January 27th we will finish winding up the saints of the 4th century and move into the 5th century.  Specifically, Sister Theresa will present Jerome and St.Paula, and I will present John Chrysostom. Everyone should read Chapters 22 & 23 in Gonzales.  Food theme will be soup, salad, and bread.  Quote:"Poor human reason, when it trusts in itself, substitutes the strangest absurdities for the highest divine concepts. " John Chrysostom   The meeting for Feb.10, Glenna and I will do Early Celtic Christianity through the 5th or 6th century.  Everyone should read St. Patrick's "Confessio" which we handed out last meeting.  Food theme will be Irish, Scottish and British foods in keeping with the Celtic theme.  If I can come up with some authentic ancient recipes or food descriptions, I will make them available.  Quote from St. Patrick:Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me. The following meeting, Feb 24,  we will begin our study of Augustine.  They need to read chapter 24 in Gonzales, and reading the Confessions would be optional.  I will do an overview of the Confessions, and do some further biographical studies of his life after the end of the Confessions.   North African and Roman foods would be appropriate.  I definitely have some recipes for that.  Qutoe from the Confessions: "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." The next meeting, March 9, we will continue Augustine.  Jonathan will do a review of On the Spirit and the Letter.  If they would like to read it, it is available at New Advent http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1502.htm.  We'll probably just do pot luck that night.  Quote from On the Spirit and the Letter: "The word "justified" is equivalent to "made righteous"—made righteous by him who justifies the ungodly, so that he who was ungodly becomes righteous   The following meeting, March 30(a week late due to Easter on the 23), I will do an overview of Celtic and Germanic migrations of the 4th and 5th centuries, which set the stage for so much of what would happen to and in the church throughout the Middle Ages.  In particular we will look at how the Sack of Rome in 410 AD and the Vandal seige of Hippo, in North Africa affected Augustine.  I'll get some recipes out for ancient French and German foods, and we'll eat like barbarians with nothing but our hands and a knife.  Quote for the Barbarian invasions: "They were the rod of the wrath of God.  As often as his indignation went forth against the faithfaul, he punished them with the Huns, so that, chastened by their suffering, the faithful would force themselves away from the greed of this world and from sin and claim the inheritance of the celestial kingdom."  Isidore of Seville The next meeting, April 13, we will do the City of God by Augustine which was written in response to the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 AD.  Jonathan and I will probably do that together.  They should read Chapter 25 in Gonzales, and ideally at least a small section of City of God.  Here's a link to it: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1201.htm  Even a chapter would be helpful.  We will have a Mexican feast that night.  This lesson will finish the section on the Church of antiquity, or as Gonzales terms it, the Imperial Church.   St. Augustine quote:  "Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you." Prior to starting the section on Medieval Christianity, we will have a party on or about April 20,(we'll have to see what the calendar looks like) for the whole parish just to be sociable, and to try to reach out to those who don't usually come to Book Club.  We'll have it outside at our house, a hamburger cookout with a fire in the firepit to roast marshmallows for s'mores.  We will play some sort of a game like Pictionary using the info from The Early and Imperial Church sections, both to have fun and to give any newcomers a flavor of what we have been doing for the last 1 1/2 years.  We'll also have a brief preview of what we will be studying in the Medieval period (about 10 minutes).