"Annunciation: a Call to Faith in a Broken World" [SALLY READ]
This book is by English poet Sally Read.
A notable atheist-to-Roman-Catholic convert.
This slim small volume with the handsome front cover (Fra Angelico’s 15th c. Annunciation of Cortona) follows her first non-poetry book, the breathtakingly beautiful chronicle of her conversion to Catholicism while living in the Eternal City, Rome—
Night’s Bright Darkness.
She recalls those momentous events that transpired over nine months in her life (just!) in this excellent interview:
These passages (pages of them!) early on in her second post-conversion book—
Annunciation: a Call to Faith in a Broken World
—struck me like a stealth thunderbolt, so rich with grace and understanding that I just had to share them with my Gentle Readers.
CONTEXT OF THIS CHAPTER:
Sally’s daughter, Flo, is suddenly gripped by doubt two days before her First Communion is to take place.
“I don’t know if I believe in God,” Flo told her mother.
The chapter (especially) was written in response to this comment by her daughter.
She writes in the Introduction,
“But though my daughter’s questions an sometime reluctance have been unsettling, I have come to see their genius. This borderland of doubt and dissatisfaction, need and longing is, I believe, vividly sacred ground. It is the turf of recognition and epiphany, where Nicodemus questioned Christ by night and Mary Magdalene wept in almost hopelessness. It is the pinhead we can turn on, with grace. It is the edginess that cannot easily slide into indifference—indeed, it can inspire the rawest love, and its honesty and analysis are crucial to healthy faith.” (p. 16)
Hope you enjoy the passages below!
THE EXCERPTS:
I was struck by Sally’s depth of understanding of Mary’s fiat at the Annunciation, and the manner in which God loves us. We mortals are unable to truly comprehend this.
Especially relevant for today is the ubiquitousness of social media and people’s behavior on them—see pages 36-39.
The prose is, as always, magnificent in its cogency and expressiveness. I always ascribe that to Read’s uncanny poetic sensibility.
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Note this on page 37, below:
“We need to understand that we have worth without an audience.”
The antithesis to the audience-driven factors at play for social media “influencers” and consumers.
I also need to engrave this truth on my own heart. And brain.
Brings to mind that old philosophical question about forests and trees (duly updated):
“If I did/performed something today, did I really do it if I did not post about it on social media?”
Note pages 38-39 below:
On how God loves us:
“[God] is the opposite of social media, with its sledgehammer proclamations.”
These are only in the first chapter of the book! (Just a teaser for you all.)