Although my visitor’s schedule is still limited to priests, two imaginative high school freshman girls crashed the sound barrier this week and paid me a visit. How they evaded my “security guard” is still something of a mystery. I think it was just another instance of that spirit of adventure that hits boys and girls as the school year draws to a close.

The heady climax of graduations, dances, awards and even exams and grades gives these last weeks a special flavor. It is a good thing. It sheds a significance of dignity upon the vital experience of school days. It points up that even the excitement must be contained in a sense of discipline and responsibility. And it is a reminder to those who rely almost exclusively on the prowess of the mind or the strength and beauty of the body. There is a deeply social nature in our lives. Drawing it out in a Christian manner must run parallel to the cultivation of the intellect and body. May-June happens to be the climax of this process.

On the other hand, perhaps my two freshman visitors were simply playing, “Treasure Hunt,” and were to told to collect “a look at the archbishop!”

Hospitals Are For Reading Too

Readers who have had a rough day at the office or hectic hours over a hot kitchen floor may be jealous of someone who has had sixteen weeks to catch up on his favorite reading. But besides the Georgia Bulletin (which gets top priority), the local papers and a batch of magazines, I have ranged far and wide -- from Celestine Sibley’s delightful “Peachtree USA”, an affectionate portrait of Atlanta, and the Marsh’s “Athens, Georgia’s Columned City,” to a good detective story, “The Man Who Came In Out of the Cold” and Frank Wallace’s nostalgic, “Knute Rockne” (nostalgic because my own college years at Notre Dame coincided with his last great seasons.)

Since my work on the new Liturgy Commission continues -- at a distance -- I have read all I could find in this field. To our Catholic people I recommend three good introductions to the changes and renewal ahead. Two are American products; the third, the translation of a distinguished Frenchman: Diekmann: Come, Let us Worship

McManus: The Revival of the Liturgy

Bouyer: Life and the Liturgy

For a change of pace, I enjoyed “A Man for All Seasons,” the mature and successful play about Thomas More; Milton Eisenhower’s “The Wine is Bitter,” on the agonizing relations of Latin America with the United States: “The Education of a Physician” from John Hopkins University; and a good anatomy book on (you guessed it) the liver!

I was surprised to find a book basically as sound on Catholic life as Saint Peter’s Basilica narrowed down to the title, “Are Catholic Schools the Answer?” by Mary Perkins Ryan. I think the publisher wanted a title that would sell books, and overlooked the more profound chapters. Along with schools, I have read a great deal in our two most sensitive areas - what about the Christian position on sex in married life?, and what about the application of Christian teaching on racial justice and understanding?

Still, the three I will remember and go back to, not only as a bishop but as a Christian in this new era, would be

Bea’s: The Unity of Christians

Callahan’s: The Mind of the Catholic Layman

and Rahner’s: The Christian Commitment

For the informed lay Catholic, these indicate the resources and guidelines, the challenges and difficulties. Those who are at home with the ideas of these three authors are ready for the rigors of the years ahead.

(Some people are ‘name droppers,’ others are ‘book title droppers.” Others, I suppose, just enjoy reading and talking about it.)

Comment By An Orderly

One of our orderlies is studying to be a minister. At first, I found it a little strange when he would tell me at 6:30 a.m. that he was there “to prepare me for the Eucharist.”

The orderly’s work was to make sure the room was “picked up” before the arrival of the Catholic Chaplain with the Holy Communion about 7:10. Then I began to think how appropriate the future preacher’s words were.

Isn’t this the precise meaning of the renewal in the Church today -- the link of liturgy and life, of sacraments and duties, of grace and old human nature? Isn’t every move of a Catholic “to prepare for the Eucharist?”

Although not of our faith, this young man’s respect for the presence of God should provide some congregation with a fine pastor.

Paul J. Hallinan

Archbishop of Atlanta