Nonfiction section.

From St. Lambert's current bulletin.
Big ups to any priest who constantly refers to "The Screwtape Letters."

From the
Pastors Desk

I am seriously worried about the Rev. Know-it all. He
has been on a three week tirade about Harry Potter.
Enough already! For all of you who want to have
Harry Potter book burnings on the lawn, just calm
down! And for those of you who are Harry Potter
addicts and are beginning to think that Hogwarts is a
real place, I have a suggestion. There is a world where
people fight demonic powers and supernatural
monsters and fly through the air and can be
supernaturally teleported from place to place. And it’s
real! You can read about these larger than life fighters
of evil demons in, now brace yourself, the lives of the
Saints! Padre Pio was known to mystically travel great
distances and be in two places at once. St. Joseph
Cupertino was known to lift off the ground regularly.
St. John Vianney did regular battles with the devil.
There is a story about the devil trying to burn his
rectory down and the fire just stopped right at St.
John’s box of relics. I remember old Father
Chrysostom Tarasevich* who would get slammed
against the wall in the middle of the night. We
wondered what all the banging in the rectory was. It
was just poor old Fr. Chris being attacked by demons.
Well, the lives of the saints are history, not fantasy.
Get a copy of “Butler’s Lives of the Saints,” or read
Bob and Penny Lord’s books. You will be astonished.
There is a modern tendency to clean up the lives of the
saints in the light of scientific cynicism, and so, in our
hunger for the supernatural, we go running out to buy
fantasies that may or may not be helpful. Well the
saints really did amazing things. They are far more
interesting than Harry Potter, and they are real! I
would also implore you to read C.S. Lewis’ “The
Screwtape Letters,” one of the finest guides to the
supernatural world I have ever read. If you liked Harry
Potter, you’ll really like C.S. Lewis. Read the lives of
the Saints. Get real!

Fr. Simon

*Founder and former pastor of Christ the Redeemer Belarusian Greek Catholic Church (which existed 1955-2003) in Chicago