Key creative works Catholics should read

One question I regularly ask the young adults I minister to as a deacon at St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Shrine is Ottawa is: “What are you reading?” Many do not read a great deal beyond obligatory work for their courses in university, and almost all of it is non-fiction. Thankfully, many read devotional works and the Holy Scriptures, which is certainly laudable, but I press them: “When was the last time you read a novel or a collection of poetry?” Most reply “I cannot remember,” or, “I don’t like fiction or poetry.” 

Is this a result of social media and the atrophied attention spans left in its wake? I think the bigger challenge is that we live entirely in a non-fiction world obsessed with facts, arguments, science and social science and their attendant methodologies. It is also a 24/7 news and opinion-saturated world that has relegated wonder, imagination and aesthetics to the dusty corners of the mind. While this is an obviously significant challenge for our culture and for education at all levels, how does it represent a challenge to living a Catholic life? 

In my previous column, I emphasized that “faithful Catholics should do what we can to form ourselves continually in the faith.” That formation, however, should not be confined to our knowledge of doctrine, moral teachings or shaping our prayer rule. While these aspects of our ongoing formation have a certain pre-eminence they are not the totality of it. 

To live a fully Catholic life is to have a life imbued with a love of truth, beauty and goodness, all of which point to Christ. When we encounter beautiful, true and good things, we encounter Him. Among such things are great works of fiction and poetry that are just as much part of the Catholic tradition as Guardini’s The Lord or St. Athanasius’s On the Incarnation. Our contemporary challenge is not only to rediscover the Catholic literary tradition but to let the wonder, imagination and aesthetic we find form us. It is a rich tradition that offers powerful and beautiful evangelical messages to us and for our world. To start, I recommend the following four novels and four collections of poetry, some of which will be quite unfamiliar.

Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited. Waugh’s classic is a perennial selection on many “best of Catholic literature” lists. Charles Ryder’s relationship with the Catholic Marchmain family explores grace, beauty and reconciliation. It belongs in every Catholic library.

Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop. A novel shot through with the beauty of the New Mexico territory of the late 19th century, it explores the trials and deep faith of a zealous priest Joseph Vaillant and his bishop the intellectual Jean-Marie Latour. It is a classic tale of mission.

Robert Hugh Benson, The History of Richard Raynall, Solitary. Many will know Fr. Benson’s more familiar novels, such as Lord of the World, but this story of a saintly young hermit in 15th-century England was Benson’s own favourite. Benson explores virtues such as fortitude and justice as well as the nature of repentance and sainthood. It is a brilliantly simple and deeply beautiful story.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion. Calling this novel the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy is a disservice. It is part Genesis narrative, part liturgical text, and part heroic epic. Tolkien’s deep fascination with Celtic and Finnish mythology come through. For the liturgy nerds among us, it’s a standout. 

Gerard Manley Hopkins is the obvious selection for poetry, and any well-edited collection of the Jesuit priest’s work will do. One of the 19th century’s great English converts, Hopkins’s verses on faith, created beauty and mortality are among the most stirring in English. His use of English to express movement, colour and emotion is perhaps without peer.

St. Robert Southwell, Collected Poems. The 17th-century English martyr Robert Southwell’s Latin and English verse is deeply mystical. His poems communicate with great exquisiteness a persecuted faith to a persecuted church. His poem “The Burning Babe” is a Christmas favourite.

Additionally, a collection of Middle English lyrics such as the Oxford English Book of Mystical Verse offers  by a rich collection of poems and carols, many dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Our Lord’s Passion. 

While not a Catholic, the great English metaphysical poet and Anglican clergyman George Herbert’s poetry contains gems of English verse that draw us into the Paschal mystery and the depths of the Real Presence.

(The Reverend Andrew Bennett is a deacon of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada.)