Biblical Poem for October 10, 2022: Jonah and Saint Teresa of Avila by Patrick McCaskey

Jonah, (c.350-400), Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.
Vatical Museum, https://flic.kr/p/kXU52M

 

Jonah and Saint Teresa of Avila

 

Luke 11:29-32

 

From the Navarre Bible commentary,

We know that “The Ninevites did penance

because they acknowledged the prophet

Jonah and accepted his message.

Jesus is greater than Jonah…Christ’s life

And preaching are a call to conversion.”

 

From the Magnificat, we know that

Saint Teresa of Avila advised,

“Let nothing disturb you, let nothing

Frighten you, all things are passing away:

God never changes.  Patience obtains all

Things.  Whoever has God lacks nothing; God

Alone suffices.”  This is holy advice.

 

My sister Anne’s middle name is Terese.

 

Patrick McCaskey

 

Patrick McCaskey is a Vice President and Director of the Chicago Bears, Chair of Sports Faith International, and Chair of WSFI Catholic Radio 88.5, as well as poet and the author of our Sports and Faith Series. He is also a grandson of George "Papa Bear" Halas.  McCaskey's latest book is Tuition Rebate.   Patrick McCaskey's Poems About the Gospel and Poems About the Gospel II are books for all seasons where readers can find a few words of encouragement in every poem--both books are available from Amazon.

Copyright 2022, Sporting Chance Press, Bring good things under your roof with Sporting Chance Press.

 

Image: Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P., Jonah (c.350-400) from Vatican Museum, https://flic.kr/p/kXU52M

 

My Brown and White

 Note: I am reprising this review that Mr. Potocki and Mr. Stadler were so kind to write a few years ago. 

HERE'S THE BOOK REVIEW THAT WAS ON THE MOUNT CARMEL HIGH SCHOOL WEBSITE.

The Brown and White

THE BROWN AND WHITE

Jon Potocki '65 and Terri Stadler '65 review The Brown and White by Lawrence Norris's '71: 

This "fictionalized memoir" brought the alums back "home" and proved to be a thoughtful fictionalized account of life at Mount Carmel in the 60's. Thomas Wolfe, the early 20th century author said, “You can’t go home again.” But both of us recently had a close encounter with the Southeast side of the 1960s in Chicago. We just finished reading The Brown and White, a “fictionalized memoir” written by Lawrence Norris, a 1971 graduate of Mount Carmel. We were so impressed with the author’s stories that neither of us could put it down. Because of its storied format and short chapters, we both finished it in a matter hours (and as John proudly proclaims, ‘not bad for a guy who was in the lowest section for all four years’).

The book was written about a student, the author, and his freshman year at a fictional all-boys HS, “St. Mary’s,” on Chicago’s south side (September 1967 to June 1968). The encounters he writes about between the upper classmen and the new freshmen included many experiences that many of us actually had during our first year at Carmel: being called “Bennies,” being the brunt of the upper classmen’s jokes and high jinx, etc. 

Although the book is a fictionalized account, most of us tried to identify every character in the book with someone from our first year at Carmel, 1961 – 1962. Growing up on the South Side of Chicago was and still is a special kind of life. 

The book takes its title from the brown and white school bus that the student rode and centers on the many experiences that he had coming and going to school in the turbulent late sixties: passing the (Aquinas, Mercy, Longwood, St. Francis, Loretto) girls who were waiting for their CTA bus, getting harassed by the residents in the “bad” neighborhoods that they drove through, all the while looking out for something or someone special passing by in a car. 

The book contains various “hooks” that caught both of us as we scurried through its pages. First, the complex and confusing social aspects experienced in the Chicago during the Sixties (i.e., race relations, assassinations, the Viet Nam war, sportpractices, football games and girls) contributed to the personal development of each and every student at the school in the book, as well as our own. Second, for many us, there was one person at Carmel who had a lasting impression on each of us. In the book, a guy named Willie, the bus driver of the Brown and White, was the adult who had a special impact on the author and the other bus riders. As an unlikely adult, he would have a major role in two of the students’ lives. Third, the portrayals of each fictional teacher triggered our own imaginations, trying to identify each of them. Finally, family played a major roll for the author and for us. Whether ours were a loving and thoughtful family or one filled with dysfunction, the book captured this critical element in the development of each of us. 

