The Marvel of JPII
There are two sorts of spiritual reading that I dislike - that which leads me to despair and that which leads me to untruth. The latter is typically the "I'm okay-You're Ok" sort as exemplified by John O'Donohue's New Agey "Celtic Wisdom" or more formidably by Teilhard De Chardin. The former type might be St. John of the Cross or my current spiritual read - selections of St. Catherine of Siena's Dialogue. There is nothing that lacks truth in it but I always feel after that I am on the brink of damnation (inducing further 'servile fear'). Perhaps that is salutary. I read it like I eat spinach.
But I bring this up to just say there is one author who neither lets us off the hook nor induces despair - Pope John Paul the Great. He navigates this line between despair and hope and inspires. There is something to be said, it would seem, to reading the works of those who live in our time since the Holy Spirit speaks to our condition. Even if that condition be that we are wussies (i.e. unable to take the strong drink of St. Catherine).
Robert Hutchinson in When in Rome writes that the papal encyclicals of the church are 'beautiful but unliveable'. Pope John Paul, to my mind, writes encyclicals both beautiful and liveable.
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