Wake Up with Purpose! by Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt

WAKE UP WITH PURPOSE! by Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, advocate and chaplain to the Loyola University’s men’s basketball team, is subtitled “What I’ve Learned in My First Hundred Years.” Writing with Seth Davis (an award-winning analyst for CBS Sports), Sister Jean reflects on how “having a daily purpose has kept me not only alive but young and vibrant.” She writes about being “a little happier and more productive” by beginning her day with quiet time and mentions the Examen prayer from St. Ignatius of Loyola; here are examples from The Jesuit Institute or The Loyola Press. She shares detail-filled stories of her young life, too. Examples are rooting for Notre Dame football, the day Knute Rockne died, playing girls basketball only a few decades after the game was invented, and even how she was given her religious name. As intended, WAKE UP WITH PURPOSE! is a wonderfully inspirational book and I am curious to compare and contrast Sister Jean’s views with those in the forthcoming book The Well-Lived Life by Gladys McGarey, another centenarian who shares wisdom learned in a long life. Together, they seem to be battling the African proverb Sister Jean found: “When an old person dies, a library closes.”