Madonna - May/June 2007

Faith & Spirituality in Review

Song of Love: the Song of Songs, ed. Renzo Sala, St Paul’s Publications, 2008, 64 pp, hb, rrp $9.95.

Song to Mary: Timeless Marian Prayers, ed. Renzo Sala, St Paul’s Publications, 2008, 64 pp, hb, rrp $9.95.

The Cross: an Australian Journey, Helen Barnes, RSJ, St Paul’s Publications, 2007, 64 pp, hb, rrp $16.95.

We often hear it said that ‘the church has always taught …’ The saying is often true, but it also ignores the struggle that it took for the church to recognise what it teaches. So we are not surprised when we hear it said that we pray with our eyes as well as with our minds. We forget that periodically Christians have tried passionately to take the eyes out of prayer. In the name of faith icons and statues have been destroyed. But despite all, prayer and beautiful images have continued to go together.

These three little works offer delight both to the praying heart and the seeing eye. In his two books Renzo Sala has collected texts we can pray – the Old Testament love poem, the Song of Songs, and the best known liturgical hymns to Mary. These hymns are given both in their original Latin and in a rhymed translation. They are accompanied by brief histories of the texts. The hymns and the Biblical text are accompanied by medieval and Renaissance miniatures. The pages are also decorated with capitals and friezes. The effect is that of medieval manuscripts. They are a joy to the eye as well as the heart.

Sr Helen Barnes takes us on a different journey. Her little book presents the Stations of the Cross. For each of the stations she helps us to enter forms of suffering in today’s Australia. The stations are illustrated by her own paintings, set in the stark world of the desert. Each is accompanied by a few phrases that crystallise its meaning. I could not think of a better book for praying the Station quietly alone.

Gathering with Mary under the Southern Cross, Marie Farrell RSM, St Pauls Publications, 2008, 32 pp, hb, rrp $9.95

During World Youth Day this year thousands of pilgrims will come to Australia from overseas. Part of our task as Australians will be to let them know something about the story of Christianity in Australia and the ways in which our faith has been distinctively weathered by the local sun.

Sr Marie Farrell’s little book tells simply the story of the foundations of the Catholic Church in Sydney and its growth. She explains how Australia came to have Mary Help of Christians as patron, and explores the meaning of this title of Mary. She sets her story against the larger history of indigenous Australia and of the sailors of many nations who first visited it. The book is simply and engagingly written.

The choice of Mary Help of Christians as patron of Australia was influenced by the devotion of Fr Therry, the most significant figure in the beginnings of the Catholic Church in Sydney. He named his first church in her honour.

Wildflower Journey Prayers: A collection of prayers and readings with photography by Jacinta Shailer sgs 80 pp, pb, rrp $24.95.

Rich colour throughout with 125 colour plates Jacinta Shailer’s own writings are complemented by the poetry and prose of writers such as Eugene Stockton, Michael Morwood, Noel Davis, Denis Edwards and Bruce Prewer.

The book is structured in the form of prayers and reflections for a week-long contemplative journey into the wonder and beauty that abounds throughout the land. Each double page is a portrait of image, word and story in exquisite balance.

Towards the end of his life, C. S. Lewis shared his desire to contemplate beauty and whence it came. A. D. Hope mused that ‘In his old age he (the poet) lays aside his art/ And sings now from the fullness of his heart’. There’s a time to let go of trying to express whatever remains beyond the way of words and simply to be present, delighting in the gift of other. Jacinta Shailer’s third volume of work comes from this contemplative space.

The words are there but the images have an eloquence that is both seductive and soul-enhancing. Her artistry evokes the wonder of being one with wondrous land, its beauty and wild spirit, its desert heart and its sea-sculpted fringe of splendour. Jacinta sings from the fullness of her heart of her love of her homeland, its flora, fauna, people. She contemplates their beauty with images that free rather than capture. She reminds us of our own inner beauty and the One behind it all.