My piece on the WRM blog

Many nice comments on Facebook where they posted a link. Read it here.

“If I were to give advice to someone on how to find their vocation, I would say this: it’s already there inside of you, because God knew you before He formed you in the womb, and He created you for a reason. So take an honest look at yourself, your interests, and your desires, and then give it to Him to show you what to make of it all. Pray with St. Alphonsus Liguori, “Grant that I may love You always, and then do with me as You will.”” – Sr. Maria Perpetua

The Joy in the Heart of the Mother of a Religious Sister

February 11, 2021Year of the Sister

by Ana Braga-Henebry

When our daughter told us she was going to enter the cloistered religious life, it was one of these life moments we never forget. My husband and I lay in bed that night, holding hands, awake. Afterwards I described the moment as similar to a child announcing an engagement, but it was not quite the same. Along the joy and excitement, there is an added dimension of loss, separation, even death, in a decision for the cloister.  

Through time, we grew more used to the idea and began talking about it to family and friends. I teach at a small parochial school alongside wonderful religious sisters, and one of them was so excited by the news. “Your family will receive unimaginable blessings”, she told me, and I clung to her words fiercely. 

My husband and I prepared to handle critical responses from family and friends, and were pleasantly surprised by their general absence. The few concerns brought up revolved around her intellectual abilities. A diligent student, Maria was a spelling wiz having gone to the National Bee and receiving academic awards in high school in many areas including writing and Latin. Her college professors were astounded at the quality of her work. Our daughter was peaceful about putting all of that to the service of God, following the path of older sisters at the convent, and the example of so many saints in history.

The months before our Maria’s entrance were a whirlwind of travels, visits from family and friends, and an unusual shopping list. Maria reflected,

“It is my last day at home, but somehow it hasn’t hit me yet. The monastery I’m entering feels very distant when I’m sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch, or sprawled on the couch with a cup of tea and a blanket, or out shopping, or watching a movie. And yet, I know I couldn’t stay like this…  It’s the feeling of blooming or coming out of a chrysalis, I guess. You know it will be hard and so, so different, and it’s kind of scary, but there’s no part of you that wishes you could go back to the way it was before, when you were a bud or a caterpillar. What butterfly wishes it were still a caterpillar?” (an excerpt from Maria’s blog prior to entering cloister)

All too quickly, my husband and I saw ourselves driving up a remote California sierra with our dear daughter in the back seat, reading and writing last emails. To enter cloister as a postulant, she would be leaving behind her phone, her computer, her blog—all digital communication. After a last meal in the guesthouse, our daughter handed us a last bag of her possessions, and we walked together to the little chapel, stopping to take a last selfie.

The last couple of minutes with her went in a flash. Mother Prioress came to meet us, we hugged and blessed her, and into the little inconspicuous side door of the chapel went our daughter, disappearing unceremoniously into a new world. We sat in the quiet chapel, numb. Our mind spinning, we knelt and prayed for a long while, silently, and both of us cried hot, painful tears. It was a long time before we got up to head back to the guesthouse. On our way out, a priest came to us, and his words were soothing balm for our aching hearts. He congratulated us for having raised a daughter with the maturity and courage to make such a radical and beautiful decision in life. His kind words focused on what we parents go through in such a critical moment, filling our hearts with peace and comfort.

The next day we were able to glimpse her in chapel through the grille, filing up with the other sisters, the simple postulant veil on. We had a final visit with her through the grille in the parlor before departure. How we pressed her young hands in ours, and drank those moments of just looking at her.

During the long trip back home, I cried rivers. The tears just flowed, in a seemingly unstoppable cascade. Normal life was soon to resume, largely unaware of this life-changing event by a young woman in California: so this interlude of travel was my time to cry. I cried in awe of the courageous sacrifice she was making—“Let me suffer for you”, one of her last blog posts stated. I cried thinking of our family holiday dinners without her; I cried thinking of her nephews and nieces growing up without their brilliant aunt and her famously laconic, pithy remarks. I cried thinking of her new life, so simple and penitential—never a restaurant, a trip to the beach, an evening with friends by the fire—all of the little delights of life now closed to her.

