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Pope John Paul II pointed out that it is through the arts that religious truths are made tangible—”making perceptible…the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God.”
The Catholic Spirit presents the truths of Catholicism in the context of the arts: great and classic artwork, literature, music, and Church writings. A text that enriches the learning experience, The Catholic Spirit sends teens on a journey through classical art, literature and musical forms that bring greater clarity to important topics of religious significance found in Church teachings. Christ, creed, Church, sacrament, prayer, and morality are some of the topics included in the text.
Organized around chapters that follow the four pillars of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the text includes primary source material from various periods of Church history with contextual and background text to help students understand their significance. Several additional research opportunities are included to encourage teens to further their study of the key Church teachings through reading, viewing, and listening to classical period pieces.
Among the authors and works included in the text are the following:
- Parker’s Back: Flannery O’Connor
- Where God Is, Love Is: Leo Tolstoy
- Our Lady’s Juggler: Anatole France
- Marble Floor: Pope John Paul II
- Letters to Abbe Belliere: St Therese of Lisieux
- Welcome Morning: Anne Sexton
- The Hint of an Explanation: Graham Greene
- God’s Grandeur: Gerard Manley Hopkins
- Les Miserables: Victor Hugo (translated by Isabel Florence Hapgood)
- The Merit of a Young Priest: Yaffa Eliach
- The Trouble: J.F. Powers
- Meditation: John Henry Cardinal Newman
- Hail Mary: John Fante
- A Woman’s Prayer*: Dorothy Day
- And Much More!
