The Quest for Sanity and Sanctity in Irish Literature

                                   St. Michael Church, Wheaton, IL  

                                     Adult Faith Formation Program

                 The Quest for Sanity and Sanctity in Irish Literature  


     February 21—May 8th, 2012; Tuesday evenings, 7-9 PM in the Faith Center  

                                                       Facilitator: Mike Casey

                                      

(Advance registration required: call or e-mail Matt Pozen, Director of Adult Faith Formation and RCIA, at 630-462-5045; or mpozen@stmichaelcommunity.org)

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

   The Quest for Sanity and Sanctity in Irish Literature is a descriptor for the intersection between religion and literature in Irish writing.  Throughout most of the 20^th century, Catholicism and Irish culture were almost synonymous terms.   Also during that period, prominent Irish authors produced work that has become canonical in modern literature.

   We will organize the course around story, poetry and song.  Our approach to the material will explore the ways in which Irish artists create powerful expressions of rage and rapture.  And we will focus on how the energies of Irish voices frequently serve to frame spiritual questions.  For example, Yeats in his early work gives form to what he called the “cry of the heart against necessity”; Joyce in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man shows Stephen in a terrifying confrontation with the suffering and desolation of souls lost in hell; Heaney in Seeing Things and in his Station Island limns the closeness of family and friends, and we see in that portrayal the call to love others as we do ourselves.  Other writers—contemporaries and descendants—Synge and O’Casey, Trevor and Tóibín, Kinsella, and Boland and Beckett will demonstrate the richness of the repertoire.  Along the way there will of course be song and music, emollients Irish culture regards as essential to preserve sanity and reveal the path to sanctification.

   Readings will be completed in advance of our meetings, and each weekly session will consist of brief background lecture and group discussions.

   Come join us.  There’s more to this crowd of saints and sinners than St. Paddy’s Day.

FACILITATOR:

   Mike Casey has been an active parishioner at St. Michael Church for six years.   Both of his Catholic parents were born in Ireland.  While Mike was born and raised in the U.S., he lived and studied in Ireland for a time as a graduate student and has made additional visits to the ancestral homes in recent years.

   Mike has taught literature courses at the secondary, college and adult education levels for over 40 years. Last year he completed the three-year New Wine lay ministry program, and facilitated Adult Faith Formation courses that explored the spiritual themes in literary material.  In November 2011, Mike and his spouse Anita welcomed their first grandchild, a girl who is the first born of her parents who reside in Moline.  The route to and from the Quad Cities is increasingly well traveled.