The blessings Sister had promised have come to fruition. 

Our daughter’s monthly letters, eloquent and amusing, have become bright, special moments for us. We speak of the now “Sister Maria Perpetua” and of her new life with admiration and confidence. Her vocation has instilled in us a further desire to grow in our own spiritual life. We all sense a connection with the world shared by priests and religious. Above all, the knowledge that she is constantly praying for us is intensely powerful!

A year after her entrance I was able to visit the monastery for a longer stay in the guesthouse. I met many young sisters and worked alongside them. We had time to chat across the grille, my veiled daughter and I, our hands always busy with a manual task, as time is never wasted in the monastic rhythm. I truly did not want to leave that ordered, joyful, prayer-filled routine of days.

I walk my daily life with a heart overwhelmed by gratitude. To think that God allowed me to be the mother of a religious sister. At home, with family and friends, or in the workplace, she is a favorite theme in conversation. To non-religious persons in the secular world, I describe my joy in terms they can relate: I tell them of our daughter who lives in a religious community, where they grow organic vegetables and fruits, milk their cows and goats, make cheese and yogurt, and live a healthy routine bathed in prayer and chant. People are often interested, and ask more about it. 

As with other spiritual gifts, it is difficult to put into words the joy that has lived in this maternal heart since I dared to see a possibility of a vocation in my young daughter. I hoped and prayed as I saw that possibility growing in her. Seeing it come to fruition, helping her prepare for entrance, and now reading in her letters the fulfillment of a heart devoted to the love for God—it is beyond me to describe this joy. 

Now when I cry unexpectedly for her, as when clicking on an old video of her singing, I sense how similar—and how different—it is to cry for her as to cry for a loved one who has died. 

The vocation to the cloistered life is in a sense “death to the world”, and I cry because she is no longer able to travel home for the holidays or to enjoy time together. Yet it is so different: we can still tell her of our life by letters, and we receive her hand-written lines overflowing with grace, insight, and love. We know that she asks God daily to give us what is truly good. We know her life brings immeasurable good into the world. We miss her, but we know she is well, healthy and happy, and very much alive.

  “If I were to give advice to someone on how to find their vocation, I would say this: it’s already there inside of you, because God knew you before He formed you in the womb, and He created you for a reason. So take an honest look at yourself, your interests, and your desires, and then give it to Him to show you what to make of it all. Pray with St. Alphonsus Liguori, “Grant that I may love You always, and then do with me as You will.”” – Sr. Maria Perpetua

 

Ana Braga-Henebry, a long-time member of Well-Read Mom,  is originally from Rio, Brazil and has a M.A. in Humanities/Aesthetic Studies. She teaches Latin in parochial schools. Ana and her husband Geoffrey, a scientist and professor, raised seven children. Their sixth child is a Norbertine sister in CA. Her daughter’s blog reflects on her imminent entrance into the monastic life and may still be accessed online: http://earlgreysoliloquy.blogspot.com/  

Well-Read Mom book by Marcie Stockman: my quick review

Customer Review

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

Marcie Stockman’s book is even a pleasure to hold, in its handsome format and attractive cover and layout. I will avoid repeating what other reviews have eloquently stated. Let’s just say that I consider myself very well read, and yet it has been in the last few years being involved with this movement that I finally got to read and love many great classics such as Dante’s Divine Comedy, Homer’s Odyssey, and The Brothers Karamazov!
I have been part of her book club movement from the beginning. One of the best aspects of Well Read Mom is that it is so very easy to start and lead a book club! My book clubs have not only enriched my life, they have also enriched the life of my book club members in unimaginable ways. What Marcie has done, which she retells so beautifully here, is something so needed in our culture today, with ramifications stretching far into the future—as mothers raise future leaders!
This book will also make a delightful gift.

