Bread Grows in Winter

Ida Friederike Görres was one of the brightest, most penetrating Catholic writers in twentieth-century Europe. Bishop Erik Varden has called her “a treasure we should again make our own”, while Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), at her funeral, labeled her a “brave and faithful woman”, with “an insightful certainty . . . about the pressing questions and tasks of the Church today”. Yet her work is almost entirely unknown in the English-speaking world today.

The time has come to discover Ida Görres. This collection of vibrant, piercing, often wry essays were written in the tumultuous years surrounding Vatican II, when “demolition troops” bent on destruction mingled with saints like Karol Wojtyła. Rising out of this confusion, Görres, with her colorful style, reveals the raw, majestic splendor of the Catholic Church, which is more craggy, complex, and solid than any Alpine mountain.

If you think you have fallen out of love with Catholicism, read Bread Grows in Winter, a brutally honest yet poetically inspired meditation on the heart of the faith. Originally published in 1970, it is perhaps more important today than ever. Can we still trust the “leaky ship” of the Church? Yes, we can, and yes, we must.

Ida Friederike Görres (1901–1971) was the author of several outstanding works on saints and sanctity, including John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed, and her most acclaimed book, The Hidden Face: A Study of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.