Finally, we both identified with the book’s main character in numerous ways. His freshmen experiences, in many ways, were our freshmen experiences. We think that anyone who reads this book will feel the same tug back to their freshmen year at Carmel. Mount Carmel High School, then and now, is more than just a school. It is what our society today needs: the challenges of pursuing hard work, following direction, obeying authority, developing right relationships among all students and teachers (regardless of race, academic capability or social background), and being presented with the opportunities to grow physically, mentally and morally/spiritually. The book is all about this growth for the author, and in turn, invites us to reflect on our own growth that we experienced at Carmel. 

Mr. Norris did a great job with his book. We believe that new students and alumni should all read this fine work. It will bring back some fond memories for many alumni and contribute in many ways what the brown Our Lady of Mount Carmel Scapular is really about for new students. If you work hard as a boy you will leave a man: Ready to think of others in a challenging world where inclusiveness benefits all, where Our Lady of Mount Carmel points us to her Son, the God who lives with us and in us today, just as we learned in the Sixties hanging around the Chicago’s south side. 

The Brown and White can be purchased on Amazon by clicking here.

Biblical Poem for February 8, 2022: Jesus Christ Stresses Purity of Heart by Patrick McCaskey

 

Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O. P., Benediction in
 Blackfriars priory church; https://flic.kr/p/87eU4H

Jesus Christ Stresses Purity of Heart

 

          Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

 

From the “Workbook for Lectors” we know that

“Jesus prefers to associate with

An amiable, if somewhat unti-

dy, group rather than…critics with clean hands.”

 

Jesus declared that all food is clean.

Sin begins in the interior life.

Jesus healed with just one look of true love.

Bing Crosby sang “True Love” to Grace Kelly.

 

God restores our heart with a tender gaze.

We can do the same the rest of our days.

Husbands can give their wives the look of love.

Parents can look at their children with love.

 

Jesus Christ looks at us with compassion,

Even if we do not like poetry.

 

Patrick McCaskey

 

Patrick McCaskey is a Vice President and Director of the Chicago Bears, Chair of Sports Faith International, and Chair of WSFI Catholic Radio 88.5, as well as poet and the author of our Sports and Faith Series. He is also a grandson of George "Papa Bear" Halas. Surprising, inspiring, and all very human, Patrick McCaskey's Poems About the Gospel and Poems About the Gospel II are books for all seasons where readers can find a few words of encouragement in every poem. Poems About the Gospel is available from Sporting Chance Press, Amazon and select bookstores like the Little Way in Crystal Lake. Poems About the Gospel II is exclusively available from Amazon.

Copyright 2020, Sporting Chance Press

Image: Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O. P., Benediction in Blackfriars priory church; https://flic.kr/p/87eU4H

Ride the Brown and White with me; I've saved you a seat...

The Brown and White is a literary work. But just as no prophet is accepted in his hometown, no writer thinks his writing is very good until he hears it from others. That may seem like a general statement that may not be correct in our very critical time, but I think the substance of it is true. We all need people to encourage us. Writers are no different. There are no books that suit everyone's taste. But if you can write one that hits the write spot for the audience you seek, it is a winner. 

Encouragement comes in many different forms. 

Since The Brown and White was a fictional memoir that features (anonymously) my famous high school and my classmates from the late 1960s, it was important to get some feedback from classmates. Oddly enough, I heard from some of the guys a couple classes ahead of mine first. The loved the book and had me come out to regularly scheduled get-together at a Chicago Tavern to talk about the book. It was a little scary, but definitely fun. 

I saw my classmates later at a school banquet. Several came up and told me they loved the book and had no idea that I could capture the times so well. As a student, I was often more of a good witness than one of the more active players in high school. I was not on the football team; I was on the track team. I was in second honors, not first. But I did ride the legendary Brown and White bus to school and had many memories from those experiences that I worked on over and over again for 30 some years. I certainly put in the time on this book. 

There were many special families in those days with fathers and mothers who sacrificed most everything for their kids. Siblings fought each other at home and supported each other in public. I included those memories. In that sense it is a book about family.

There were comic characters and tremendous teachers at school. I put a spotlight on some of them. In that way it is about interesting people in authority. 

