Recent braille additions

Mychal Judge: Take Me Where You Want Me to Go by Francis DeBernardo (B1910, 2 volumes): The world came to know the Franciscan priest Mychal Judge through the bravery and self-sacrifice he displayed during the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001. But long before his lifeless body was carried out of the rubble (a moment captured in a photograph that became immediately famous), and before he was officially designated “Victim 0001” of that day’s attacks, Fr. Judge was, to a great many people, a beloved priest known for his compassion and faith. In Mychal Judge, Francis DeBernardo offers a spiritual biography that will move and fascinate readers. It details the personal history and experiences—including his Irish-American upbringing, his struggles with alcoholism, his care for the marginalized, and his ministry to firefighters—that formed the man who ultimately died running into the North Tower to try to save and minister to the terrified and the dying. Whether meeting him in these pages for the first time or getting to know him better, readers will encounter in Fr. Judge a figure they will not soon forget.

Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul by Deanna Witkowski (B1911, 2 volumes): In Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul, Deanna Witkowski brings a fresh perspective to the life and music of the legendary jazz pianist-composer Mary Lou Williams (1910-81). As a fellow jazz pianist-composer, adult convert to Catholicism, and liturgical composer, Witkowski offers unique insight gleaned from a twenty-year journey with Williams as her chosen musical and spiritual mentor. Viewing Williams’s musical and corporal acts of mercy as part of a singular effort to create community no matter the context, Witkowski examines how Williams created networks of support and friendship through her decades long letter correspondence with various women religious, her charitable work, and her tireless efforts to perform jazz in churches, community centers, concert halls, and schools. Throughout this fascinating story told with equal amounts of deep love and scholarly research, Witkowski illumines Williams’s passionate mantra that “jazz is healing to the soul.”

Late Have I Loved You: An Interpretation of Saint Augustine on Human and Divine Relationships by James A. Mohler, SJ (B1912, 3 volumes): Augustine has rightly been called the greatest of the Western Fathers, and, in a sense, the founder of Western Christian theology. His broad background in education and rhetoric both as a student and teacher and his deep interest in philosophy gave him a good foundation for his future career as pastor, bishop and defender of the faith. These themes discuss some of Augustine's views on human and divine relationships, from the problem of suffering, faith and love, matrimony and religious life to education and social justice.