|
BOOKS
Dolan’s latest bridges Milwaukee, NY
Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan is well known throughout the Church in America. Of course, this is in large part due to his being the ordinary of New York City, the most prominent diocese in the country.
But he was known before being named to New York last year. As auxiliary bishop of St. Louis — where he grew up and was ordained a priest — and then as archbishop of Milwaukee, Dolan was known for his infectious positivity, his gregarious manner and his way of presenting orthodoxy in a gentle way.
Judging by his homilies and interviews since moving to New York, Archbishop Dolan seems to have brought these qualities to the much larger stage. And, with his new book, “Doers of the Word: Putting Your Faith into Practice,” the archbishop has an opportunity to evangelize to an even larger audience.
“Doers of the Word,” according to its introduction, comes from the archbishop’s morning reflections in his rectory’s chapel. He contrasts the chapel from his time in Milwaukee — the rectory was located on a bucolic seminary on Lake Michigan — to the chapel in his midtown Manhattan rectory.
One boasted silence, the other is smack-dab in middle of everything.
“At first, I admit, I pined for the recluse of my Lake Michigan ‘cave!’ But now, I have come to savor the clamor of my new chapel just as much,” Archbishop Dolan writes. “And I’ve come to conclude that both settings are conducive to meditation and reflection.”
That the book was written in these two very different locales matches nicely with its content. This is a book with wide appeal, for Catholics in all stages of their lives, at different places in their faith, and whether their lives are hectic or quiet.
“[God’s] there in the stillness; He’s there in the messiness,” Archbishop Dolan writes.
“Doers of the Word” is filled with a smattering of anecdotes, reflections on the saints’ lives, and thought on life in general — its trials and joys, challenges and temptations.
In less skilled hands, these reflections would probably drift into the land of clichés and empty affirmations — greeting card or Chicken Soup for the Soul type stuff. But the archbishop is a master of this kind of prose.
The reader can sense the intelligence behind his writing and his forceful love of the faith. Archbishop Dolan has a gift in speaking truth in charity. It can be a difficult line to walk — too little charity leaves a reader cold and uninterested, while an overabundance of sentimentality or equivocation masquerading as charity makes for mealy or flabby reading.
Thankfully, the archbishop walks this line well.
The book’s organization makes it work well as a daily devotional. The entries are short and episodic, meaning that you can just dip in and out at your leisure.
Archbishop Dolan boasts a masters in Church history, which may explain the delightful historical asides that pepper his book. Placed between his reflections, these mini disquisitions cover everything from the history of a particular devotion to the means for determining when Easter falls. It’s a nice touch that makes the book all the more readable.
For anyone who has heard Archbishop Dolan preach or seen him in an interview, this book shouldn’t be a surprise. But there are many Catholics — especially local Catholics — who don’t know much about him. “Doers of the Word” is a good introduction to his style and should serve as a good read for many.
--
“Doers of the Word: Putting Your Faith into Practice” by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan (Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 2009). $9.95. Available at www.osv.com.
|