Many of my classmates were disappointed that I have used a fictitious name for the school and created a fictional memoir rather than a biography of sorts. The answer to that is simple: I wanted to capture the times for everyone who lived through them and many others so the memories could be theirs as well. A book about a named high school might be more interesting to alum, but a book about a kind of prototype high school has a chance of reaching many more people. Take "Gease" for example. I am still hoping for Hollywood! 

The Brown and White is a short book and is easy to read. When you read it, you can add a lot of our experiences between the lines as I take you along on the Brown and White. Go through all the emotions with me as ride the bus together. I've saved you a seat. 

In the last couple months, I have seen a little uptick in sales. Maybe it's the traction I've been waiting for.... 

My Books, The Brown and White, Selling Now!

At Sporting Chance Press we have a few new titles that I have been promoting, but much to my surprise when I checked sales recently, the book that is selling the best right now is my own book, The Brown and White. I did not start my company, Sporting Chance Press, to promote my own work. As a matter of fact, I have no plans to publish The Brown and White, but things changed and it's time came in 2016. Based on these sales, I thought I should post something to hopefully keep the trend going. 

Here's my Catholic TV Interview for the Brown and White on YouTube, which came out about the time the book published.

Amazon's listing.

I can tell you that I worked very hard on this book over several decades. Why did it take so long?  I really can't give you a good answer to that, but I was motivated to write the book when I felt like I wanted to memorialize the times, the students in the era, and neighborhoods of Chicago.

Brown and White Publisher Has Published Second Poems About the Gospel by Patrick McCaskey

 Poems About the Gospel II, now available from Amazon, features another 150 short works written by Patrick McCaskey. Like our Poems About the Gospel (published in 2020), each poem provides the author's own take on an individual passage of one of the Evangelists that are often read at Mass and other Christian services. The poems reveal the thoughts and feelings of a modern man responding to the Gospel with faith, humility, and humor. The author’s poems remind us that the Christian faith is just as alive today as ever, and the inspired writings live alongside all our foibles and culture. The author’s sense of reality rushes in at unexpected times with a “time out” for humor. Readers are struck with all the author’s variety of thoughts that fall as they might, but never take away from the faith distilled. A 45+ year veteran and Vice President of the Chicago Bears, Patrick McCaskey is the grandson of founder George Halas. McCaskey has written many books on sports and faith. He serves as Chairman of Sports Faith International an initiative which recognizes people who are successful in sports while leading exemplary lives. The author also chairs WSFI Catholic Radio that broadcasts to northeastern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin.

Four New Books from Sporting Chance Press

Four New Books from Sporting Chance Press

Available at sportingchancepress.com and Amazon.com.

Baseball’s Winning Ways is written for enjoyment, inspiration, and information by the author of The 10 Commandments of Baseball, J. D. Thorne. Baseball’s Winning Ways examines baseball eras and their backgrounds, along with profiles of great current and past players. The drama of the game, its history, baseball superstitions, statistics, and the story of trading cards are presented clearly for readers from age 12 on up. The central theme of the book is baseball’s principles that are essential to the best baseball programs. The author points out that baseball promotes certain virtues that are so important today. These are the values that parents, grandparents, teachers, and coaches want to pass down to the next generation. $20, ISBN: 978-1-7345863-3-6 (Pub. 11/2020)

Papa Bear and the Chicago Bears’ Winning Ways by Patrick McCaskey tells the dramatic story of George Halas and his crucial role in professional football–all written for middle grades readers. Papa Bear’s leadership took professional football from its beginning into the modern age. In Papa Bear and the Chicago Bears’ Winning Ways, highlights of history are presented with vintage photographs so readers are not only exposed to the story of football, but they get American history as well. Halas’s important words of wisdom, his winning ways, are also explored and are tied into Ben Franklin’s self-help methods for young people. $12, ISBN: 978-1-7345863-1-2 (Pub. 8/2020)

Poems About the Gospel feature 150 short works written by Patrick McCaskey. Each poem provides the author’s own take on an individual passage of one of the Evangelists that are often read at Mass and other Christian services. The poems reveal the thoughts and feelings of a modern man responding to the Gospel with faith, humility, and humor. The author’s poems remind us that the Christian faith is just as alive today as ever, and the inspired writings live alongside all our foibles and culture. The author’s sense of reality rushes in at unexpected times with a “time out” for humor. Readers are struck with all the author’s variety of thoughts that fall as they might, but never take away from the faith distilled. A 45+ year veteran and Vice President of the Chicago Bears, Patrick McCaskey is the grandson of founder George Halas. $20, ISBN: 978-1-7345863-2-9 (Pub. 11/2020)

