thoughts on the news of the day: william carter

hmmm…..

                Here’s an interesting fact you may not know … today is the feast day of Blessed William Carter.  Catholics mark the day in honor of a man who published books for Catholics in 16^th century England  when no Catholics there were allowed to have them.  Some of his printing presses were so small that he could only print one page at a time, and on occasion, he had to resort to copying the books by hand.  He was imprisoned in the London tower and was tortured when Catholic books were found in his possession. Now he is celebrated as a near Saint of the church.

                I have been doing some research in the library at Austin Presbyterian Seminary.  The first thing that hits you when you walk in the library is the dust and the mold from the thousands of books housed in the building.  But once you settle in, the enormity of the collection can overwhelm you.  The catalogue of books can now only be viewed on line because it is so large and all that remains of the old card catalogue is a small bank of drawers left as a testament of days gone by.

                It’s easy to take for granted the freedom we have to read whatever we want to.  At the punch of a button we can download just about anything on our Kindle.  Millions of books are right at our fingertips; and we don’t have to take our life in our hands to read them.  Budding authors can even present their books for reading as if they were best sellers. I have a friend who is doing that with a novel he wrote.

                Today on William Carter’s feast day would be a good time to be grateful for the freedom we have to learn what we want, to read what we like, to share it with friends and family without fear.  Today is a good day.

                hmmm…..