Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C.S. Lewis Edited by Paul F. Ford. HarperOne (San Francisco, 2008), 374 pp., $23.95.
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), a British Anglican author and professor of English literature, first at Oxford, then at Cambridge, wrote numerous books that continue to sell not just well but very well more than four decades after his death. The name in the title of this book comes from his nickname, "Jack," used by friends and family, and which he preferred to his given name of Clive Staples.
It's no surprise whenever a new collection of C.S. Lewis material comes out in book form, given his continuing popularity. The theme that unites the hundreds of letters in this volume is the author's experience and practice of the art of spiritual direction.
The editor, Paul F. Ford, organized the letters chronologically, the earliest from 1916, the latest from 1963. An index makes it easier to locate specific topics or themes discussed by Lewis. Students and scholars of Lewis may be well advised to take the index as incomplete, however. Thomas Merton's name appears in the book, for example, but not in the index.
Nowadays, the meaning of "spiritual direction" is sometimes elusive, depending on the theological orientation or preferences of the one using the term. Ford --- professor of liturgy at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, who has written extensively about Lewis --- describes three kinds of letters in this book --- letters of spiritual companionship, spiritual discipleship and spiritual direction.
Lewis lived during the first half of the 20th century. As a young man he became an atheist, then converted to Anglicanism, and he was tolerant of the faith of others unless it struck him as narrow-minded or a distortion of the truth.
Indeed, Lewis was not one to withhold praise from a Catholic author such as G.K. Chesterton; indeed, he says in one letter that Chesterton was one of the main influences on his decision to abandon atheism. In a letter dated 1950, he called Chesterton's "The Everlasting Man" "the best popular apologetic I know." In 1941, Lewis also heartily recommended --- "in small doses" --- the 15th-century Catholic spiritual classic "The Imitation of Christ," by Thomas a Kempis.
It seems that C.S. Lewis was reluctant to describe himself as a spiritual director. For example, in a 1954 letter he declared, "I am certainly unfit to advise anyone else on the devotional life." He goes on, however, to share his own rules for prayer:
(1) To make sure that, wherever else they may be placed, the main prayers should not be put 'last thing at night.
(2) To avoid introspection in prayer, I mean not to watch one's own mind to see if it is in the right frame, but always to turn the attention outwards to God.
(3) Never, never to try to generate an emotion by willpower.
(4) To pray without words when I am able, but to fall back on words when tired or otherwise below par.
Lewis is anything but esoteric in this collection of letters. In fact, he is thoroughly and delightfully everyday and down-to-earth, including comments that may mystify the reader regarding their relevance to anyone's spiritual direction. One sample: in a 1962 letter he remarks that "it is strange that anyone should dislike cats. But cats themselves are the worst offenders in this respect. They very seldom seem to like one another."
"Yours, Jack" is a valuable collection of informal observations, off-the-cuff advice and wry remarks from a 20th-century Christian author whose works continue to affect countless readers in our own time.
Fatima: One book offers hope, another merely confuses
The Last Secret of Fatima
By Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Doubleday (New York, 2008). 192 pp., $21.95.
The Secret Still Hidden
By Christopher A. Ferrara. Good Counsel Publications (Pound Ridge, N.Y., 2008). 248 pp., $14.95.
Reviewed by Brian Welter
It takes the authority of a cardinal to put to rest the rumors and mythology surrounding the three secrets of Fatima. This book examines the history of the event where Mary appeared over a six-month period starting May 13, 1917, to three illiterate shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal.
They received three secrets that they gave to the church to interpret. This led to a media frenzy. Adding to the frenzy and speculation was the "miracle of the sun," witnessed by 70,000 people Oct. 13, 1917.
"The Last Secret of Fatima," in question-and-answer format with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, clarifies theological issues such as the nature of predictions. Cardinal Bertone emphasizes Christian freedom, especially through prayer and penance. Predictions from heaven are really warnings of what we humans will do to ourselves, with the manipulation of Satan, if we fail to live holy lives.
"Prophecy," Cardinal Bertone notes, "is an urgent invitation to conversion, penance and prayer, and the point is that these things have the power to change the course of history."
This book's solid Catholic theology acts as a corrective to superstitious or mischievous people who have made Fatima into an industry.
Cardinal Bertone's interviewer, Giuseppe de Carli, occasionally falls into sensationalism. He attempts to connect Our Lady of Fatima with Mohammed's favorite daughter, Fatima (Portugal, like Spain, was under the Arab Muslims before the Reconquista, and Fatima, Portugal, is named after her): "The Shiites believe that the Fatima shrine belongs by right to Muslims, and that the Catholics have stolen it from its rightful owners. They argue that if a lady dressed in shining white appeared there, then it's because she had a message for Muslims, not for Christians."
This is the sort of digression made by the Fatima cottage industry, and it gives Cardinal Bertone the chance to set things right. Here, as many times elsewhere, the cardinal speaks with the clarity and authority of Pope Benedict XVI, which is precisely what is needed on issues such as this.
This book advances our understanding of Our Lady of Fatima and the three secrets precisely because it doesn't shy away from controversy and, even more so, because Cardinal Bertone doesn't shy away from direct, authoritative answers. He bases his responses on biblical, Catholic theology.
Cardinal Bertone sees hope in Fatima: "The fact that you could fill an entire library with what has been written both about Fatima in particular and about apparitions in general," he says, "suggests that God is trying to break through the hard shell of our indifference."
In "The Secret Still Hidden," Christopher Ferrara, a U.S. lawyer, implies the Vatican is more interested in saving its own skin than in saving humanity. To support such an outrageous claim, he turns to a litany of dubious evidence.
The author contends the Vatican has left out an important part of the third prophecy of Fatima, a secret that points to "an apocalyptic crisis of the faith in the church starting from the top."
Ferrara's main ambition in this book is to undermine the Second Vatican Council. He takes on the magisterium in an assortment of ways, and with a less-than-respectful tone. Ferrara portrays various Vatican officials as misrepresenting and withholding the truth.
Ferrara traces the work of an Italian journalist who covers the Vatican and is a faithful Catholic. Antonio Socci came to believe that the Vatican had been less than forthcoming about the third secret, and wrote a book about it. Cardinal Bertone's book was one response to Socci's writings.
In his best in-your-face style, Ferrara writes, "There is a secret not revealed, and the Vatican, for whatever reason, is hiding it from the world, while the prominent Catholic layman who makes this grave accusation is being attacked, but not answered, by a Vatican prelate."
Grave accusation indeed.
The basic and severe theological error at the heart of Ferrara's book is more damaging than his flamboyant, hard-to-follow, million-facts-a-page style. Ferrara subscribes to determinism: "The very nature of true prophecy is that it unerringly predicts what comes to pass."
For Ferrara, Fatima has superseded the Bible and Catholic tradition. Because of this, he reads all sorts of crazy stuff into the events and words of Fatima and the hierarchy's handling of it. This becomes very tiresome, as it is next to impossible to follow Ferrara's leads.
"The Secret Still Hidden" reads like a Dan Brown novel, with all the sensationalism read into otherwise bland or innocent-sounding statements, and with mountains of disrespect shown for the hierarchy. It serves no purpose other than to agitate faithful Catholics. Best to read something by Pope Benedict XVI and drop this book.
---CNS |