Somehow, I Missed This!

No, friend who shall remain nameless, it's not old news. It was a tagging that I somehow missed. Frere Ignatius at Vive Christus Rex! tagged me with a meme called "The Ten Books". Essentially, it is this: If we are stuck on a desert island, and we're already given a Douay-Rheims (pre-1942) Bible, what other ten books would we bring along? His choices were good, but not what I would have chosen. Here's his list: This doesn't savor of as much hypocrisy as you might think, so, better late than never, I'm responding (and by the way, Crusty, Count Tradula, Darth Litigous and Darth Liturgicus!, you're all tagged!).

I. I have my Bible, but I need a Missal so I can pray the Mass, even if I can't assist in body. Fr Lasance's Roman Missal should do.

II. The Breviarum Roman, Latin/English, I'm afraid, since my Latin isn't up to understanding the Lectiones.

III. A decent Catechism, so I don't forget my Faith and can convert any savage islanders who happen to canoe across the straits. The Baltimore Number Four in this case, tho' I'd settle for a lower number or the Penny in a pinch.

IV. A general prayerbook. This would have to be Fr Lasance's Prayerbook for Religious. Unfortunately, it's no longer in print and I've lost my copy, but this is a meme, right? Written primarily for female Religious, it is an absolute treasury of prayers, schemes of meditation, novenas, and other helps to the interior life.

V. Divine Intimacy, by Father Gabriel of St Mary Magdalene, O.Carm., to guide my daily meditation. In the original edition, of course, keyed to the Traditional Calendar, not the post V II "revision".

(At this point, is anyone realising that the eremitical life has a certain appeal?)

VI. Having taken care of the purely spiritual, I would want the Lord of the Rings trilogy (bound as Tolkien intended, in one volume!). I was in love with it long before a) I was a Trad, or b) realised Tolkien was a Catholic. (Sorry, Frere Ignatius, I could never get into The Silmarillion!)

VII. Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson's Lord of the World. I should do a post about the first time I read it! A cracking good tale combined with fruit for much serious meditation!

VIII. Chesterton, of course, but I'd just take the collected Father Brown. I'd miss much of his polemical/political writings, but the good Priest I could not leave behind!

IX. The History of the Church, by Msgr Philip Hughes. I'm counting this as one volume, tho' I've never seen it bound so. I've reread volumes of it three and four times!

X. And last, but not least, under the same rubric, counting a multi-volume work as one, The History of Philosophy, by Fr Frederick Copleston, S.J. Maybe, given the solitude of a desert island, I can finally finish this and understand it.