Books for Incarcerated Friends

Part of the produce that is given away (and never for sale) at the farm comes in the form of books. These are selected based on Farmer Fred's experience for what has helped him flourish in his own faith journey.

Many of our incarcerated friends love to read!

With some recent generosity of farmily friends, we were able to give the above to Kent County Correctional Facility's Chaplain Library. Our incarcerated friends there can request any of these any time.

Particularly, Farmer Fred is called upon to do video visits with people that request it as well as be a pen pal with others. This is a tiny continuation of the in person ministry that he did there for a few years.

For both pen pals and video visits, he tries to sense the nudging of the Holy Spirit in which titles to recommend to each person based on where they are at in their journey and what their particular faith tradition is.

Thanks so much to all who contribute and pray to make this possible!

The list below is the inventory as of the first week of August, 2024.

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The Great Adventure Catholic Bible - (3 copies)
This is the one Fr. Mike Schmidt uses in his "Bible in a Year" Podcast. "Each book of the Bible is color-coded with a thumb index, indicating where it belongs within the [Great adventure Catholic] Bible timeline. Twelve timeline charts provide a visual overview of the Bible, including: important characters, key events, geography, major covenants, world rulers, and contemporary events in secular history. Twelve articles give a summary and explanation of each period of salvation history. Seven articles introduce and explain the major covenants of salvation history ... Seventy key event call-outs provide a brief description of the milestones in the biblical narrative"

The Bible Timeline Chart - (3 Copies)
This Chart goes along with the Great Adventure Catholic Bible and is referred to by both Fr. Mike and Jeff Cavins as an aid to getting the big picture of scripture. This color-coded Bible study tool shows how all of the books of the Bible fit together to tell the story of salvation history. It arranges the key people, places, and events of Sacred Scripture in chronological order, so that you can get the big picture of the Bible. This chart is the cornerstone of The Great Adventure Catholic Bible Study Program.

J.R.R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit (2 copies of each book - 8 books total)
This is a long story of good vs. evil written by a very devout Christian. He is a weaver of myths. The stories take place in a time long after the fall in the garden and long after the great flood that reshaped the world yet long before the coming of Christ. It is full of beauty and truth and love conquering evil… often at the last minute.

Calvin Miller - Singer Trilogy (2 copies of the Trilogy in one volume each)
This is a long poetic telling of the life of Christ (The Singer), the Acts of the Apostles (The Song) and the end of the ages (The Finale). It breathes beauty, hope and love into my heart every time I read it. The fullness of the sacramental vision is somewhat absent, but the beauty of the poetic prose is what keeps drawing me back in.

Dr. John Bergsma - Bible Basics for Catholics (3 copies)
One of the better big picture introductions to Holy Scripture. A very good foundation to build on later with other great works.

Dr. John Bergsma - Stunned by Scripture (2 copies)
A very interesting conversion story of a man who lived and served in the Grand Rapids area for a time. It hit home to me because the family I married into knows his family.

Dr. Scott Hahn - Hail Holy Queen (3 copies)
Dr. Hahn is famous for showing how Catholic practices are deeply rooted in scripture. His conversion story is also very interesting. This book dives into the many misunderstandings about Mary and putting forth a solid scriptural basis for proper respect for the Mother of God. It shows her continuing role (along with all our dear dead dears who mystically part of the Church triumphant in heaven) to pray for us outside the boundaries of time and space.

Dr. Scott Hahn - The Lamb’s Supper (3 copies)
This is in part a retelling of Dr. Hahn’s conversion story and in part a new and refreshing take on the book of Revelation (The Apocalypse). It will help you have a much deeper understanding of the Holy Mass or as they call it in the Eastern Church the Divine Liturgy. It is a beautiful Bible Study as well.

Dr. Peter Kreeft - Jacob’s Ladder (2 copies)
This is an imaginary conversation between two women, one a devout believer and one still searching. In it the believer takes the seeker step by step into a deeper understanding of life and eternity. Very good for helping one understand how a person moves from being completely lost and confused to realizing they must make a decision to either to surrender and follow Jesus or walk away. Very entertaining read.

Fr. Jacques Philippe - Time for God (2 copies)
Fr. Jacques Philippe - Called to Life (1 copy)
Fr. Jacques Philippe - Searching for and Maintaining Peace (2 copies)
These three booklets are by a famous French monk who has a knack for discussing the things of the Lord in rich and uplifting ways. I’ve read the one about peace and found it very beneficial. I have been told the other two are wonderfully delicious and good soul food as well.

Fr. Michael Gaitley - 33 Days to Merciful Love (2 copies)
This book is designed to be read little by little over a 33 day period, sort of like a little retreat in one’s heart. In it, Fr. Gaitley explores what it means to truly trust God, to contemplate what it takes to completely surrender to Him and do His will in the little things with great love. He uses the lives of many famous Christians to demonstrate what this trust looks like and means and ultimately what it means to be a conduit for God’s Divine Mercy to others. Beautifully written and I read it over and over again, including the extensive footnotes on the text.