Sportsmanship is the most ambitious book in Patrick McCaskey’s popular Sports and Faith Series. First, readers are treated to a Chicago Bears Calendar of historical events that celebrate Bears’ history for each day of the year. Next, chapters feature interesting stories, sports segments, personal reminiscences, faith experiences, and the author’s humorous musings. Reflecting the practice of classic sports journalist memoirs, McCaskey has frequently written about his favorite athletes and coaches. In Sportsmanship, the author adds a new twist to this practice by including a chapter on favorite writers who have inspired him.  Towards the end of the volume are McCaskey’s speeches that have been used at social and civil events, presentations to churches and schools, and all types of occasions relating to his passion, the Chicago Bears. $20 ISBN: 978-0-9819342-4-2 (Pub. 2/2020)

Biblical Poem for October 20, 2021: Jesus Explained the Steward Parable by Patrick McCaskey

 

Poems About the Gospel,
Patrick McCaskey

Jesus Explained the Steward Parable

 

Luke 12:39-48

 

Christ talked about responsibility.

The faithful souls and the ignorant would

Be judged differently from the lazy,

The calculating, the noncompliant.

 

Duties of life can lead to holiness.

The Spirit of God leads to sanctity.

Let’s worship God in spirit and in truth.

Jesus was poor, humble, and cross-bearing.

 

Everyone has different chores and gifts.

Charity arouses hope and good works.

Let’s act with courage and humility.

Jesus Christ washed the feet of His apostles.

 

My grandfather overslept and missed the

Eastland.  Sometimes it’s okay to be late.

 

Patrick McCaskey

 

Patrick McCaskey is a Vice President and Director of the Chicago Bears, Chair of Sports Faith International, and Chair of WSFI Catholic Radio 88.5, as well as poet and the author of our Sports and Faith Series.  The Sports and Faith include stories of athletes and others who live exemplary lives like George "Papa Bear" Halas, Pat's grandfather. Surprising, inspiring, and all very human, Patrick McCaskey's Poems About the Gospel is Patrick's first book of poems where readers can find a few words of encouragement in every one. Poems About the Gospel is available from Sporting Chance Press, Amazon and select bookstores like the Little Way in Crystal Lake.

 

Copyright 2021, Sporting Chance Press

Biblical Poem for November 19, 2021: Responding to the Word of Jesus Christ by Patrick McCaskey

 

Poems About the Gospel, 
Patrick McCaskey

Responding to the Word of Jesus Christ

 

Luke 11:27-28

 

From the “Navarre Bible” commentary,

We know that “The Tradition of the Church

Has always read these words as great praise for

The Blessed Virgin.”  She believed God’s word.

 

From the “Catechism of the Catho-

lic Church,” 149, we know that “Throughout

Her life and until her last ordeal when

Jesus her son died on the cross, Mary’s

Faith never wavered.  She never ceased to

Believe in the fulfillment of God’s word.

And so the Church venerates in Mary

The purest realization of faith.”

 

Mary was not the least bit contrary.

She helped everyone, even the most wary.

 

Patrick McCaskey

 

Patrick McCaskey is a Vice President and Director of the Chicago Bears, Chair of Sports Faith International, and Chair of WSFI Catholic Radio 88.5, as well as poet and the author of our Sports and Faith Series.  The Sports and Faith include stories of athletes and others who live exemplary lives like George "Papa Bear" Halas, Pat's grandfather. Surprising, inspiring, and all very human, Patrick McCaskey's Poems About the Gospel is Patrick's first book of poems where readers can find a few words of encouragement in every one. Poems About the Gospel is available from Sporting Chance Press, Amazon and select bookstores like the Little Way in Crystal Lake.

 

Copyright 2020, Sporting Chance Press

Biblical Poem for October 18, 2021: Seventy Disciples Have a Mission by Patrick McCaskey

 

Patrick McCaskey,
Author of Poems About the Gospel

Seventy Disciples Have a Mission

 

          Luke 10:1-19

 

Jesus Christ sent seventy disciples,

Two by two, to places where He would preach.

