by Michael Pakaluk on THE CATHOLIC THING

By chance, I picked up Henryk Sienkewicz’s novelQuo Vadisfrom the family bookshelf last week, when I was looking for a next book to read for enjoyment. (How desperately we all need such reading now!)

But it wasn’t really by chance. I asked my guardian angel to guide me, as I often do, and nothing happens by chance anyway. Everything is under God’s providence. So, I thought, I’ll write something about this providential book.

I confess that I chose it against my inclination because, well, it has sold tens of millions of copies; movies have been based on it; and my children have been assigned it in school. Someone might think these are all good reasons to read it. But my personal inclination…