A Book of Hours: Music, Literature, and Life

Rating:
Summary: Powerfully Enriching and Inspiring
Review: In this book we follow Father Lee through a year spent in Rome in the seventies, teaching American students attending a Catholic University. He opens the eyes of his students, as he does his readers, to the power of art to enrich and inspire us. We follow him as he teachs his students about the works of Homer and Virgil, and we come to understand the freshness of these works written thousands of years ago. We follow him as he travels to the opera houses of Europe in pursuit of one of his passions - opera. The conversations he has with ordinary people he meets en route are powerful ruminations on theology and philosophy. A gay American couple he meets on a train, who are unable to come to terms with Church teaching on homosexuality, challenge his notions of religion and love. A performance of Wagner's Die Meistersinger sparks a conversation with a German couple - innkeepers - who wrestle with Germany and the Holocaust. His thoughts on the fire bombing of Dresden I found powerful and devastating especially in view of today's world situation. His thoughts on 'that most complicated of the performing arts - opera - I found refreshing. I have known Father Lee through his wonderful books on opera, but The Book of Hours gives us a much deeper look at the world around us, and the role the arts play in that world, and in the human soul. What Father Lee reminds those of us who love the arts, is that they connect us with the divine. They draw us to what is deep inside us, and what is extraordinary outside us, for in the end the arts help us touch what is immanent and what is transcendant. A must read for those with a deep appreciation for literature, art and music.