Community book group
St. Mary’s invites all to join in learning together through books and podcasts.
In 2022, we focused on Willie James Jennings’ commentary on the book of Acts. The questions from the book can be found here. In early 2023, we read through Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church by Barbara Holmes. Click this link to find the questions for her book.
Later in 2023, we listened to a series of lectures by Sister Ilia Delio called “Christian Life: An Adventure in Love”. Those questions can be found here.
During the Season of Epiphany in 2024, we read Being Christian by Rowan Williams. Each week’s prompts are here.
Fall: Inciting Joy by Ross Gay.
Week of Sept 16 — Out of Time (Time: The Fourth Incitement)
Engage with Gay’s observation that he is typically in his right mind when he is not in the mind of the clock. Agree or disagree? Elaborate on why?
Contemplate this paragraph: “We’re operating in the religion of Capitalism, whose gospel is that that there is not enough. Capitalism preaches the gospel of scarcity and, as such, demands we see scarcity everywhere. And if scarcity is nowhere to be found, it will be imposed. Among those imposed scarcities—of health, of food, of clean water, of adequate shelter, of comfort, of community, of meaning, of a future—is that of time. And to believe otherwise—in enough say; in abundance, say; in gratitude, say; in the unmitigated, unbounded hand, say!—makes you blasphemous. Or heathen. Or out of your mind.” Could our lack of joy be connected to our belief in, and service to, the gods of capitalism?
Week of Sept 9 — We Kin (The Garden: The Third Incitement)
Contemplate the dreaming that begins in Ross Gay’s imagination when he looks through a seed catalogue. Contemplate the affection he clearly has for the seeds in this essay. Notice what arises in your own imagination in these contemplations.
Gay says his friends don’t give the excess seeds away because they are saints, but “because they are gardeners.” What did he mean? How might that contrast be helpful in your own move toward this kind of joy?
Reflect on these sentences from the chapter in light of the chapter title and ending, “We Kin”—No living thing is self-sufficient. To be among the living is to be “in-dependence” on others. Like it or not, you’ll never pay it back or settle the bet. We will do anything to not have to say, “but by your kindness.”
Week of Sept 2 — The First Incitement
Why is it so common for people to consider joy irresponsible? How might associating joy with accomplishment or acquisition contribute to it being classified as irresponsible, or unserious, to ponder?
What would change of your own experience of joy if it is more about how we carry our pain and sorrow together instead of our freedom from pain and sorrow?
What, in our lives, does Gay’s introduction suggest prepares us for joy? What “incites” joy? How does joy make us act or feel? What does joy “incite?” How might joy incited solidarity and solidarity incite more joy?
Through My Tears I Saw (Death: The Second Incitement)
How does solidarity between the people named in this chapter grow throughout this incitement?
Lent 2024- The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness by Gregory Boyle
Week of Feb. 18th: Chapters 2 & 3
Recall Rowan Williams’ description of baptism making a community of royal prophets and priests. As you read chapters two and three look for examples of those characteristics among Boyle and his friends.
These two chapters include the theme of seeing as God sees—with mercy. These two phrases struck me as ways to heal from a lack of merciful sight. “Moralism has never kept us moral. It’s kept us from each other.” “They want me to hate you.” Consider spending time with these phrases—or ones that moved you—as a way to contemplate merciful and whole sight.
Lean into Boyle’s idea of not settling for forgiveness, but seeing with mercy. What might enlarge in your own desire and ability to love?
Week of Feb. 25th: Chapters 4 & 5
Have you considered friendship as a sacrament—or endearments? Boyle writes, “Setting people apart, setting parts of our selves apart—all of this has kept us from locating the sacred in everything.” How does “separatist” theology contribute to the loneliness that is so prevalent in our environments? How does asking people to separate themselves from others or parts of themselves impact friendship?
Boyle insists laughter is a way to open new neural pathways. How does separatist theology hinder our ability to laugh? What new pathways can emerge when laughter is unwelcome?
Boyle told a member of his community the reason he is glad the man was born was, “It’s cuz you’ve altered my heart. I have more room in it now, because of you.” Is there someone you might want to tell that to—maybe someone either you or they might be surprised by this sharing?
He insists we are to be peacemakers…not peace feelers, peace thinkers, or peace lovers. How does the command to create something of peace shift your own ways of being in the world?
Chapter Six
Boyle describes the church as having an ethic where “nothing is excluded except excluding.” How does this open your own engagement with the church? Do you think churches that aimed for this ethic would be larger or smaller congregations? What might that say about Jesus’ “narrow road?”
Chapter Seven
Consider prayerfully reflect on these sections of Boyle: “This other half of the heart daily reminds me of the other world in this one. And this is the mystical take: to see wholeness. To live in the flesh of other people, to enter their bloodstream and to be so alive there that even death is afraid of you.” And… “Show me a mystic who believes in hell, and I will think you’ve located someone who is not a mystic. But all mystics agree that there is another world and to have chosen to see it in this one.” Are you aware of any desires, hopes, or invitations in these statements?
Chapter Eight
Again, consider prayerfully contemplating this paragraph: “”Sin” in its Greek origins is hamartia, which means to miss the mark. Because of our addiction to measuring, we think we didn’t hit the bulls-eye. We are measuring up poorly. But the mark we miss is joy. …We want to fix people because we think God wants me fixed. Hamartia is not about being freed from sin but is calling us to joy.” Ilia Delio insisted Jesus didn’t come to earth in the incarnation because of sin, but because of love. How do Delia’s call to love and Boyle’s definition of missing the mark of joy broaden our own engagement with our relationship to sin?
Epilogue
Quoting one of my favorites authors, Boyle writes, “The writer George Saunders says that kindness is the only nondelusional response to everything. Kindness is about the other and about us. It can’t just be about me.” Again, in the context of Boyle’s insistence salvation only exists within relationship and Saunders’ statement about kindness, how does our kindness move us out of delusional existence?