Category Archives: Book Discussion Group

Our book for May is Remember to Live – Embracing the Second Half of Life by Fr. Thomas Ryan, CSP.

Awareness and acceptance of our mortality as experienced in aging, illness, and the death of others can bring a clarity and richness to the limited, precious moments of life, and helps us foster a special care for relationships and priorities in the time we are given.

Called by the leadership of his community to open and develop the work of a Paulist North American Office for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, Fr. Ryan, CSP, moved to New York City in 2000 and worked for seven years establishing the work of the office prior to moving it to the new North American Paulist Center in Washington, DC, in 2007, where he continues to serve the Paulists and the church in that ministry today.

For information, please contact John Stewart, 617-969-0950, or johnstewart@alum.bu.edu.

The Book Discussion Group meets the second Thursday of the month in the St. John Parish Center, 7:30 to 9:00pm. For information consult the St. John website or  contact John Stewart at 617 969 0950 or johnstewart@alum.bu.edu.

St. John’s Adult Faith Formation Commission
Email: AFFC@stjohnwellesley.org

Our book for April is The Jewish Annotated New Testament, Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors. This book has been described as a “ground-breaking text for scholarship, interfaith dialogue, and secular or religious readers.” The goal of the editors and the international team of scholars who contributed articles and commentary was to explain how Jewish practices and writings influenced New Testament writers. This is done through extensive notes and a series of thirty essays on a wide assortment of historical and religious topics. Our discussion will focus on the gospel according to St. John. It would be helpful for participants to be generally familiar with the organization and content of this gospel. There will be hand-outs with samples of the commentary from the book. For information, please contact John Stewart, 617-969-0950, or johnstewart@alum.bu.edu.

The Book Discussion Group meets the second Thursday of the month in the St. John Parish Center, 7:30 to 9:00pm. For information consult the St. John website or  contact John Stewart at 617 969 0950 or johnstewart@alum.bu.edu.

St. John’s Adult Faith Formation Commission
Email: AFFC@stjohnwellesley.org

Our book for March is Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence, by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Rabbi Sacks has been described as “the leading public Jewish intellect of our times.” He is a philosopher and currently a Distinguished Professor at New York University. Not in God’s Name is especially relevant to the sad rise in violent killings we are witnessing throughout the world. The book (267 pages, available in paperback for under $10) begins with an analysis of how and why humans became violent in the first place and the role religion has played in this long, tragic historical process.

The Book Discussion Group meets the second Thursday of the month in the St. John Parish Center, 7:30 to 9:00pm. For information consult the St. John website or  contact John Stewart at 617 969 0950 or johnstewart@alum.bu.edu.

St. John’s Adult Faith Formation Commission
Email: AFFC@stjohnwellesley.org

BOOK GROUP HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FOR THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16.

The book to be discussed on February 16 (7:30 p.m., St. John Parish Center) is Edmund Campion: A Life, by Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (known by his pen name Evelyn Waugh). (201 pages, paperback available for about $15.)

Edmund Campion was born in 1540 and grew up amid the religious upheavals following the break of King Henry VIII and the Vatican. After delivering a speech of welcome before the new Queen, Elizabeth I, when she visited Oxford, Campion was ordained a deacon in Anglican Church.

Soon, however, he became disenchanted, recognizing that the Protestant church was not the true continuation of the faith of the apostles. He resigned his position at Oxford, became a Roman Catholic and after years of study, a Jesuit and in 1578 was ordained a priest. Two years later he returned to England and, disguised as a jewel merchant, moved between the houses of Catholics who practiced their faith in secret. He was betrayed and arrested in 1581 and soon tortured and hung. Father Campion was declared a saint by Pope Paul VI in 1970, along with 37 other martyrs.

Evelyn Waugh, one of the most celebrated British authors of his generation, became a Catholic at age 27. Perhaps the best-known of his many books is Brideshead Revisited, published in 1946 and later made into a feature film. For further information on the Book Discussion Group please contact John Stewart at 617 969 0950 or johnstewart@alum.bu.edu.

St. John’s Adult Faith Formation Commission
Email: AFFC@stjohnwellesley.org

7:30 to 9:00 p.m., Parish Center
On January 12, we will discuss “A Map of Life: A Simple Study of the Catholic Faith” by Frank Sheed. This is a classic of sorts, published in 1933. Frank Sheed was an Australian of Irish descent. In 1926 he founded Sheed & Ward, which published some of the finest Catholic literature of the 20th century. The goal of “A Map of Life” is to address the question we all must ask: What is the ultimate meaning of our lives? Sheed writes in chapter one: “What the meaning is, God has told us: we need to know it; there is no other way of knowing. This book is simply an attempt to transcribe what God has said.” For further information about the Book Group, contact John Stewart at 617-969-0950 or johnstewart@alum.bu.edu

The final schedule of books to be read this coming year has been posted on the parish website. The first book to be discussed, on September 15, is the highly acclaimed Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did and Why He Matters by N.T. Wright, former bishop, Church of England. For information on the book group please contact John Stewart or call him at (617) 969-0950. There is no formal “membership”. You do not have to read every book and attend every meeting! Our goal is enlightenment – we gather each month to help each other grow in our understanding of our faith and in our relationship with God.

Our parish has had a very successful book group for over ten years. We generally meet once a month, from September through May, and read a wide variety of books. We welcome new members! There are no dues or other requirements of membership. Our goal is simply one of enlightenment – to help each other better understand the concepts, ideas, people, events, institutions and relationships that make up the Catholic experience.

There will be a planning meeting on Thursday, June 16 in the Parish Center at 7:30pm, to talk about the organization of the program and, most important, the books we might read next year. If you think you might be interested in joining the group please try to attend this meeting. If at all possible come with suggestions of specific books or types of books you feel might be good for the group to read and discuss. God has blessed all of us with inquiring minds and the freedom to travel along a variety of paths in our quest for a better understanding of our faith. Please join us on this journey of learning and Christian fellowship. For further information contact John Stewart, 617 969 0950, or johnstewart@alum.bu.edu.

The movement we know as liberation theology originated in the mid-20th century in Latin America and is based on the historic concern of the Church for the poor, the weak and the vulnerable. While controversial, it expresses the basic need for Christians to work for justice for all of God’s people, and has identified in some, but certainly not all, ways with the social and economic message of Pope Francis.

Please note the change in the schedule:
April 14
The Churches the Apostles Left Behind by Raymond Brown
May 12
The Need and the Blessing of Prayer by Karl Rahner

For more information contact John Stewart by email or at (617) 969-0950.
Thursday, March 10, 7:30pm to 9:00pm, Parish Center

This month’s selection is Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi by Amy-Jill Levine, University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt Divinity School. Professor Levine writes: “Jesus was requiring that his disciples do more than listen: he was asking them to think as well. What makes the parables mysterious, or difficult, is they challenge us to look into the hidden aspects of our own values, our own lives.”

For more information contact John Stewart by email or at (617) 969-0950.
Thursday, January 14
7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Parish Center