Reed of God

I’ve been reading, or listening to, The Reed of God for book club. Number Five has joined a chapter of the Well Read Mom Book Club as well, so we are both enjoying the same book. Caryll Houselander writes in a personal way, like words she would write down daily without excessive attention to density or professional editing. After reading, or listening to, three Bill Bryson non-fiction books, this feels more like a conversation than a book. Her reflections are very personal, intimate, they reflect the development of her thoughts and imagination on the presence of the Blessed Virgin life on earth. She wrote it in London while the world was at war, and she brilliantly juxtaposes the Life brought by the Blessed Virgin into a world so full of death. Advent is the underlying theme, but she expands the idea of advent, or patiently waiting and letting something grow—to many different aspects of human life.

A new kids' book

The whole text rhymes, and is a delight to read! 

Book Club wrap-up

Sneak Peek

Sneak Peek: I wrote this for the WRM Summer Journal...

Sunday Family Meals: My Culinary School

By Ana Braga-Henebry, M.A.



In his 1998 Apostolic Letter Dies Domini (The Day of the Lord), Saint John Paul II writes:

“Sharing in the Eucharist is the heart of Sunday, but the duty to keep Sunday holy cannot be reduced to this. In fact, the Lord's Day is lived well if it is marked from beginning to end by grateful and active remembrance of God's saving work. This commits each of Christ's disciples to shape the other moments of the day — those outside the liturgical context: family life, social relationships, moments of relaxation — in such a way that the peace and joy of the Risen Lord will emerge in the ordinary events of life.”

There are few opportunities that offer more dynamic and relaxed family time than a family’s sacred time around the table, sharing a meal. Sunday is the Eucharist day par excellence, a day set apart by our heavenly father for rest and the Eucharistic meal. No other activity reflects better that life-giving sacrament than the family meal.

For a busy mother at home, Sundays offer an opportunity to improve and develop a task that is mostly done in a quotidian, hurried and necessary manner. Rare is the weekday when mothers have time to put thought and challenging new skills into play as they make their daily family meal. Hungry kids, limited time, littles underfoot, and the never ending demands of the various family activities, all of these may make a more elaborate daily meal near impossible.

But Sunday comes, every week, to the rescue! On Sundays, a Catholic family is at home, relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. Dad’s presence makes such a marking difference. The dining table is set more beautifully; liturgically-colored candles may be lit, and the mother, her many usual chores eased by the restful aspect of the day and the presence of her husband, is able to focus on the making of the family meal.

I could say that the above scenario is the story of my life. For over thirty years, Sundays were to become my culinary school: challenging myself to please the family and our guests, I developed dishes and stories around them. My husband was with my little ones, and we often had guests over. The absence of common chores provided time for me to peruse cookbooks and plan meals that were more festive and reflective of the holiness of the day.

I have always loved cooking. I grew up in different world, in South America, and Cook did not allow us kids in the kitchen much—unless I begged and promised to help, I hadn’t a chance. I remember my first entries into the culinary world: being allowed to peel potatoes or sort beans while observing the meal preparation. What better way to learn? Mother would make our own meals on Sunday evenings and to this day, I make her same pizza crust. She also made all of our many birthday cakes, and that recipe too is my default wedding cake recipe as our kids and godchildren are married.

When I found myself married in the USA, I reveled in reigning in my own kitchen. My poor husband was guinea pig for all sorts of cultural assimilation attempts. The good man never complained, but I know how many failures I served him. Before I had completely adapted, however, the kids, and many of them, were underfoot, growing, always hungry. My ambitious culinary dreams became a work of mercy: feeding the hungry. My challenges consisted in making good-tasting and filling meals out of basic, inexpensive ingredients. No time for sauces, garnishes, or the trying of too many new ingredients.

But the children grew, as children always do. The older ones started saying how they enjoyed “Mom’s” food, and husband tasted fewer failures. Some of the kids were interested in learning, and their daily dinner help allowed me to start developing new things again. Moreover, the Sunday dinner guests, old or young from near and far, were more frequent and brought with them recipes, dishes, and more ideas. They also brought praise, praise for food that was homemade, that was real and made from scratch, and had years of experience behind it. For so many years, Sunday after Sunday, meal after meal, I experimented, tried new recipes and methods, made mistakes, and learned!

