Tag: Children’s Literature

• Julian of Norwich, Francis of Assisi, and Centering Prayer: Three Mystical Books for Children

  Yesterday I received an advance copy of a wonderful book coming out this fall, that tells a simple children’s story about grief and loss, while using the wisdom of Julian of Norwich to underscore the message that “all shall be well.”

  

  All Will Be Well: Learning to Trust God’s Love by Lacy Finn Borgo, illustrated by Rebecca Evans, will be published in October, so you can get a copy for all the children on your Christmas list. It’s appropriate for ages 4-8, although this 60-something reviewer sure enjoyed it, so I suppose we could say “for children of all ages.” It tells the story of a little girl named Julian, who is struggling with the illness, and eventual passing, of her beloved grandmother. But the grandmother invites little Julian to meet this loss with faith and trust in the love of God, and invokes Julian’s namesake, the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich, to emphasize that we are all held in God’s love, and in that love all truly shall be well.

  While Julian of Norwich is not the center of the story, the book does a lovely job introducing Julian’s life and wisdom for young children. Yes, both hazelnuts and cats feature prominently! I love how the book is built around a real challenge that all children face sooner or later — the loss of a loved one — and how Julian of Norwich’s ringing proclamation of God’s infinite and unconditional love is such an important message for children (of all ages) who are facing such a loss.

  It’s a delightful book, with lovely colorful illustrations. I highly recommend it. Be sure to order an extra copy for yourself, you’ll want to keep this one in your library. Click here to order your copy of All Will Be Well.

  As I thought about featuring this book on my blog today, it reminded me of several other books, written and illustrated for children, that explore mystical or contemplative themes. Here are two that I enjoy, and I suspect you will too.

  

  Illustrator Fiona French has created a dazzlingly beautiful book to illustrate one of the most beloved of mystical poems, the Canticle of the Sun by Saint Francis of Assisi. Weaving together the splendor of nature (“Brother Sun” and “Sister Moon,” etc.) with a heartfelt sense of God’s presence in creation, the canticle has inspired generations of contemplatives, and truly encapsulates the ecological heart of the poor one from Assisi. In this book, Fiona French draws inspiration from mosaics and Byzantine art to create twelve colorful illustrations that bring the Canticle to life. Beauty is so essential to the spiritual life, and this is truly a beautiful book, the sparkling, dazzling illustrations fostering a sense of prayerful reverence to help the words jump off the page — and into our hearts.

  

  Speaking of the heart, the third book I want to highlight is all about the heart as the location where we prayerfully consent to God’s action in our lives.  Journey to the Heart: Centering Prayer for Childrenby Frank X. Jelenek, illustrated by Ann Boyajian, introduces young children (the book is aimed at ages 3-8) to the gentle practice of silent prayer. The nature-centric illustrations are gorgeous, and the rhyming text offers a doorway into the method of Centering Prayer that is age appropriate (and appropriate for all ages). “In every heart there is God’s kingdom, a holy place to pray. Your soul is the home of God inside you, each and every day.” How I wish I had received this message when I was a child! But like the saying goes, “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood” — which means it’s never too late to nurture the child within with a hopeful message of God’s love and an invitation to silently consent to that love’s healing presence within us. So get this book for the children in your life; it will bless them — but be sure to let it bless yourself as well.

  I hope you enjoy these books — and I hope the children you love will enjoy them too!

   

  August 11, 2022

  Centering prayer, Children’s Literature, Francis of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, spirituality

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• David and the Phoenix: A Gentle Masterpiece of the Mythic Imagination

  David and the Phoenix, gentle masterpiece of children’s literature first appeared in the late 1950s, bringing a dimension of magic and wonder to young baby boomers growing up in a society dizzy with consumerism, the space race, and post-WWII arrogance. Recently reprinted in both hardback and paperback editions, and available on the Kindle and Nook, this book is now available for an entire new generation of budding visionaries.

  

  The 1998 movie Toy Story 2 looks back on the fifties as a time when science fiction triumphed over cowboys as the dominant mythology for American youth. But Ormondroyd’s David and the Phoenix, a genuine relic from that era, hearkens back to an even grander myth, or set of myths. Peopled with Banshees and Leprechauns, Griffins and Fauns, Sea Serpents and of course the magnificent Phoenix itself, this story cracks wide open the rich treasure-trove of world mythology and makes it fun, appealing, and shimmeringly real for today’s post-modern youth.

  Like Harry Potter’s train to the magic land of Hogwart’s, David and the Phoenix uses the concept of journeying to transport its young protagonist to the enchantments of the other world. On a beautiful summer day, David climbs the mountain behind his new home to discover the last secret refuge of a legendary bird. Stumbling upon the Phoenix quite by accident, David encounters a being with a gloriously imperfect character: learned but a bit pompous, potentially fierce but often comical, contemplative and meditative yet with a genuinely warm heart.

  

  When the boy and the bird strike up an unexpected friendship, the mythic creature decides that David deserves a “practical” education, unlike what he is receiving in school. Although the Phoenix’s notions of practicality may seem a bit eccentric (“How do you tell a true Unicorn from a false one? What is the first rule of defense when attacked by a Chimera?”), this overriding theme of their friendship also serves as the moral of the story: don’t let the encroaching claims of “Science” and “Modern Life” get in the way of a real education, which is based in wonder, imagination, and sometimes just lollygagging around on a sunny day.

  Long before movies like E.T.or Splash explored the conflict between empiricism and imagination, David and the Phoenix made an articulate case for putting science in its rightful place as only one aspect of a truly educated life.

  The tension between science and myth is heightened by the Phoenix’s bête noir: an over-eager scientist who is so obsessed with hunting down the bird that he would even kill it. Some of the novel’s most brilliant humor involves the lengths that David and the Phoenix go to foil the scientist and dissuade him from his quest.

  

  I properly first discovered David and the Phoenix as a boy, and today I cherish its message of the primacy of myth and wonder. Going back to re-read it in 2001, I am struck by how masculine a book it is (although the Phoenix’s gender is never disclosed); I also wince at its portrayal of witches as either petulant or comically threatening (one old Irish hag keeps trying to get the Phoenix to sell David to her. “Ah, the wee darling, the plump little mannikin. What a broth he’d make, to be sure”). But I can forgive these flaws as symptoms of the book’s age, especially given the overall feeling of magic and enchantment that fills this too-brief story.

  The resolution of the conflict between the Phoenix and the scientist brings themes of loss and renewal together in a heartbreaking climax. At least the hostile scientist doesn’t win, but he isn’t defeated, either. We readers are left to carry on the battle, of providing the Phoenix and his kind safe harbor and refuge in a world where “getting and spending” and the “obsessive interest” of arrogant science have threatened the eternal beauty and truth of the mythic world.

  It’s a challenge I’m willing to take.

   

  October 14, 2001

  Children’s Literature, Mythic Imagination

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