At the end of each year I like to look over the major projects I am working on, both to get a sense of (and examine) what I have been doing and to prepare for what I will be doing in the months to come. I try to do the same thing in the summer since, as someone who spends his time in an academic setting, the periods between terms is a great time to assess and reset priorities. I shared my overview with folks last year at this time and that led to some great conversations, so I thought I would share my overview again.
Here, then, is a list of the eight projects I am working on as 2021 gives way to 2022:
Communion with the Dead: I am finishing up a book for our institute’s “Engaging Catholicism” series. My book focuses on our relationship with our beloved dead. This isn’t primarily about facing my own death; it is about the death of others––our loved ones. What really is death for the Christian? We mourn our losses, face the emptiness of absence, and too often don’t know how to make sense of death in light of our faith. I set out to discover how to remain in intimate communion—faithful to our relationships—with those who have died. Our bond with them has changed, but is not broken. Recovering an approach to the death of others founded in the communion of the Church is crucial to living the Christian life fully. This book is personal and pastoral, in addition to being theological, spiritual, and doctrinal.
Chronicles of Transformation: A Spiritual Journey with C. S. Lewis: I am editing this volume with Ignatius Press that presents Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia as a spiritual journey. There is a chapter on each chronicle (I wrote the chapter on the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe), plus an original sketch and an original poem for each article. Contributors include David Fagerberg, Michael Ward, Peter Schakel, Rebekah Lamb, Francesca Murphy, Katie Cavadini, Anthony Pagliarini, Stephen Barany (artist), and Madeline Lewis Infantine (poet). We are in the final stages of editing with the publisher and this book should be released in mid-2022.
Turn to the Lord (Confirmation/RCIA prep): Several years ago I crafted a new approach to Confirmation formation for my parish and diocese, when my eldest son was preparing for the sacrament. I then made this approach available to others through Turn to the Lord: Forming Catholics for Lifelong Discipleship. I also published a companion volume for sponsors, mentors, parents, and anyone interested in diving more deeply into the beauty of Catholicism. Since then, I created an online resource that provides additional materials to parents and catechists. In 2022, I will be helping parishes and dioceses to implement this new approach, and I will deliver a presentation on this approach at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress and in several dioceses. Check out more here.
Fed by the Lord (First Communion prep): I am spending time over this year preparing our 8 year old for his First Communion in the Spring of 2022. A couple years ago, I did the same thing with his older brother. Together, we spend time reading, imagining with, and illustrating six episodes from the Old Testament and six corresponding episodes in the Gospel where the Lord feeds his people (so 12 weeks total). This approach has been fantastic: it is great for both my kids and for me. I have informally shared what I do with some friends who were interested, and they have really liked it. I plan to write up this approach and prepare it for publication in 2022. The book will be called Fed by the Lord.
Sullivan Family Saints Initiative: About a year ago we launched the Sullivan Family Saints Initiative in the McGrath Institute for Church Life, dedicated to promoting scholarship on and renewing devotion to the saints. In early 2021, we hosted “Praying with the Saints” where nearly 2,000 people joined us to learn how to pray in the way that particular saints prayed. I will be building on that initial offering in 2022, with new units on new saints. I will also start building a parallel offering called “Serving with the Saints,” which guides people through particular saints’ works of mercy. I am really excited that we are bringing on board our first Fellow for this initiative, whom we will formally announce and introduce in January 2022 (hint: s/he was a guest on our podcast in 2021).
Church Life Today: Our institute’s radio show and podcast, which I host, now has over 130 episodes. Just in the past few months we have hosted a series of episodes on grieving and longing for our beloved dead (one, two, three, and four), an episode on J. R. R. Tolkien’s creative imagination, an episode with Gloria Purvis on the Catholic response to the sin of racism, an episode on the embodied holiness of Sr. Thea Bowman, and an episode on saints who sinned and suffered on their way to holiness, among others. New episodes are already in the queue for early January, and I will be recording more in the coming weeks.
Catholic Imagination: As is my custom every spring, I will be teaching the Catholic Imagination course to undergraduate students in Spring 2022. About half of the 80 person class are students preparing to serve as mentors in the Notre Dame Vision program. We study the form of the Catholic faith according to the dimensions of the creed, investigate the ways of desire that fund or impede a Catholic way of seeing and believing, and then read great literature and study great art.
Trinity and Christian Salvation: I am working on revising my course for Master’s students at Notre Dame on the Trinity and Christian Salvation. I approach this course with the conviction that no study of the Trinity can be strictly removed from the life of faith, and the life of faith for the Christian is ordered to the Persons of the Trinity. This course therefore pursues the contours and the content of the Christian faith, tracing its developments over the centuries and examining how it is made manifest in the Christian life of prayer, liturgy and sacrament, and charity. Since Jesus Christ is at once the revelation of God to man and of man to himself, Christological studies take a central role in our work. I will host the new class of students for this course in summer 2022.
What are you working on? Is there something we can work on together? Let me know!