Before the youngest reached high school age, I saw myself doing cooking demonstrations and classes in our college-town community. I come up with the themes, recipes, cooked and entertained. I tell stories, of growing up in a world where herbs grow year round and a dry-spice cabinet is not need, and I tell them cooking is not as much about food as about love. My audience is as diverse as you get, but I do use the word “sacredness” and it is consistently well received. I go to school meetings or shopping, and people approach me: “I loved your cooking class! It was so much more than food!”

Once I received a Thank You note: “I haven’t heard about the importance of sitting together as a family since I was a little girl”, my admirer wrote. I kept the note into a drawer of treasures. As I read further, I sensed that the middle-aged writer was moved by coming across something she thought our society had lost forever: the sacredness of a family meal, with friends around the table.

The day of the Lord was my school, and the praise I receive is all His. In His infinite wisdom, He was the one who gave us Sundays! Mothers may use Sundays for the rest they need, and also for developing interests they may not have time for during the week. A good book, needlework, or just conversations they are too busy to have other days. For me, the growing family, the loving support of my husband, the reaching out to dinner guests, and the time Sundays allowed me, all became my culinary school! For my ability to feed delicious food to others, and to have it transformed into a sacred experience, I give thanks and praise to God!



Ana’s Signature Dish:

Frango Catupiry (Herbed Cheesy Chicken)

This is a Brazilian traditional dish that has as many variations as there are cooks. I developed my own through trial and error through the years…

About 3 lbs chicken, diced (I use boneless, skinless)

Sauté in 3-4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Add fresh crushed garlic (several cloves) and salt to taste

(Tip: Pan fry for a while until golden and crispy)

Add 2 chopped onions

4 large, ripe, fresh tomatoes, diced (2 Ro-tel or petite-diced cans also work well)

Cover, let it simmer at least 20 minutes

Add two 8 oz packages softened cream cheese, stir to incorporate completely

Garnish with any combination of fresh herbs from the garden: basil, chives, cilantro, parsley, very finely chopped.

Serve over your favorite rice or side dish

Book Club

Last night we had our first meeting, with a new lineup of books, introductory conversation and new members too! Love my book club, and looking forward to read some of these titles for the first time and re-read some old favorites!

Well-Read Mom, Year of the Pilgrim

The Companion Book just arrived for the new year of my Book Club... wow, it is probably the most intense line-up of books yet, and the challenge is so exciting! Graham Greene, Les Mis and the Divine Comedy all on one year... and so much more. This year my suggestion was a book I read almost twenty years ago, and did I enjoy interviewing the author for the reflection/discussion questions... How fun to think the discussions over this book will happen in so many different places by hundreds and hundreds of women!

Book Club: Year of the Pilgrim!

This bookclub has been the highlight of my Brookings intellectual life. The meetings and discussions have been so varied in theme, content and levels of laughter and tears. They just published the books for this upcoming year, and I got to choose and write the reflection and study questions for one of them. Through common friends, I was able to interview the author! 

Book Lineup for the new year--an impressive one!

• September: Gilead by Marianne Robinson
• October: O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
• November: “Revelation” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor
• December: On Pilgrimage by Dorothy Day
• January: Strangers and Sojourners by Michael O’Brien
• February: Atticus by Ron Hansen
• March: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
• April: Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Burns
• May: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Book Club

Reading CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters again wa amazing--how does a book seems to change once you've lived a couple more decades! We had a wonderful discussion and we all admitted: we cannot read the book without seeing ourselves in the mirror at some point!

I found it in my native Portuguese and may send it to my dear aunt who enjoys good reading! I remember well when I found this author (I am pretty sure with my sis Tereza) here in the US, and introduced him to our father who was so happy!

Book Club

Book Club continues monthly and is a highlight of my life. We tackled Wuthering Heights and I greatly appreciated the new understanding and discussion on the value of this overly romantic best seller! We meet on late Saturday nights at our favorite restaurant that has a perfect room for the meetings.

