's aberrations directly. In this sense, his position was easier than More's. Priests who come into conflict with the state and wish to remain faithful to the Church will invoke St. John Fisheras their patron; whereas perplexed Christians entangled in the complexities and intrigues of the social apparatus and in need of an example and intercessor, will turn to St. Thomas More."

Fitting guidance for this Fortnight for Freedom in the U.S.A. (I purchased this book.)

Day One Report

As anyone who has attended a convention or trade show knows, there are lots of freebies. I spread out my haul for the day on my hotel room bedspread: one CD, a sample of coffee, mousepad, pin, teeshirt, holy card, five pens, a magazine, keychain, and a free book!

I started the morning with the Rosary and Mass in the Grand Ballroom at the Radisson and then attended the opening session of the Catholic Writers Conference after registering downstairs in the convention center.

CWG officers described the mission of the organization, the benefits of membership, and some future plans (regional guilds, for example).

Then I participated in the Rapid Fire Reading for Catholic non-fiction: I read for five minutes from Supremacy and Survival (all about St. Edmund Campion, torture, priest holes, and execution). When Ellen Gable and Susi Pittman and I had read from our books, we answered some questions, and then sold and signed our books. My publisher, John Powers from Scepter, was there and was glad to see my books selling (six so far). It was a smaller group than I'd hoped for, but it was a great experience.

I took a break to visit the trade show (collecting loot along the way) and stopped by the Scepter Publishers booth to say hello to Nathan. After lunch I worked on my presentation for tomorrow and then just finished attending a session on "Authenticity in Marketing." I just met the presenter, Theresa Thomas on the van ride to the hotel yesterday. She was an excellent speaker, mixing personal experience with measured data and strategic guidance for marketing yourself and your work honestly and effectively.