My Winter Reading

My bedside table has two piles of books.

On top of one pile is a book I often turn to when looking for something interesting - but not too compelling - to read before falling asleep...

The Shaping of a Life is the autobiography of Phyllis Tickle, a writer I became interested in when I discovered the "Divine Hours" prayer books she compiled - collections of prayers and sermons that span the history of Christianity.

I was excited when, a few years later, I had the opportunity to hear her in person at a weekend retreat at the Sisters of St. John the Divine Convent in Toronto. How had she come to write these prayer books, I wanted to know...

My enthusiasm subsided when I got there. I was shocked to find, not a quiet contemplative - but a dynamic, opinionated woman whose strange (to me) views on the history of Christianity were jarring to my own personal beliefs... (To put it mildly...!)

(I remember, after every session, rushing to my room to get away from her - and to pray for peace and an open mind!)

At the end of the weekend, this dynamic eighty-something-year-old (who looked like this - youthful and energetic in person as she does in this dust-jacket cover photo) announced that she was planning no more speaking engagements but was  heading home to write...

What came out of that writing time? I wondered a year or so later, as I googled her name. I was again shocked - this time to discover that, 11 months after I heard her speak, she had died of cancer...

Since then, I've been trying to figure her out - by piecing together stories of her life and accomplishments.

Our public library has a number of books by and about her. One that I'm currently reading was written by colleagues who knew her well - a tribute to the woman they were friends with - written when she was planning to retire at the age of 80.

I've found it more interesting than I expected...

I guess I'm still trying to understand the woman who, as an editor, had such an impact on religious publishing over the last few decades - but also, on a more personal level, compiled the Divine Hours prayer books, which are among the books dearest to me...