Book Club begins again

Book Club started! A beautiful sunset in Downtown Brookings welcomed me as I drove in early to set up things. We had a lively discussion about friendship, including social-media friendships, and listened to audios by founder Marcie Stockman about the topic, and about the books for this year. We also talked a little about the first reading selection for the year, The Death of Ivan Ilych, for which I wrote the reflection and discussion questions in the printed companion. 

Well-Read Mom Conference

"Aunt" Nancy and I drove to St. Paul to attend this event! It was a wonderful afternoon of thought and scholarship, and hope. Number Five went with us as daughters were welcome, she loved the talks and took notes. 

Well-Read Mom packet

What beautiful graphics and layout--the Well-Read Mom team is again to be congratulated for the quality of their materials! This year the Companion comes with a lovely Book Journal with quotes, a selection by Chekhov and a gorgeous bookmark with this year's reproduction on one side and all of our books listed on the other.

I wrote the reflection for the book I chose this year: Willa Cather's Shadows on the Rock. I include the text. I think a favorite part was that I enjoyed speaking about my father a little bit...

Keeping the Home-Fires Burning:

the crucial role of Cécile Auclaire

{ REFLECTION}

By Ana Braga-Henebry, M.A.

•

When I first read Shadows on the Rock, I was deeply moved. I had a bunch of little kids then, and reading provided me with the best entertainment during those few bits of time I had for myself, stolen away from kitchen, daily lessons, laundry, and husband. Perhaps because I had visited Quebec previously, that French-Canadian world came easily, vivid, in my imagination. The side anecdotes of what the missionary priests had endured in the wilderness made the book an unforgettable read for me… and Cécile. I shall never forget how the girl of twelve takes the reader of this remarkable book into a world of adult hardships, politics, and sacrifice.

Indeed, through this loving household—the young housewife and her father, an  apothecary—Willa Cather brings alive a world of the past in a manner I have seldom experienced. That world was apparently dominated by strong male characters: the king, the count, the archbishop, the missionary priests, and the fur trappers. Yet Cather chooses a young girl to open for us the door into Quebec daily life in the late 1600s. 

Cécile is so very young. When Shadows on the Rock opens, her mother has died and Cécile lives with her dad. She has left the Ursulines’ girls school to take care of the home, doing the chores that used to be her mother’s. She is still a child and enjoys some of the excitement of childhood, but at the same time, she must act well beyond her years. She has suffered the loss of her mother and baby brother and her father, the royal apothecary in Quebec, must rely on her. They both get along, lovingly and beautifully. She prepares his meals, stresses the need for proper dinner attire, and makes a home for both of them in every little way. The love between father and daughter is touching, respectful, compassionate, and one of the most beautiful aspects of this marvelous book. Throughout the book we find sweet moments such as this one:

He placed it in the cabinet where he kept his medical books, then went into the salon and sank down in his chair by the fire.  Cécile knelt on the floor beside him, resting her arms upon his knee.  He bent and leaned his cheek for a moment on her shingled brown hair.

I have loved the writing of Willa Cather since our family lived in Nebraska. During those years, my husband and I read quite a bit of her work, and were enchanted especially by her two Catholic books, the marvelous and unique Death Comes to the Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock. I have often wondered how Cather came to be so knowledgeable of things Catholic: history, hierarchy, sacramental life. For years I had liked to believe that Sigrid Undset, whose masterwork Well-Read Mom members read in the first year, had influenced her. The Norwegian author Undset was a Nobel Prize winner in 1928 and a convert and ardent Catholic, and met Cather while in self-exile in NYC during WWII. The two writers became dear friends, but I was wrong in my supposition:  Death was written prior to their meeting. In researching for this reflection, I dug deep online and lo and behold, I found a paper by Professor Danker of SDSU entitled “Willa Cather’s French Neighbors”! So the mystery was solved: the author grew up in a small town populated by French-Canadians! Indeed she visited their homes and lived among their families. The stories and characters in her Catholic books were taken from real people!

