Day 24: Book that contains your favorite scene

Wow...this one is interesting. I say something like that at the beginning of every challenge I know. But this one is very specific! Not only do I have to pick a book, but a scene, yikes. Way to point out how my memory is not so good anymore book challenge. Appreciate it! :) Ha ha.

Well there are tons of awesome scenes in all of the favorite books I have listed so far but one that really sticks out in my mind is from the book


The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

 

The Sparrow, which is just about one of the coolest books ever written and if you haven't read it you really should, is a story about aliens. But not really. Really it is the story of a group of humans who set out to make contact with another life form when it is discovered. The group sent, however, is not a group of astronauts as one might assume. It is instead a group assembled and sent by the Jesuit scientists. The leader of the group is a priest named Father Emilio Sandoz and the book opens with him as the only survivor of the mission. It looks back on the plan and on what happened to him and his team, and deals with all of the implications of what happens. This book is not easy to read. It is horrifying in some parts, but extraordinarily beautiful in others. One of the blurbs on the back says "Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them". 

The scene I always remember first from this book is one of the beautiful ones. It is after contact with the new race has been made and Father Sandoz has realized why he came to the planet. He tries to explain it to the author of the songs that first led humanity to discover them. He says,

"There are times...when we are in the midst of life - moments of confrontation with birth or death, or moments of beauty when nature or love is fully revealed, or moments of terrible loneliness - times when a a holy and awesome awareness comes upon us. It may come as deep inner stillness or as a rush of overflowing emotion. It may seem to come from beyond us, without any provocation, or from within us, evoked by music or by a sleeping child. If we open our hearts at such moments, creation reveals itself to us in all its unity and fullness. And when we return from such a moment of awareness, our hearts long to find some way to capture it in words forever, so that we can remain faithful to its higher truth....When my people search for a name to give to that truth we feel at those moments, we call it God, and when we capture hat understanding in timeless poetry, we call it praying."

The rest of this scene is actually not beautiful like this part is, but the very first time I read this book I underlined this passage and my mind returns to it all the time. What an unbelievable realization of God and love and human emotion. What a beautiful way to think of prayer. I love it.

Again, I think you should read this book! Be warned, however, like I said, not all of it is beautiful. In fact it is much more honest to say this is a favorite passage, not a favorite scene. And also I would caution you to read this book and then immediately read the companion to it, Children of God. The Sparrow ends in a very raw way, but the next book actually picks up the story and the redemption of the entire thing can be found.

I have not done this book justice in this blog, it has been such a long time since I have reread this book (add another to my growing list!) and I did not want to give wrong information. My best suggestion is to again tell you, go and read it. It will move you.

Don't forget to check what Karissa chose today!