They were chosen to be the advance men.

They were taught to say, “Peace be to this house.”

 

The Navarre Bible notes are instructive.

“Our Lord…requires of them detachment and

Abandonment to divine providence.”

 

“The actions and words of the disciples

Are, like those of Jesus, a call from God

To repentance, which must come from the heart.”

 

Saint Josemaria Escriva wrote,

“Don’t doubt it: your vocation is the greatest

Grace our Lord could have given you.  Thank Him

For it.”  I thank God for my vocation.

 

Patrick McCaskey

 

Patrick McCaskey is a Vice President and Director of the Chicago Bears, Chair of Sports Faith International, and Chair of WSFI Catholic Radio 88.5, as well as poet and the author of our Sports and Faith Series. He is also a grandson of George "Papa Bear" Halas. Surprising, inspiring, and all very human, Patrick McCaskey's Poems About the Gospel is a book for all seasons where readers can find a few words of encouragement in every poem. Poems About the Gospel is available from Sporting Chance Press, Amazon and select bookstores like the Little Way in Crystal Lake.

 

Copyright 2020, Sporting Chance Press

 

Thinking of Willa Cather

I was thinking of Willa Cather lately. For me, she came highly recommended by an English teacher I had, Sister Faith Schuster. Sister Faith came from a large Catholic farm family in Pilot Grove Missouri. Willa Cather spent much of her childhood in Red Cloud, Missouri. I would imagine, Sister Faith would have felt a kinship with Cather. I have written before about Sister Faith and how proud she was of her parents who had lived long and faithfully on the farm.  Faith was all about faith, all about literature, and all about truth and beauty. 

I read a few of Cather's books in college and recently picked up her novel, O Pioneers, once again. I watch Peter J Rea's video blog about books in which he briefly mentioned it. I thought I would have another look. I am not going to pontificate on the book, but I will say that Cather says a great deal in few words. I have come to appreciate writing that kick starts your brain rather than fills you with details. 

One other things that I want to mention about the book is just how different we are becoming from people like those described in Cather's work. The Swedes, Bohemians, and French Canadians that Cather writes about in O Pioneers are far different than modern people today. If you are one of those who want to chase young readers away from such writing to the "more exotic" or more diverse, I don't think you need to bother. 

Cather's personal life is a bit of a mystery, although that was not thought particularly relevant when I was in college. But she had a Catholic background and that was in keeping with much of our reading in those days. She eventually moved to New York and did much of her writing from that urban setting, but reflecting more or her rural experiences than city life. 

A Friend Called Me to Talk About the Brown and White

 A friend of mine called me from his new home out west where it is much warmer than Illinois. He wanted to congratulate me on my book The Brown and White. He recently bought a copy without any arm twisting. It was good to have his kind words because one of the main characters in this fictionalized biography passed away about a year ago. Like a lot of other people, I am coping with the loss as we approach Christmas. I feel good that I got to tell a little of his story along with mine and I know he liked the book. The Brown and White tells our story about high school life on the south side of Chicago in the late 1960s. It's a funny story with a dose of lost love and drama. I suppose I can say it is "based on fact." 

Of course, when I wrote the book we thought we lived through some tough times, but kids today have lived through some unimaginable horrors. But my story is my story and it is about times as they were back then. 

My friend is a marketing/sales guy who said I really soft pedaled the book to the extreme. I suppose my sales efforts have been understated, but at the same time true to myself.  I have this idea in the back of my head that some day someone from the movies will give me a call and ask if I am interested in selling the story. I've joked about this for a few years now. 

It's hard to be too confident in promoting your work these days. I am just an average guy who wrote my story over 40 years and then published my book. I had plenty of time to make it better. In good conscience I can't brag about a 200 page work that I took four decades to write. In my publishing career I once had an academic with a rough manuscript on a hot topic that he would send my way only if I could produce it as a textbook in six months. I got his book done as required.  I worked on another book that once came in a few thousand pages with hundreds of very difficult formulas and reams  of pages on government programs and regulatory materials. I was lucky to get a lot of help from a great editor with a math degree and we got it out several months later. I think we sold a dozen or so editions. 