Inasmuch as the side anecdotal stories fill the novel with wonder, history, and beauty, it is young Cécile  who anchors the book. Even if she falls back to the background in the epilogue, her daily work both in the home and in the community shapes the book’s soul. I discussed Shadows with a dear friend, a young priest and fellow Cather-admirer. In our conversation, he reminded me of the behind-the-scenes role that Cécile plays. A role that women have played in history from time immemorial, a role essential for humanity and for civilization. She not only makes a home, in every sense, for their little family—caring for the little things that kept culture and civilization alive—but also from this home she causes Love to radiate outward. The stability and bounty of their home spreads out to shelter and feed the poor old man, the little wayward boy, and all who come visit. Her home is a tangible model of what the Family is called to be by God: a cell of society, spreading Love and Light. 

Why do the townsfolk delight in calling upon the apothecary? Because therein they find a gentleman and a man of science who applies his art with skill, tenderness, and devotion? Certainly. But there is more. Whether they are able to articulate it or not, they delight in being received with dignity and respect into his home—and the existence of a home presumes a homemaker. In her careful, diligent, and pious (in the sense of “Pious Aeneas”) way, Cécile keeps the home-fires burning—not only literally, but also in the sense of being herself a little “light to lighten the darkness” of the pioneer days of Quebec.

As a homemaker, young Cécile’s daily work has a rippling, positive effect into many of the characters’ lives. And yet this is not the only way we see the protagonist at work in the novel. Cécile is also the faithful assistant of her father in the Apothecary’s business. Euclide Auclaire trusts her to be his right-hand helper, delivering medications and medical information. At twelve years old, she is a competent and reliable worker. She also shown as an admirer of her father’s medical stances, sometimes against much criticism. Euclide is a responsible, thoughtful, and dedicated professional, and in every way, Cécile is his companion, helper, and friend.

My own father and I were very close. As seventh of his numerous children, I like to think that I was in a way his most ardent admirer at home. I learned so much from following him around the house as a child, being his faithful assistant as Cécile was with Euclide, and had long conversations with him in my youth. Just over one year ago I was the one with him as he passed from this life to eternity. I will be forever thankful for this privilege. I missed my own dear mother’s passing due to distance, so with my father I enjoyed being present as Peace filled the room and, on my knees, tears rolling, I thanked God for his long and faithful life.

Cécile and Euclide Auclaire, along with Laura Ingalls and Pa, Jo and Mr. March, and Lizzy and Mr. Bennett, form one of the most endearing Father-Daughter duos I have encountered in literature.  Shadows On the Rock by Willa Cather is an unforgettable book because it brings forth a strong, determined and hard-working female main character, it touches on the interior life of virtue and faith, and it portrays the effects of family love in society.

Ana Braga-Henebry leads two WRM books clubs one hour apart from each other, and is constantly amazed at the range of complexity of responses and difference in opinion between the two of them. Ana received a Master’s degree in Humanities/Aesthetic Studies from the University of Texas at Dallas, where she studied Art and translated religious Brazilian Poetry among other things. She has seven children ranging from 14 to 27 with her husband Geoffrey, a scientist and academic with a Great Books background. They make their home in Laura Ingalls country, SD, where local people are welcoming, and the winters brutal. Ana has written reviews, plays and articles for a myriad of periodicals over the years. Most recently Ana wrote the chapter on Geography in the recently published book Why Should I Learn This? edited by Maureen Wittman and Erin Brown-Conroy. 

Number Six and the Twins

We didn't have a good recent photo of these three... we took several the other day when they came over for a visit... and I love this one! It does celebrate their lifelong friendship!

My piece in the Well-Read Mom annual Journal

Are Any Two Group Alike? Reflections on Leading Two Well-Read Mom Groups

by Ana Braga-Henebry, M.A.

I lead two Well-Read Mom book groups in two different urban communities one hour apart from each other. Since we started in 2013 neither group has missed a meeting, South Dakotan winters and all.

Albeit geographically close, I am the only link between these women--the members of one group have not met the members of the other group. And yet they live just one hour (or less) apart and share many of the same values and manner of daily life. For the sake of this reflection, I will call them the South and North groups.

When I started both groups, I expected that there would be repetition in opinion and theme when we met. Obviously the books and questions would be the same, but I also expected a fair amount of repetition in the discussions.

