catherineofalx's reviews
600 reviews

"THESE ARE SNEAK THIEVES. THEY OPERATE BY SNEAKERY"

I love Storygraph because I can just go ahead and tell everybody that this beloved spiritual classic is maudlin "everything happens for a reason" garbage and literally nobody will see it

one of the most remarkable books I have ever read, everything I hoped it would be!!!

The titular sentence, it turns out, is very Catholic, and I'm extremely emotional about it.

There are so many moments when Ciszek starts reflecting on his experience for like, two sentences and then cuts to the next thing. As a result this reads like what it is, a traumatized person's sorta meandering recounting aloud of a really intense life. I'm looking forward to reading He Leadeth Me to get the interior stuff, which is what I'm curious about!

This isn't the kind of thing you sit down and read all the way through. Believe me, I tried. I came back to it over and over and read it out of order and tried my best to pray it instead of just consuming information. It's a brick but WHAT A GOOD BRICK. Come Holy Spirit!!!!

I love how this book teaches you to enter into your imagination to encounter Mary as a real woman, not just some distant saccharine idea of her. I've struggled with Marian devotion forever because of all the baggage and this book just cut right through that so beautifully. Grateful that this exists!

I am so impressed that the Daughters published this book before Pierre Toussaint was even declared Venerable, and that they encouraged a hagiography that respects and celebrates his Blackness. This wasn’t a small thing in 1981 (or 1998), but the way things are in the Catholic Church in the U.S. right now, it would honestly be even harder to publish this book in 2021.

Tarry put it well when she said that people have been writing about Pierre as if he were “a saintly white man with a black face,” rather than the truth of a Black Saint! I also loved the reflection from Jaime Vidal at the end of the book: Pierre’s virtue did not flatter white elites, but humbled them by highlighting how artificial their ideas about race were. His no-exceptions Christian virtue shines a light on all the exceptions others were making. He was just plain charitable in a world ready with a thousand excuses not to be.

I will say, I didn't love the novelized/imaginative style of the book, though Tarry's research is phenomenal. It's just not my thing. But don't let that stop you from learning about this wonderful saint!!

Beautifully written, and full of humor and joy that is infectious. I really loved this and needed its reminders about poverty pointing us to communion with the One who is our greatest wealth. ❤️