A Catholic Reading List for Midsummer Merriment...

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8

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Summer is a time of rest and fun, and, with it, our Jubilee Year pilgrimage reaches its halfway mark. Midsummer Eve, the midway point of an historically longer summer season and also of the entire year, has been traditionally observed with bonfires (literally bone-fires) on June 23, the eve of the Nativity of John the Baptist. According to ancient reckoning, it was the time of the summer solstice, when the sun was at its full strength. From this point, the days become shorter, a natural sign that Christians linked to the symbolism of John the Baptist’s prophecy that he must decrease as the Messiah increases, whose birth was marked at the winter solstice.

I recently made a visit with my seminarians to the Benedictine Abbey of Clear Creek in the Ozark foothills of eastern Oklahoma (clearcreekmonks.org). It happened to be during the Rogation Days of spring where the monks processed with the villagers through the fields and forests. The monks were chanting the major and minor litanies, interceding for God’s blessings on the land, crops, livestock and all of creation, sprinkling great quantities of holy water and swinging thuribles of incense, along the procession route, seeking the protection of God from all calamities.
Shafts of sunlight shot through the trees as the sweet smell of incense rose to the heavens along with the melodic tones of Gregorian chant. It was something like perfection.

Continued below.