Was I wrong!

Human beings have a way of being incredibly diverse in thought and opinions--even if so close in geography, belief, and culture. Well, my two book groups are proof of that.

There are differences of opinions and insights in all of the books, and mostly they stem from personality differences, I think. Such as liking or not liking a fictional character. For example, while some of us, myself included, have loved Jane all of our lives and believe Jane Eyre to be a story of a very real, believable female character, there was at least one member who was very put-off by Jane, considering her to be far "too-good" to be real. The same thing with the Bennett sisters, and more so with Mrs Bennet herself. I have read Pride & Prejudice now so very many times, that I have really grown to love that woman. As I age and my children grow, mature and get married, I seem to understand her motherly heart so well. Even I must skip the "fluttering and beatings of the heart on my poor nerves." And yet Mrs. Bennet is an easy target, because she is truly made ridiculous in the book and film versions, and few were the members who would take my side on that issue. (I insist however that a careful reading of certain passages reveal her determined motherly love.) Still, the opinion on Jane, and Lizzy, and even Lydia Bennet, they vary as people's tastes can vary.

But then there were deep differences of opinion between the groups, differences that truly form a chasm.

Take Mary Lavin's stories. That month, my North group was first to meet. In this group one of the members is from Ireland herself, and early on in the meeting she voiced her dislike for the stories. She met with nods and agreement from group. I should insert here, parenthetically, that I try--some times more successfully than others, to keep a neutral tone during discussions. For the ones who know me they know this can be difficult: the very fact that I enjoy organizing and leading two simultaneous book clubs may lead the reader to correctly surmise that I have strong opinions! And yet during the discussions I am genuinely curious to hear other members' opinions--and especially so the strong ones. If I have a strong opinion, and sometimes I do, I try to leave my elaboration on those towards the end of the meeting. Again, sometimes I am more successful than others.

Back to the first meeting on Mary Lavin's stories: in this case I maintained my opinions very neutral. The language and tone of the stories were very obscure to me--somehow that whole world in which her stories take place, the family interactions, dialogue, their very setting--it was like they were all behind an impenetrable veil to me. I wonder even if I had been to Ireland, I could connect with Mary Lavin's world. So I sat and listened to the discussion and opinions, and learned as well. The stories were depressing, they thought, and seemed void of an uplifting message. There was no love-loss for a single character, as they were thought to be but shadows of real people.

A few days later, after enjoying dinner and conversation at a nice restaurant, the discussion started in my South group. Immediately a delight was expressed in her writing, in the development of characters, and in her ability to bring the Irish world into her writing. The themes of family love, of friendship, of the sacrificial dimension of the life of the wife and daughters, all of these surfaced. Some expressed a desire to read more of her stories, and indeed I lent my copy away as I hadtwo of them. I smiled to myself, and brought up some of the opinions expressed in the other group, which were met with no nodding of heads.

(This is not to say the groups' opinions were all that homogeneous. I am grouping the majority's opinions in a sense, but there are always dissenting ones, while not as eloquently defended for various reasons.)

And then... there was The Secret Diary of Elizabeth Leseur. For me, the book was hugely personal. During the reading I was being touched in so many ways, and I had an ongoing online conversation with a member who was having a similar experience. My opinions and experiences regarding the book were of such an interior dimension that I had a very difficult time beginning to express them in either meeting. In a way I didn't even try, as I did not see demand for it: both groups were talkative during those meetings.

Few times I have been as astonished as with the second group discussion on the intimate, spiritual diary. The North group had enjoyed the book even if it had touched them on different levels--but there was agreement in the opinion that we faced here a higher spiritual account of the life of a beautiful, loving and generous soul. The South group, however, had a different opinion. I must add that it was a week plagued by both winter weather and scheduling issues, and it was an unusually small gathering. But what I heard surprised me. There was unhappiness expressed over the fact that Elizabeth didn't tell us more of her comings and goings during the day. That she remained silent when she should have expressed herself. That she chose to be submissive. And the list went on. In truth at least one member, with me, vehemently defended Elizabeth, as we both stressed the fact that the book wasn't a diary of events but a spiritual one, and that, reading both between the lines and the biographical notes, we can begin to see that she was lively, joyful, attractive woman in many ways to their circle of friends, and not at all a dour person.

