Reflections of a New York Book Browser

Sr. Rose….constantly communicating!

New York gets a lot of bad press, but it’s a great place to promote the message of the Lord Jesus. People are open and ready for the Word. And it’s here that I’ve become a trained New York book browser.

Just the other day, I stopped by one of the big book stores on 5th Avenue. Certainly, conventional browsing has no place in these huge New York book stores. Even though it was almost 2:00 p.m., there were people on the move in every aisle—in a continuous, sideways shuffle dodging the next browser. It was like being on a moving sidewalk, passing a smorgasbord of ideologies and messages.

To the trained and untrained book browser alike, there are so many books to choose from. And even though one can find quiet corners, the haste, pace and selling of ideas that can change people and nations keep the potential buyer feeling prodded to choose and buy. And to move along....

Not all New York book stores are like this, however. Nestled between buildings and tucked back off the street is the Pauline Book & Media Center at 150 East 52nd, between Lexington and 3rd. While it’s true that many people who come here are in a rush, the atmosphere within calms the harried, uplifts the sad and seeks to inspire all who enter. The categories in this Center contrast sharply with those of other book stores. If you were to take a tour, here are just some of the subjects you’d find: Scripture, Ministry, Theology, Children’s Literature, Evangelization 2000, African-American Heritage, Spirituality.

Toward the far right-hand corner of the Center there is a light blue door with these oak letters hung on the outside: Chapel of the Divine Master. Besides being present in our tapes, videos and books, the Word is sacramentally present in every one of our Centers. Each has a chapel, that the Lord might be adored in the midst of the "busyness" of everyday life.

The Eucharist is what pulls all the elements of mission, especially media-related mission, all together. Jesus in Word and Sacrament is for us, and for all those whom we serve, the Message itself.

Throughout the United States there are eighteen Pauline Book & Media Centers and two in Toronto, Canada—striving, along with our 250-plus Centers worldwide, to make Jesus known to people everywhere.

Our Founder called our Centers pulpits, sources of light, love, justice and truth. Not stores, but Centers from which the Word of God is proclaimed to a weary world hungry for meaning—for the Bread of truth.

As we move toward the year 2000, the Pauline Book & Media Centers strive to proclaim Christ using the media for a new evangelization, as called for by Pope John Paul II in one of his en-cyclical letters, Mission of the Redeemer.

You may or may not be a New York-style book browser. You may not even be a New Yorker! But whatever your style, and wherever you’re from in the United States, Canada, and indeed around the world, you’re welcome at the Pauline Book & Media Center nearest you...for a quiet moment with the Word of God.

(Today Sr. Rose is the Director of our Pauline Center for Media Studies for media literary education and formation.)