Summer 2002 However tongue-in-cheek this might sound, ICS Publications has a book in its catalogue that brings moments of real humor to the reader; a book that offers light-reading for this time of year. Life in a Jewish Family, for its autobiographical spirit, includes comical quips and pleasant heart-warming scenes. This, in spite of the serious purpose St. Edith Stein assigned to it by making it an apologia against Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda; apart, too, from its voluminous length of 556 pages (including our translator's informative notes). One humorous passage awaits the reader on page 197 where she reports a drole comment by one of her professors about another faculty member: "He [William Stern] was extensively occupied at that time with methods for testing the intelligence. All this was in preparation for his work in occupational aptitude tests for which he later gained acceptance in Hamburg. We had strong misgivings about all these things, as well as about his general principle of 'the golden mean.' His malicious colleague Hönigswald once expressed an opinion about Stern's suggestion that 'school psychologists' should be appointed: 'The school psychologist will then become the most powerful person in the state. He will tell everyone what he is to become; and if he particularly favors someone, he will destine that one to become a school psychologist.'"(!) If this season's "News" feature nudges you to dive into the saint's pleasant narrative and take it along to your favorite vacation spot, all the better. "Beach reading" it might not exactly be, but it will help wile away summertime hours. A perhaps unexpected conclusion we can draw from Edith Stein's text would be this: holiness and sanctity are always very compatible. People thank God that St. Philip Neri was a mellow saint who used music (he invented the format of the "oratorio") and humor to attract persons to the riches of the Gospel. They feel glad, because he remains distant, almost like an exception to the rule, from those "sour-faced saints" (St. Teresa of Avila's expression, and she was canonized the same day as St. Philip) who even make it onto church calendars from time to time. Both St. Philip Neri and St. Edith Stein, in the footsteps of her Holy Mother St. Teresa, prove that humor is part-and-parcel of healthy spirituality. They both assure us God's goodness offers many a lift, above the strife of daily living. God's kindliness, in their vision, surely lifts us above the moans and groans of anyone who would reduce religious fidelity to a drudgery of trials borne, instead of making it appreciative thanksgiving for many graces received. The French side of our family of OCD authors supplies wistful, upbeat images in their books: images that come to mind are the grain of sand and lilies of St. Thérèse in her best-selling Story of a Soul. Look at Chapter 6 "The Trip to Rome" in the same autobiography for a lengthy travelogue with views of Paris, the Alps, of the "Eternal City" Rome and the following description of the Italian/French Riviera: "After visiting Pisa and Genoa once more, we returned to France. On the return trip the scenery was magnificent. We traveled at times along the side of the sea and the railroad was so close to it that it seemed the waves were going to come right up to us. This impression was created by a tempest which was in progress. It was evening and the scene became all the more imposing. We passed through fields full of orange trees laden with ripe fruit, green olive trees with their light foliage, and graceful palm trees. It was getting dark and we could see many small seaports lighted up by many lights while in the skies the first stars were beginning to sparkle."    "He launched me full sail upon the waves of confidence and love. . ." Drawing by the young Thérèse ca. 1885   There is also the "little omelet in the frying pan" of Br. Lawrence of the Resurrection in The Practice of the Presence of God (Maxim 10); and To Quell the Terror (pp. 36-37) carries William Bush's translation of the rousing lyrics of an hilariously subversive hymn to Jesus Christ King ironically composed in captivity by the martyrs of Compiègne to the tune of the "Marseillaise." A Pleasant Summer to all our Friends, whichever spiritual author you choose to read.