In this Book
- The Pocket-Size God: Essays from Notre Dame Magazine
- Book
- 2016
- Published by: University of Notre Dame Press
Fr. Robert Griffin, C.S.C. (1925–1999), was a beloved member of the Notre Dame community. With his cocker spaniel, Darby O’Gill, he was instantly recognizable on campus. He was well known for his priestly work counseling students as university chaplain for thirty years, his summer ministry to the homeless and parishioners in New York City, and his weekly columns in the student newspaper, The Observer, in which he invited the campus community to reflect with him on the challenges and joys of being Catholic in a time of enormous social and religious change. This collection draws together essays that Griffin wrote for Notre Dame Magazine between 1972 and 1994. In them, he considers many of the challenges that beset church and campus, such as the laicization of priests, premarital sex, the erosion of institutional authority, intolerance toward gay people, and failure of fidelity to the teachings of the church. Griffin also ruminates on the distress that human beings experience in the ordinariness of their lives—the difficulty of communication in families, grief over the loss of family and friends, the agonies of isolation, and the need for forgiveness. Griffin’s shrewd insights still ring true for people today. His efforts to temper the winds of institutional rules, cultural change, and personal suffering reveal a mind keenly attuned to the need for understanding human limitations and to the presence of grace in times of change. Griffin quotes from the works of literary modernists, such as Fitzgerald and Hemingway, whose novels and short stories he loved; in these allusions and in his own reflections and experiences, Griffin bridges the spiritual and the secular and offers hope for reconciliation and comfort.
Table of Contents
- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. i-iv
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-x
- Introduction
- pp. 1-10
- Somewhere, a Summer of ’42
- pp. 14-17
- The Pocket-Size God
- pp. 18-20
- Empty Spaces, Lonely Places
- pp. 21-28
- An Everlasting Morning
- pp. 37-41
- Christmas on 42nd Street
- pp. 42-50
- About Friendship
- pp. 51-57
- I Remember the Fire
- pp. 58-61
- On Ancient Rituals and Modern Youth
- pp. 62-68
- Premarital Sex: Thou Shalt Not?
- pp. 69-72
- The Holy Fool
- pp. 73-77
- A Mass for the Littlest Christians
- pp. 78-80
- You Cannot Sing a Night Song
- pp. 81-85
- Simeon’s Christmas
- pp. 86-92
- Before the Daylight Fails
- pp. 93-98
- A True Confession
- pp. 99-103
- A Storybook Marriage
- pp. 104-108
- A Brother’s Requiem
- pp. 109-112
- The Bag Lady’s Windfall
- pp. 113-116
- Part of the Myth
- pp. 117-120
- Life in the Boot Camp Seminary
- pp. 121-124
- Bill and Pat
- pp. 125-127
- A Parting Gift
- pp. 128-130
- “You Shall Be My Special Possession”
- pp. 131-134
- You Get What You Need
- pp. 135-140
- A Broken-Down Holy Man
- pp. 141-143
- How He Plays the Game
- pp. 144-146
- Facing Life without Father
- pp. 147-149
- “I Have Chosen You”
- pp. 150-152
- Under the Dome, Most of It Seems True
- pp. 153-156
- “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us”
- pp. 157-161
- “I Prayed Like Hell Every Damn Night”
- pp. 162-168
- In Defense of Those Who Care
- pp. 169-174
- A Rabbi Hears Confession
- pp. 175-180
- As American as God, Sin, and Jimmy Swaggart
- pp. 181-187
- Confessions of a Bibliomaniac
- pp. 188-191
- Apologia pro Vita Mea
- pp. 192-203
- One Pope at a Time
- pp. 204-211
- Love on Trial
- pp. 212-219
- Mortal Friends
- pp. 220-227
- The Flame Keepers
- pp. 228-236
- The American Dream as a Religious Experience
- pp. 237-240
- A Bridge Too Far
- pp. 241-254
- And One of Them Was My Brother
- pp. 255-265
- The Lost Youth of Mickey Ashford
- pp. 266-271
- Stop the Fighting
- pp. 278-284
- Alter Christus
- pp. 285-292
- List of Sources
- pp. 293-294
Additional Information
Copyright
2016