It's tough to sell a personal story because everyone has their own. What made mine more interesting than most is the times and my school characters. My add copy  reads: 

The Brown and White tells the story of Collin Callaghan's freshman year at a Chicago Catholic High School. Collin is a white boy who is living in turbulent times in a changing city. He clings to his neighborhood and his family as he heads out each day with his classmates on the Brown and White, the ancient school bus driven by free-spirited Willie. Memorable characters abound as this story unfolds. Collin's loveable family, especially his Irish Catholic policeman father and his Irish immigrant mother face life together. Collin and classmates blaze their own humorous and passionate trail through the late 1960s. A unique cast of terrific teachers are there to see the boys through. Laughs and life meet readers head on as they travel on the Brown and White.

If you read this and are intrigued by story, take a chance on a copy, it's $12.50. A few of my kids spend that on side trip to Starbucks when they buy a few of those gigantic flavored coffees. That is about as strong a pitch as I can make! 

Lawrence Norris 

sportingchancepress.com

Bookies Bookstore to host Chicago Bears VP Patrick McCaskey for Book Signing on June 15, 2019

                                                                                

PRESS RELEASE

Crystal Lake, IL—Sporting Chance Press author Patrick McCaskey will be signing his new book Worthwhile Struggle at Bookies this Saturday in Chicago at 10324 South Western Avenue at 1 PM.

Bear fans think this year’s team might lead to something special–if you want something special this year for Christmas, birthdays, and Fathers’ Day–Worthwhile Struggle checks all the boxes. Worthwhile Struggle is the fourth book in the Sports and Faith Series published by Sporting Chance Press of Crystal Lake. Each chapter is titled after one of the author’s 10 Commandments of Football, principles based on McCaskey’s life with the Chicago Bears and reflecting his own distinctive sense of humor. The book includes vignettes of athletes such as Tom Waddle, Bill Wennington, and Sister Jean of Loyola University (who also graces the cover). McCaskey family stories, Bears history, and sports questions/answers round out the sports coverage. For the faith component, stories of saints and McCaskey’s Biblical poems are included. Struggle is a theme that is clearly seen and understood in sports, which serves as a metaphor for life lessons in the Series.

McCaskey, a grandson of Chicago Bears founder, George “Papa Bear” Halas, is one of the team owners and serves as a Vice President. McCaskey is a frequent speaker and author who is involved in the Bears charitable and outreach efforts.  Working for good causes for over 40 years, McCaskey is Chair of Catholic Radio Station WSFI (88.5 FM) and Sports Faith International (an initiative the honors high school, college, and professional athletes and coaches who lead exemplary lives).  

Specs:

Worthwhile Struggle

352 Pages, 5.5” x 8.5”

Paperback

Includes index, table of contents

Photo and Illustrations

Pub. 2019, $20 each

Printed in the United States

Brown and White Update

I have not paid enough attention to marketing my own book, The Brown and White. However just recently I have been sending note out to high school English teachers. If  you get one of these, I am serious about sending sample books out to English teachers that may be able to use the book and assign it for their courses.  I am convinced that The Brown and White will get read by students from Catholic High Schools. I started writing just after graduating myself! 

You can see the book at sportingchancepress.com

Description:

Forty plus years in the making, The Brown and White is a fictionalized memoir that tells the story of Collin Callaghan's freshman year at a Chicago Catholic High School. Collin is a white boy who is living in turbulent times in a changing city. He clings to his neighborhood and his family as he heads out each day with his classmates on the Brown and White, the ancient school bus driven by free-spirited Willie. Memorable characters abound as this story unfolds. Collin's loveable family, especially his Irish Catholic policeman father and his Irish immigrant mother face life together. Collin and classmates blaze their own humorous and passionate trail through the late 1960s. A unique cast of terrific teachers are there to see the boys through. Laughs and life meet readers head on as they travel on the Brown and White.

About the Author:

Sporting Chance Press author Lawrence Norris has a little marble angel on his desk, just under his computer screen. It's not very big, but Norris says it "looks over" all his labor each day. Norris wears a brown scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel every day. It's the scapular that he always wore as a student at Mount Carmel High School in Chicago. On one wall of his little office, there are religious images housed in beautiful gold frames that are shaped like little stained glass windows. His desk is home-made from an old dining room table. And as a publisher and an author, surrounding Norris are boxes of his company's books and an old floor to ceiling bookcase that includes a small sampling of his old books. He has another small bookcase by him and several more throughout his house. Most of his old books have little value to anyone other than himself.

