2023 Fr. Ken's Lenten Teaching Series

Who:  Fr. Ken Wolfe, facilitating
What: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Catholicism + The Lord of the Rings
Where:  Chapel
When:  Tuesdays - February 28, March 7, 14, 21, 28
Teaching sessions: 8:45 AM + 6:30 PM

The short book “Frodo’s Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning of the Lord of the Rings” by Joseph Pearce (St. Benedict Press, 2015) is very readable and an insightful commentary on Tolkien’s masterpiece. Jef Murray’s illustrations are a delightful bonus. Fr. Ken will reference this throughout the series.  

And so our Lenten journey will begin…
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

POST-journey, attendees might wish to read Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), The Two Towers (1955), and The Return of the King (1955) and/or watch the Peter Jackson film versions (2001, 2002, and 2003). If you purchase the DVD series, Fr. Ken recommends the Special Extended DVD Editions.

Do not mistake the 2022 Amazon Prime version ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ for Peter Jackson’s original films. This new film version is a confusing and inaccurate caricature of Tolkien’s magnificent work.