Author: Deacon Nick

Books and Reading

Preparing for the Aubrey/Maturin Chapter-a-Week Read-along: Book 4 – The Mauritius Command

If you’re participating in the Aubrey-Maturin Chapter-a-Week 4 Year Read-along Schedule, then you have just reached the end of HMS Surprise, the third book in the Aubrey-Maturin series. By this third book, we are well into the story of Jack and Stephen and all the other established characters. Battles, duels, heartbreaks, HMS Surprise has some of the most memorable scenes in the entire series. This post is for you to post your feedback about the book and the series. What did you think of HMS Surprise? Leave your thoughts,...

Books and Reading / Chapter-a-Day Read-Along

Preparing for the 2021 Chapter-a-Day Read-along: David Copperfield

As the bells of Notre Dame cathedral begin to echo and fade away, we get ready to close the book on the story of Quasimodo and Esmerelda and pull the next Chapter-a-Day Read-along book off the shelf, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I have read several Dickens novels, and of them all I have the warmest feelings toward David Copperfield. But it has been almost twenty years since I last read it, and I have forgotten most of the story. I have carried these fond feelings with me...

Homily

What More Were You Looking For? – Homily for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

A terrible storm came into a town and local officials sent out an emergency warning that the riverbanks would soon overflow and flood the nearby homes. They ordered everyone in the town to evacuate immediately. There was a certain man in the town who heard the warning, so he looked out his window at the gathering storm and saw his next-door neighbors parked outside in front of his yard. They were concerned about him and so they had come by his house and said to him, “We’re leaving and...

Books and Reading

Preparing for the Aubrey/Maturin Chapter-a-Week Read-along: Book 3 – H.M.S. Surprise

If you’re participating in the Aubrey-Maturin Chapter-a-Week 4 Year Read-along Schedule, then you have just reached the end of Post Captain by reading a chapter a week for the last fourteen weeks. Combined with our twelve-week reading of Master and Commander, we are exactly half way through the first year of our four year odyssey through the Aubrey-Maturin books. Congratulations! As much as I enjoy Master and Commander, I feel like Post Captain is the real beginning to the series. Because  Master and Commander is mostly a naval...

Books and Reading / Chapter-a-Day Read-Along

Quo Vadis Chapter-a-Day Read-along Wrap-Up

Today is the final day of reading Quo Vadis, the second book of the 2021 Chapter-a-Day Read-along. If you were able to adjust to the little schedule mix-up, then today is the day for reading the Epilogue and finishing the story of Vinicius and Ligia. This post is the place for you to leave your thoughts about your experience in reading Henryk Sienkiewicz’s classic. What did you gain from reading it? What challenged you? What uplifted you? What surprised you? I’ve read Quo Vadis a few times already,...

Books and Reading / Chapter-a-Day Read-Along

Preparing for the 2021 Chapter-a-Day Read-along: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

We’re only three days away from beginning Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the next book in this year’s chapter-a-day read-along. Published in French in 1831 and English in 1833, it was originally titled Notre Dame de Paris, referring to the great Notre Dame cathedral. Reading it this year is my tribute to the cathedral, which suffered a devastating fire in April of 2019. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I own an old paperback of the novel that I purchased new about thirty years ago that...

Homily

The Sending Forth – Homily for Trinity Sunday

I wonder if anyone here has ever felt under-appreciated, overlooked, or even forgotten. If so, then this homily is for you. Today we’re going to sing the praises of one of the most under-appreciated and over-looked parts of the Mass. Everyone always talks about how the scripture readings spoke to them, or how great the music is, or even sometimes how the homily touched them. But no one ever walks out of Mass saying, “Wow, that dismissal, it really hit me today.” The dismissal is often forgotten or...

Books and Reading / Chapter-a-Day Read-Along

Quo Vadis Chapter-a-Day Read-along Schedule Change

For those of you who are reading Quo Vadis as part of the 2021 Chapter-a-Day Read-along, there is an important revision to the schedule. The original schedule was based on the freely available translation by Jeremiah Curtin which has 73 chapters and an epilogue. If you are reading Curtin’s translation then you have nothing to worry about. But if you are reading the translation by W. S. Kuniczak that I recommended, the original schedule will not work for you. Kuniczak broke the longer chapters into smaller segments, so...

Books and Reading / Chapter-a-Day Read-Along

Divine Comedy Chapter-a-Day Read-along Wrap-Up

Today we have reached the final chapter of The Divine Comedy, the first book of the 2021 Chapter-a-Day Read-along. For the past 100 days we have accompanied Dante through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, and it has been quite the journey. I have to admit that this was one of the most challenging chapter-a-day read-alongs for me. There is so much depth to Dante’s poetry and there were so many footnotes that I feel I just scratched the surface of the poem. A daily read-along is probably not the...

Books and Reading / Chapter-a-Day Read-Along

Preparing for the 2021 Chapter-a-Day Read-along: Quo Vadis

Tomorrow, April 10, is the one hundredth day of 2021, the day we finish The Divine Comedy in this year’s chapter-a-day read-along. I’ll post a wrap-up of The Divine Comedy tomorrow, but today we look ahead to our next book, Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz. I have been looking forward to reading Quo Vadis ever since I began planning this year’s read-along. I’ve read it a few times before and even taught it to junior high students, but I am especially excited to read this newer translation by W. S....

Books and Reading

Preparing for the Aubrey/Maturin Chapter-a-Week Read-along: Book 2 – Post Captain

If you have been following the Aubrey-Maturin Chapter-a-Week 4 Year Read-along Schedule, then you have just reached the end of Master and Commander by reading a chapter a week for the last twelve weeks. Congratulations! While I haven’t been able to post weekly as I had planned, I do want to mark the end of the first book of our four-year voyage. Feel free to leave your thoughts, reactions, and questions about Master and Commander in the comments section below. And be sure to check out Brona’s amazing...

Books and Reading / Chapter-a-Day Read-Along

Divine Comedy Read-along Update: Week 5

We’re on day thirty-four of the 2021 Chapter-a-day Read-along, which means we’ve finally reached the end of Inferno and made our way out of Hell. Tomorrow we begin part two of The Divine Comedy, Purgatorio. This post gives you an opportunity to share your thoughts, quotes, and questions about Inferno. Some Quotes from the Past Week “My Guide and I crossed over and began to mount that little known and lightless road to ascend into the shining world again…And we walked out once more beneath the Stars.” –...