Fr. Henry Nouwen - Life of the Beloved (3 copies)
Fr. Nouwen wrote this for his secular atheist friends who want him to explain the Christian faith in language that they could understand. Turns out that Christians also love the book which is very rich and nourishing, myself included. One that I reread often.

Rita Simmonds - Convicted by Mercy (Frank’s Biography)  (2 copies)
Rita is a poet and was considering entering a monastery when she met Frank and married him. Her retelling of his life and death is full of good examples of what it means to offer up one’s suffering as a prayer for the benefit of others… just like Jesus did. Beautifully told true story of a life lovingly lived.

C.S. Lewis - Space Trilogy (2 copies of the Trilogy in one volume each)
This is another set of books I return to every few years. The stories are set just after World War II and are beautiful explorations of the soaring imagination of C.S. Lewis who saw that God was everywhere. He saw through the nonsense of science as a religion that had no room for anything it couldn’t see or touch and he demonstrates this with great humor throughout these beautifully written books. Remember, it was written long before actual space travel occurred so you must forgive it’s inaccuracies regarding what Mars and Venus are really like in real life. It is still very good at painting a picture of the Cosmos that is mind blowing and permeated with God’s presence through and through.

C.S. Lewis - Chronicles of Narnia (3 copies of 7 book set in one volume each)
I am not ashamed to say that I read or listen to all seven of these books almost every year. They bless my heart so much! So good to see the tenets of our faith portrayed in the hearts of little children as is done so well in these books. So rich with spiritual truth… these are classic stories of love, life, faith, courage, hope and joy. They expand my mind to make room for Jesus a little more each time I read them!

Christopher West - Pope Francis To Go (5 copies)
Christopher is very good at drawing out the theology of the body wherever he gazes. As he dives into the words of our Pope Francis he does this especially well. You will get acquainted with a proper framework of family and spousal love through reading this sampling of Pope Francis’ words on the subjects, coupled with Dr. West’s extensive insights.

Dr. Brant Pitre:Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary (1 copy)
Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist (2 copies)
Dr. Pitre digs into scripture and helps us learn how Mary’s Jewish roots help us understand her better. In fact, without a thorough grasp of Mary and Jesus’ Jewishness, we are bound to make errors in how we see them both. Both of these books really help us dig into what it meant to be Jewish in their times and how that fact really can enlighten our view on so many levels.

Scot McKnight - The Real Mary: Why Protestant Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus (1 Copy)
Popular biblical scholar Scot McKnight explores the contours of Mary's life from the moment she learned of God's plan for the Messiah to the culmination of Christ's ministry on earth. Dismantling the myths and challenging our prejudices, the author introduces us to a woman who is a model for faith and who points us to her son.

Richards and O'Brien - Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible (1 Copy)
Biblical scholars Brandon O'Brien and Randy Richards shed light on the ways that Western readers often misunderstand the cultural dynamics of the Bible. They identify nine key areas where modern Westerners have significantly different assumptions about what might be going on in a text. Drawing on their own cross-cultural experience in global mission, O'Brien and Richards show how better self-awareness and understanding of cultural differences in language, time and social mores allow us to see the Bible in fresh and unexpected ways.

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A Poem Becomes a Prayer

Egyptian Poet Mostofa Ibrahim

My son-in-law shared a beautiful little poem that seems to be all over the Internet and attributed to Poet Mostofa Ibrahim. I wish I could find a book of his poetry... everything seems to be out of print or so rare that it is unattainable. I resonate with with this poem anyway... and all I've done to transform it into a Christian prayer is to address it to Jesus and aim it at myself (replacing each 'you' with an 'I'):

Lord Jesus,
May I never be the reason why someone who loved to sing,
doesn’t anymore.
Or why someone who dressed so uniquely,
now wears plain clothing.
Or why someone who always spoke so excitedly about their dreams,
is now silent about them.
May I never be the reason someone gave up on a part of themselves
because I was demotivating, hypocritical, or even worse
— sarcastic about it.

—A Prayer Inspired by poet Mostofa Ibrahim

See the original Poem by clicking here.

What especially strikes me in the original poem is that in spite of being treated in the manner that the poet speaks of I still do it to others. I can be that critical voice, that mocker, that dream crusher that guy who uses sarcasm as a weapon.

Which is precisely why I saw the need to personalize it, address it to my higher power and make it into a prayer I recite often.

I start my first course in pursuing a certificate in Spiritual Direction this Wednesday through Divine Mercy University. I know that as a person who has sponsored many people in recovery that I have much to improve upon in learning to walk with people gently, truly seeing the true, good and beautiful in each person I encounter.

