Saint Thomas More: Selected Writings

Purchased this as a textbook for my brother in college. He uses it in conjunction with a class so this book might be best used in this way. However it is still a great way to learn more about T. Moore and the amazing, saintly life he lived.

A good selection,but as in other More selections, it concentrates too much on the later portions of his life, and is unbalanced in that respect. We fail, therfiore, to see More's life as all of a piece.

Although I read The Sadness of Christ primarily as a Lenten devotion, I also began to learn more about St. Thomas More in his last months: his devotion to Jesus Christ; his knowledge of Scripture and the Fathers of the Church; his obvious deep reading of the Holy Bible and practice in exegesis; his deep concern for the Church; and most of all, his recognition of his own sinfulness and failure, and his preparation for death.Although he knew, as he states in The Sadness of Christ, that no martyr had ever faced or suffered the agonies and the tortures Jesus was to face and that Jesus knew he was to face while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, More was facing a terrible execution (until Henry VIII commuted it to beheading) if/when found guilty of treason. He had seen the Carthusian Priors, Father Richard Reynolds, and Father John Haile taken from the Tower and knew they faced being drawn through the streets, hung until barely conscious, eviscerated while alive, and then quartered and beheaded. When they went as bridegrooms to their wedding day, he told his daughter that God knew he was not ready to die ("Whereas thy silly father, Meg, that like a most wicked caitiff hath passed the whole course of his miserable life most sinfully, God, thinking him not worthy so soon to come to that eternal felicity, leaving him here yet still in the world, further to be plagued and turmoiled with misery.") So from that date of May 4, 1535 to his own execution on July 6, 1535, he faced even greater preparations for his own death.Even as he devoted himself to meditating on the Agony in the Garden, with the drama of Jesus's three prayers to His Father to let the cup of suffering pass by, the sleeping Apostles neglecting His vigil, and the betrayal of Judas, More was thinking of his own day. He compares the sleeping Apostles to their negligent successors, the Bishops, in the midst of the attacks on the Church and at the same time he contrasts the negligence of the Apostles to the activity and decision of Judas, betraying Jesus and turning Him over to the Sanhedrin. He was as much concerned by the betrayal of Jesus in the 16th century as he was Judas' betraying kiss that first Holy Thursday night. He was concerned about the growing disbelief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and also about those "autodidacts" who interpreted Scripture on their own authority, not based on the teaching and Tradition of the universal Catholic Church.For his part, More examines the Gospel passages describing Christ's agony in the garden using the four senses of Scripture: literal, moral, spiritual, and eschatological. He applies their lessons to our acceptance of the doctrine of the Incarnation, to how we must be prepared to suffer and die when facing martyrdom, to our prayer life whether waking or sleeping, and to the life to come. It's fascinating how many paragraphs he dedicates to the mystery of the young man who flees the Garden, leaving his garment behind. He examines the moral implications of running away, whether to avoid danger or to avoid the near occasion of sin.As I read The Sadness of Christ, I recognized again what a faithful and devout Catholic Thomas More was, how diligently he studied and tried to live his faith, how concerned he was with doing God's will and preparing to do God's will, and how much he loved Jesus. As he prepared to suffer and die, More left a testament and example for others, both in his written work and in his life. The prayers and devotions he wrote in the Tower and the letters he wrote, particularly to his dear daughter Margaret also demonstrate how he faced this great crisis.

To compare this book with something else that St. More did before his incarceration is ludicrous and misses the whole point. The purpose of this book is to show the inner nature and turmoil that he was going through as he faced imminent execution.On that score, what you read is extremely pertinent and explains his subject matter: "The Sadness of Christ" which talks about Jesus' Passion and experience in the Garden of Gethsemene and of His betrayal by his diciples reflecting the very similar circumstances he himself was experiencing.His letters to his daughter Margaret were truly heart-wrenching and knowing what we know about the background of these writings, I have to confess that I felt emotional and close to tears while reading through them myself. This is truly no Utopia but who cares as the effect on the reader who can emphatise with St. More is surely more pronounced than reading through that other masterpiece.What comes clearly through is the brilliance of the mind of the man and his great conviction of beliefs with no compromises. The writing is so easy to follow and such a joy to read especially the very lucid and convincing way he makes his arguments that I'm not surprised that he has been made the patron saint of all lawyers.The "Life of Sir Thomas More" is also very touching showing the impact he had on his son-in-law that moved him to write such a moving account of a man he clearly admired. We also get a glowing description of St. More by his contemporary, the famous humanist, Erasmus, and his epitaph in the Chelsea Old Church is included as well.This is highly recommended for anyone who wants to truly know and understand St. Thomas More and more importantly his state of mind and being during his imprisonment and before his martyrdom. This is also for Christians who feel jaded about their faith or who have taken their faith for granted. This will surely lift you into seeing just how precious a gift you have for which many have been willing to suffer greatly and die for.Read this; you won't regret it.

There are other books about Thomas More that I prefer, but I did like the wonderful time-line of his life which it includes.

Was ok

Thomas More's Utopia is a stunning piece of work which is the reason it is his best known. This book collects some of the more obscure writings about Thomas More and written by him. There is a good reason why these are not among his better known works.After an introduction that last literally 30 pages, the bulk of the text is occupied by a passage called "The Sadness of Christ". This reflects on each of the four Gospels telling of Jesus's final hours from an emotional stand point. While the perspective presented is interesting, the argument is very redundant as presented by Thomas More. One could skip over a page and still be reading the same thing on the following page. The next section is a series of letters Thomas More wrote from prison. Most of the information from his letters is more easily consumed in a biography. The last section is a biography told from the perspective of his son-in-law, William Roper. In this short biography, Roper tells more of his father-in-law's state of mind rather than the life story.On several levels, I felt that his work did not deliver. I did not get what I expected from his book. That being said, there is still something to gain from reading it.

Wonderful