Norris is not sure if the Dominican Sisters who educated him in grade school or the Carmelites who did the same in high school or the Benedictines who took Norris on in college would love all his work. But he hopes so.

Details:
Product Details: The Brown and White
ISBN: 978-0-9819342-7-3
192 pages, paperback,
September 2016

Review of the Brown and White from the Mount Carmel Website

hERE'S THE BOOK REVIEW THAT WAS ON THE MOUNT CARMEL HIGH SCHOOL WEBSITE.

The Brown and White

THE BROWN AND WHITE

Jon Potocki '65 and Terri Stadler '65 review The Brown and White by Lawrence Norris's '71. This "fictionalized memoir" brought the alums back "home" and proved to be a thoughtful fictionalized account of life at Mount Carmel in the 60's.

Thomas Wolfe, the early 20th century author said, “You can’t go home again.” But both of us recently had a close encounter with the Southeast side of the 1960s in Chicago. We just finished reading The Brown and White, a “fictionalized memoir” written by Lawrence Norris, a 1971 graduate of Mount Carmel. We were so impressed with the author’s stories that neither of us could put it down. Because of its storied format and short chapters, we both finished it in a matter hours (and as John proudly proclaims, ‘not bad for a guy who was in the lowest section for all four years’).

The book was written about a student, the author, and his freshman year at a fictional all-boys HS, “St. Mary’s,” on Chicago’s south side (September 1967 to June 1968). The encounters he writes about between the upper classmen and the new freshmen included many experiences that many of us actually had during our first year at Carmel: being called “Bennies,” being the brunt of the upper classmen’s jokes and high jinx, etc. 

Although the book is a fictionalized account, most of us tried to identify every character in the book with someone from our first year at Carmel, 1961 – 1962. Growing up on the South Side of Chicago was and still is a special kind of life. 

The book takes its title from the brown and white school bus that the student rode and centers on the many experiences that he had coming and going to school in the turbulent late sixties: passing the (Aquinas, Mercy, Longwood, St. Francis, Loretto) girls who were waiting for their CTA bus, getting harassed by the residents in the “bad” neighborhoods that they drove through, all the while looking out for something or someone special passing by in a car. 

The book contains various “hooks” that caught both of us as we scurried through its pages. First, the complex and confusing social aspects experienced in the Chicago during the Sixties (i.e., race relations, assassinations, the Viet Nam war, sportpractices, football games and girls) contributed to the personal development of each and every student at the school in the book, as well as our own. Second, for many us, there was one person at Carmel who had a lasting impression on each of us. In the book, a guy named Willie, the bus driver of the Brown and White, was the adult who had a special impact on the author and the other bus riders. As an unlikely adult, he would have a major role in two of the students’ lives. Third, the portrayals of each fictional teacher triggered our own imaginations, trying to identify each of them. Finally, family played a major roll for the author and for us. Whether ours were a loving and thoughtful family or one filled with dysfunction, the book captured this critical element in the development of each of us. 

Finally, we both identified with the book’s main character in numerous ways. His freshmen experiences, in many ways, were our freshmen experiences. We think that anyone who reads this book will feel the same tug back to their freshmen year at Carmel. Mount Carmel High School, then and now, is more than just a school. It is what our society today needs: the challenges of pursuing hard work, following direction, obeying authority, developing right relationships among all students and teachers (regardless of race, academic capability or social background), and being presented with the opportunities to grow physically, mentally and morally/spiritually. The book is all about this growth for the author, and in turn, invites us to reflect on our own growth that we experienced at Carmel. 

Mr. Norris did a great job with his book. We believe that new students and alumni should all read this fine work. It will bring back some fond memories for many alumni and contribute in many ways what the brown Our Lady of Mount Carmel Scapular is really about for new students. If you work hard as a boy you will leave a man: Ready to think of others in a challenging world where inclusiveness benefits all, where Our Lady of Mount Carmel points us to her Son, the God who lives with us and in us today, just as we learned in the Sixties hanging around the Chicago’s south side. 

The Brown and White can be purchased on Amazon by clicking here.

The Irish Books, Art, and Music Program at the Irish American Heritage Center in 2018

Sporting Chance Press was at the Irish American Heritage Center for the IBAM event. I was one of the authors present and had a table with The Brown and White, Sports and Faith II, The 10 Commandments of Baseball, and my Saint Kevin and the Blackbird shirt.