I sense that this prayer will be a small but important part of that journey of learning to be a truly empathetic companion on life's journey to souls that want such a companion.

God's will, not mine be done.

My Friendly Digital Divorce

I decided to move forward with the digital divorce...

Today I monotasked. I walked into the store without any tech to buy an old fashioned object called an alarm clock. 

Why?

So I can deliver the divorce papers to my phone tonight.

I no longer want to sleep with it or even be in the same room with it when I'm going to sleep, sleeping or waking up.

I want it to be a friendly divorce. I'll still visit digital land and I'll pay attention to our children (this website is one of them). But I'm not sleeping with it any more.

This is all part of a series of little experiments I'm trying in order to live life less attached to the digital realm and live more just as a human, interacting with his surroundings and the people in it.

It has been a long time coming. I remember the decision to leave my phone in the car when going to Mass about six months ago. So freeing. It became a permanent habit about one month into the experiment.

Excellent Ideas and Scholarship

Felicia Wu Song's book, "Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age" is what has encouraged me to try more experiments in this realm. I am grateful for her work and look forward to seeing her in few moments here at the Calvin College Fine Arts Center... in fact I better get going, her lecture is about to start. Back in a bit :D

....

Ok, back in the saddle. 

Dr. Song gave us an excellent presentation and then a fine Q & A afterwards. She is a brilliant scholar and yet delivers her findings with tact and kindness, you won't be shamed by her for participating in the alarming trends that she exposes. Rather, she gives you simple ways to set proper working boundaries in your use of technology.

Which is why I'm referring to my relationship with the digital realm as a friendly divorce.

No, I don't want to sleep with it anymore, but I still value the toolset it has to offer to help live my life. But not on its terms anymore, or not so much I hope. I hope to extract myself from the seemingly compulsive attention to it and perhaps focus more on my marriage to my wife, my relationship to my family, friends and God.

So as I continue to experiment in this new way of divorcing myself from the digital, I ask your patience. I may not check my phone as much. I may leave it behind more. I might not login as much.

Who knows, I might be able to learn to more consistently engage with the world around me full of trees and grass and people and rivers and well, just all things bright and beautiful. I hope you can forgive me and maybe even join me... there is strength in numbers.

Barbie: A Thousand Excellent Questions

I was able to watch the Barbie Movie with my wife this week and I must say I was deeply impressed. It isn't too many movies that ask so many good questions.

Being a student of anthropology and phenomenology I found the movie fascinating. It poses so many excellent questions about what it means to be human in such rapid succession that I would have to watch the movie in slow motion to catch them all. One of the lead characters (a mom who had played with Barbie dolls as a child) posed several pointed and excellent questions out loud, while most of the questions (equally valid) were masked under sarcastic and often dark humor.

This movie kicked my inner Mr. Curious into gear and below are a few of the questions it triggered me to ask:

• What does it mean to be human?
• What does it mean to be treated like an object?
• Who am I?
• What do genitals mean?
• What happens when genitals are not present or distinct?
• What is the patriarchy?
• What is masculinity?
• What is matriarchy?
• What is femininity?
• What does it mean to be a mother?
• Why is fatherhood absent or a joke?
• How do stereotypes harm us?
• What is the difference between a stereotype and an archetype?
• What do we do with the wounds of being objectified and/or oppressed?
• Why did pregnant Barbie get discontinued?
• Why is it not OK to want to be a mom?
• What happens when you realize you actually have distinct genitalia?
• Why didn't Barbie completely destroy the need for playing with baby dolls (despite the haunting implications of the opening scene)?
• What happens when the function of genitalia is removed from society completely (Barbie Land)?
• Why on earth would any human wear high heals?
• Is girl's night or boy's night helpful? What does it mean or point to?
• What are tears? Why do we have them?
• Is all pain bad? What is its function?
• What is the function of bad breath and other bad smells?
• What does it mean to have a real body?
• Just how important is embodiment?
• Does my body even matter?
• Is matriarchy better than patriarchy?
• Why is the definition of feminine beauty so convoluted?
• What is the true source of beauty?
• Is there a way for man and women to live in complementarity rather than struggling to dominate one another?

The truly profound thing about this movie is I didn't sense it trying to force any easy answers to any of these questions. That is a rare gift in our world today in my humble opinion.

The very next night Margie and I watched Oppenheimer, the story of how the power of splitting the atom was harnessed for the mass destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. It was a tedious and heart breaking movie to say the least. But it did add a couple more questions to the thousand excellent questions thrown at me the night before:

• What is worse: twisting the function of nuclear energy into a weapon or weaponizing human sexuality into a game of thrones and domination?
• What is the more powerful force: human sexual interaction or nuclear fission/fusion?

Hmmmmm....