Image by Andreas Lischka from Pixabay.
Are you looking for something to read during these leisurely weeks of summer?
Let me use this e-newsletter to suggest two “good reads.” They engaged my mind and heart, my spirit and imagination. Perhaps that might happen for you as well. What’s more, I bought them used, in good condition at discounted prices on eBay, AbeBooks.com, etc.
- The first is THE OUR FATHER, A New Reading by Gerhard Lohfink. It’s a short book that’s long on thought-provoking reflections about the prayer we say at every Mass or when we say the rosary. Some of us may have even received this prayer as a penance in confession. Each of the 110 pages has the potential to shake us out of the “routine lip-service” in which we might be praying the Lord’s prayer.
The author, Gerhard Lohfink, was a German scripture scholar who was convinced that the best way for modern-day people to understand the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples is to become as familiar as possible with what it meant for them 2,000 years ago. That is what Gerhard Lohfink does in this book. To illustrate, he breaks open what the word “Abba” [father] meant in the time of Jesus in order to expand our understanding of how it fits into ours.
He writes, “We should by no means try to equate it with our ‘Papa’ or ‘Daddy’ as was asserted at one time.” He responds to a contemporary question asked by some, “Does it mean that God is a man?” and expands a concern for “emphasizing God’s feminine features equally with the masculine.”
Gerard Lohfink goes on to consider each of the 7 petitions that make up the prayer that Jesus taught us as his disciples. What’s in a “hallowed” name? How did the disciples understand the request for daily bread? Would God ever “lead us into temptation?” What’s more, Lohfink considers the Our Father to be a dangerous prayer. To pray for God’s kingdom to come implies that we are praying for the end of the world’s kingdoms. “ ‘Your kingdom come’ implies a radical change of rulers.” That was dangerous then just as it is dangerous now.
One reader, Jon Sweeney, wrote about this book, “I’ll continue to say these words [of the Our Father] in traditional form at Mass, and in times of personal prayer, but I understand them better than ever before.” Ditto that, from yours truly!
- The second recommendation is the book Theo of Golden, by Allen Levi, a New York Times bestseller. It’s a heartwarming novel, the story of an 86-year-old man, Theo, who leaves New York City to live for a while in small town Golden, Georgia. The walls of the local coffee shop are decorated with 92 pencil portraits of various townsfolk, drawn by a local artist. Theo begins to buy them and give them in surprising ways to their “rightful owner,” inviting each recipient to tell their story.
Allen Levi describes his novel as one that explores the lost art of seeing the world – something he calls “adorational attentiveness.” His character, Theo, gazes attentively at the gifts that are all around him, and especially at these portraits. In each of them he perceives the hints of personal qualities of endearment. In each of the stories that gets told and when each of the portraits are received, lives are changed and transformation takes place.
The bottom line: this is a love story on many different levels.The author commented during a podcast, “What I was trying to do is respond to a question. What does it look like to live a life of love for other people with our arms and our hearts wide open?” Theo is the character that loves people and opens the way for others to become more loving.
Perhaps this novel touched my heart because I am in my 80s, a few years short of 86. Even so, I recommend this story of Theo to young and old as an easy read about the bonds of kindness that make for a joyful life.
Both books, very different from each other, touch on our lives a people of faith. One invites the reader to enter into a more profound conversation with the God who dearly loves us. The other invites the reader to see the beautiful divine image made manifest in each of the faces of people we meet. It’s my hunch that you won’t be disappointed should you choose either or both of these books as your summer read.
Provided by Rev. Thomas K. Zurcher, C.S.C., July 2026.
