Becoming God's Beloved

Becoming  God's Beloved
in the Company of Friends

Cascade Books (A division of Wipf & Stock Publishers), Eugene, OR

Paperback, ISBN 13: 978-1-55635-462-5

134 pages (viii + 126p)

Published 1/1/2008 (c2007)

Sister Mary Margaret Pazdan, OP,has ministered in Illinois, Maryland, Wisconsin, Missouri, Tennessee, and Georgia as well as Toronto, Canada. Her religious name was Sr. Marie Eugenie. Sr. Mary Margaret's ministry has been dedicated to teaching biblical studies and homiletics. In the Diocese of Madison, Sr. Mary Margaret taught at Edgewood College, 1980-1985. She has served as promoter of preaching for the Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation since 2004. In the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Sr. Mary Margaret has taught at Aquinas Institute of Theology, St. Louis, since 1985 and is now professor emerita of biblical studies and continues to live in community in St. Louis. Sr. Mary Margaret’s home parish is St. Giles, Oak Park, in the Chicago Archdiocese. She is the daughter of the late Edward and Eugenia (Ziemba) Pazdan. [Source: Biography for her 50th Jubilee in 2012]

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I recently finished reading Becoming God's Beloved in the Company of Friends (A Spirituality of the Fourth Gospel) by Mary Margaret Pazdan, OP.

I am so glad that I did not do what I originally had in mind with the book. I thought about purchasing about 20 copies for a "Company of Friends" and inviting them to read it along with me while studying the Gospel of John. Common sense prevailed and I decided it might be prudent to read it myself first. That turned out to be a good decision because the book proved to be a rambling, disjointed  mess. There was no Preface thanking an editor and it showed that either no one edited the book or whomever did was (rightfully) embarrassed to be associated with this disaster.

I was led to this book near the end of 2014 while studying some of the Minor Prophets. One of my references for that Bible study was Collegeville Bible Commentary OT17  (see picture below).  That study inspired me to search for more information about Sr Mary Margaret.

(c1986)

That search revealed that she had also written a book about the Gospel of John. It was then that I realized that I had not read John in a long time (i.e., I had not noted in my Bible any dates for when I read this Gospel).  After reading the Introduction to "Becoming God's Beloved" online, I began to get grandiose ideas about reading the Fourth Gospel (see above). 

Perhaps the summary (on the back cover-see below) stirred up my idealism:

"Becoming God's Beloved in the Company of Friends offers a fresh perspective and invites persons to develop a personal and communal Christian spirituality. It offers a way to deepen commitment to live as a disciple of Jesus personally and with others. It bridges the gap between a first-century biblical text and twenty-first-century readers who hunger for genuine spirituality today. Each chapter focuses on a few stories and a few teachings to illustrate a particular characteristic of becoming a disciple."

I was especially intrigued with the Introduction's suggestion to read the entire Gospel first before beginning the Pazdan book. This distracted me and I did not order the Pazdan book until near the end of July (2015) while in the middle of my third straight reading/studying of the Gospel.

Back Cover

After struggling through the first couple chapters, I concluded the book was a disaster and put it aside. After finally finishing my study of John, I decided to finish what I started and forced myself to get through the rest of this mess.

The book is contains touchy-feely instructions such as found at the end of Chapter 2: "Visualize the mutual relationships of the Father and Jesus by an abstract or concrete sketch with colored markers.  You may wish to go to a daily newspaper and some magazines. Cut out words and pictures that represent their relationships. Add them to your drawing or put them on a separate sheet of paper. The drawing and the design offer you a clue about what you treasure in these relationships."

Sr. Mary Margaret's identity as a Roman Catholic nun is also a well kept secret in this book. I found it quite annoying when she referred to St. Thomas Aquinas as (merely) "Thomas." I didn't think we were on a first name basis. There were several "Tables" in the book that seemed to serve no purpose other than to be able to say the book had some tables. They were generally poorly formatted and did not seem well integrated with the text. Quotations from Aquinas, Catherine of Sienna, and Henri Nouwen appeared to be haphazardly inserted.

The book appeared to be an attempt to take several lectures and essays and fashion into a book. It turned out to be a dreadful failure. I would not recommend this book to anyone. Don't waste your time.

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Links:

http://www.sinsinawa.org/news_events/jubilarians2012_50.html
http://wipfandstock.com/becoming-god-s-beloved-in-the-company-of-friends.html

http://www.ai.edu/Academics/Faculty-and-Administration/Faculty-Bios/Mary-Margaret-Pazdan-OP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_John
http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/0
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Written Thursday 4 February 2016