Meet a Reader: Father Dominic Garramone, OSB
1. How do we know you?
I could be known for any number of things! I’m a 1979 grad of Spalding, a Benedictine priest of Saint Bede Abbey, religion teacher and drama director for Saint Bede Academy, TV baker on public television, cookbook author and children’s author.
2. Why do you love reading?
I used to love reading mostly because it transported me to other worlds and alternate realities---I’m a big fan of fantasy writers like Tolkien, Anne McAffrey, Patricia McKillip, etc. But as I grow older and (one hopes) more mature, I especially appreciate that reading is such a reflective exercise—it promotes reflection, meditation, discussion. You always have the luxury re-reading a paragraph or having recourse to a dictionary or reading it aloud to someone else in the room, or just saying to yourself: “Stop---I want to think about this for a minute.”
3. What are you reading now?
Right now our monastery table reading is And There Was Light, the autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, blind hero of the French Resistance---absolutely gripping. I’m reading Everyday Life of Medieval Travellers by Marjorie Rowling, as part of class prep for teaching church history.
4. What is your favorite book, and why?
Apart from the Bible and the Rule of Saint Benedict, my favorite book is The Supper of the Lamb: a Culinary Reflection by Robert Farrar Capon. No other book has influenced my cooking and my view of creation as much as this work---a great read for anyone who can see preparing food as a spiritual act and a share in God’s creative work.
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Note from your blog host: This month's "Meet a Reader" is also the author of both of this month's featured books, Thursday Night Pizza and children's book Brother Jerome and the Angels in the Bakery. I've always wanted to feature local authors here, and when the chance popped up I was delighted, and resolved to ask him to be our "Meet a Reader" this month, as well.
Thanks, Father Dominic, for being willing to be a part of this feature!
The kids and I miss seeing Fr Dominic on PBS - I have all his cookbooks - and have ordered his children's book.
ReplyDeleteThat is the one question I meant to ask Father Dominic when I met him last week at Lagron-Miller--any new PBS or other cooking shows in the works? If I can get the answer from him, I will post it.
ReplyDelete