And yet such is a book club meeting--at times I feel at a loss. I must remember that books do not touch people the same way, and that some may just not be ready for certain readings, I too have been just as guilty in the past of disliking, or "not getting" a book that later opened itself so clearly and beautifully to me.

A case in point is Anna Karenina, which I just finished at the time of this writing. I have tried in the past, more than once, to persevere in the reading of this masterwork of Russian literature, but the adultery theme and initial scenes seemed so repulsive to me that I couldn't go on. Now I understand that the book, even though demonstrating what grave, unrepentant sin can cause in a soul, is also filled with hope and light in the character of Levin.

Leading two simultaneous Well-Read book clubs has been a gift to me. I started both clubs when our family was in midst of a painful move and transition. The book clubs were tremendously helpful to me in both maintaining my relationship and friendship with one location, and meeting and making new friends in the other location. I am grateful to both of my groups and their lovely members, and I confess I look forward to more of their dissenting opinions!


***

Ana Braga-Henebry has a Masters Degree in Humanities/Aesthetic Studies from University of Texas at Dallas and is the mother of seven children with her husband Geoffrey, a graduate of the St. John's College Great Books program, now a scientist and Professor at South Dakota State University. Ana has written Catholic plays for children, articles and features for Catholic periodicals, and was a founding editorial board member of Mater & Magistra. She has been a book reviewer for 20+ for various sites including Love2Learn and Amazon.com. Ana is also the author of the Catholic Textbook Project workbooks. She welcomes visitors to her blog at anabragahenebrysjournal.blogspot,com and she can be reached by email at anabragahenebry@gmail.com.

An Invitation!

Reading The Betrothed

For Book Club we just finished reading the Italian Classic The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni. I had vaguely known of its existence, before I saw it on the Well-Read Mom book club list for this year, and had certainly never read it.

This past Saturday my local book club chapter discussed it, and we enjoyed comparing notes on this unforgettable history-based story of faith, love and adventure. Some of the characters are historical, and so are events and geographical events. It is said that before the book a description of the Milan plague had never been done--and Manzoni does it superbly!

Below are some images of the original Italian edition.

His landscape/geography descriptions were so beautifully written.

Don Rodrigo is the trouble maker... and Friar Christophoro is a saintly man!

Trouble for Lucia!

The chapter on the missed vocation of this nun--daughter of a domineering wealthy man--was so interesting!

A conversion scene worthy of Dostoevsky! 

Before the tale of woe of the young couple ends, the plague happens... and with is great disruptions in Milan. 

The book had that old romance type feeling, with some comical parts even. But the story of a couple wanting to to God's will and going to great lengths to do it transcends time beautifully! Supposedly this classic is read by all students in Italy, and Manzoni is the second most read Italian author after Dante!

I found a film version online in a rare films store in NYC, and it has been going around the homes of my book club members.

Well-Read Mom Conference!

It was a long day of traveling, and attending the afternoon conference of the Well-Read Mom Book Club was certainly a highlight!

Well-Read Mom Book Club

Both of my Well-read Mom book club groups have been growing. At some point they may become too large in numbers, and I will then have to deal with that. For now, let them grow!

I found two articles that give us a more complete vision of author Wendell Berry, author of Hannah Coulter, this month's book. One is more than ten years old, the other one more recent.

FEBRUARY 22, 2011: Community: A Conversation with Wendell Berry

JANUARY 1, 2000: Wendell Berry’s Community

Both are written by Anne Husted Burleigh:

Mrs. Anne Husted Burleigh is a free-lance writer, mother, and grandmother who lives on a farm overlooking the Ohio River in Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, near Cincinnati. She has written two books: John Adams, a Biography, and Journey up the River: a Midwesterner’s Spiritual Pilgrimage. She has contributed to many publications, including Crisis and Catholic Dossier, and now writes for Magnificat.