THE BROWN AND WHITE

Great Quick Read

The Brown and White is my own story about a young Irish American boy in his freshman year in high school during the Chicago Troubles in the late 1960s. 

SPORTS AND FAITH II

The Sports and Faith Series are books that promote the good in sports. Sports and Faith Book 2 includes stories of current professionals and legends; spotlighted are teams such as Bob Ladouceur s De La Salle squad portrayed in the motion picture When the Game Stands Tall. Burke Masters (featured on cover), Matthew Lightner, and Grant Desme three promising athletes who decided on a role of lifetime service are spotlighted. McCaskey recalls the stories of those who strove to make the cut on and off the field.

 

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF BASEBALL

The 10 Commandments of Baseball is about the baseball principles created by the greatest Major League Baseball manager of all time, Joe McCarthy. McCarthy's Irish youth was troubled by the early death of his father and his parish priest convinced his mother that Joe should pursue his baseball dreams and go to college rather than jump right into the plumbing trade. 

Most of my books are available on Amazon. But click on the links above for more information.  

Saint Kevin and the Blackbird is an an 800 year old Irish story about the great saint. Saint Kevin went out to his small hut or cell to pray one day and he extended his arm out the window of the tiny building. A blackbird landed on his hand and the saint patiently left his arm outside while the bird built a nested, laid eggs, and saw them hatch and fly away. Seamus Heaney wrote a beautiful spiritual poem looking at what the saint might have thought and gave his reasons for the deed.   I was so enamored with it that I had the shirt made up.  Patrick McCaskey is a big Seamus Heaney fan and in our next Sports and Faith book, Worthwhile Struggle,  we include Saint Kevin's story and the Heaney poem. You can see the sweatshirt below, but send me your requirements at lmj.norris@gmail.com--it comes in men's sizes small, medium, large, 1X large and 2X large. All are gray  long sleeved and I had another themed shirt made up on another saint a few  years ago just for myself and I have worn holes in it--it's that comfortable. 

Saint Kevin and the Blackbird

Our latest Sports and Faith Series book is Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage is Patrick McCaskey’s third book on Sports and Faith. Pilgrimage explores various Christian shrines and holy places popular with today’s trekkers and seekers. Awakened by modern fascination with places like the Way of Saint James, many athletes whose achievements are celebrated in this Sports and Faith book, have made pilgrimages part of their faith journey. The Holy Land, Rome, Lourdes, Fatima, Assisi, and several other places of interest and their origins are examined.

Author Patrick McCaskey has peppered the book with his own poems and narratives on all things McCaskey. The popular author’s poems and his own literary and papal pilgrimages are here. McCaskey shares personal episodes that readers will find simple, insightful, and touching.Pilgrimage shares stories of exemplary athletes and others who are successful in sports and life. These writings are often the product of the author’s efforts on behalf of Sports Faith International, an initiative that honors devout athletes and coaches. In Pilgrimage, some of those featured have left sports for religious vocations—a college volleyball star, an Olympic Speed-skater, and a professional (female) football player! Add to these, stories on coaches, teams, and athletes of all shapes and sizes, including some who have struggled mightily with their sport and their calling. Sports training as a metaphor for religious growth and is found throughout. Athletes train seriously for sustaining endurance, improving their skills, and maximizing performance. Many faithful Christians use such training to make a difference for the unfortunate, teaching young people, and working tirelessly for others. These efforts are featured.

Pilgrimage includes some stories you may not expect: The story of Lou Gehrig, the great Christian gentleman of baseball. EWTN sensation,Bear Woznick, devout Catholic, radio and TV host who challenges people to abandon themselves to God, and live a life in pursuit of God’s will in the boldest, most rewarding way possible. Then there is Mark Philippi, a nationally recognized Strength and Conditioning Coach and Power-lifting champion. Another story features West Point graduate and army officer, April Ortenzo, who is following her family’s example of service and sacrifice to others.

Pilgrimage is a well-rounded offering that helps readers on their own faith journey through the examples of many others. Some readers may not be able to make a life-changing journey across continents and oceans, but this book can give readers some insights and enrichment. For those seeking adventure and travel in their future, here’s a personal introduction.