Faith & Spirituality in Review
Life of Jesus in Icons from the Bible of Tbilisi, commentary by Francis J. Moloney, St Paul’s, Strathfield, 2008, 144 pp, hb, rrp XXX.
Icons are part of Christian history. We associate them instinctively with the Eastern churches. The icons featured in this book come from a small Western church in Georgia. There a small Latin Christian minority lives alongside the large national Eastern church.
The book, which reproduces the images in the Church of Mary of the Assumption in Tbilisi, is an attempt to find common ground between the churches. The icons decorate the church walls, and tell the major stories of the gospels.
Frank Moloney, the noted Salesian Biblical scholar, contributes an introduction to the significance of icons. He also comments helpfully on the New Testament passages represented in the icons. To help reflection, each icon is accompanied by passages from the early church writers that describe the gospel stories. These writers had a rich sense of symbolism, and they often take us where description fails us.
The book will help Western Catholics to reflect on the rich tradition the East has given us through its icons. It will also encourage them to remember the church of Georgia. Icons point us to a world and to hopes beyond our smaller world. So these icons may also lead us to pray for a Christian unity that embraces what is good in all our church traditions.
The Miracles of Mary: Everyday encounters of beauty and grace, Bridget Curran, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2008, 224 pp, pb, rrp $22.95.
My earliest memories of Our Lady are of a small picture on the mantelpiece. That for me was how Mary looked. Devotion to Mary is like that—it is bound to place and also to local communities, like families.
In her book that describes over thirty apparitions and miracles of Mary, Bridget Curran, a young writer from Perth, very sensibly allows the stories to speak for themselves. She writes clear and engaging descriptions of events connected with Mary, and accompanies them with the words of contemporaries who have been touched by them.
When you read so many stories from so many parts of the world, you are struck by how they are local dramas. They describe particular places and engage particular communities. Our Lady seems to appear to people who are at the margins of their communities and makes them deal with the centres—with parish priests, mayors, bishops.
The apparitions initially put them even more outside. But eventually the outcome vindicates their faith, and an often divided community is brought together around a place where they can express their faith. The apparitions are about holy places. Indeed, the places were often sacred to other religions even before Mary appeared there.
My favourite story in this book is of Our Lady of Guadeloupe. At a time when theologians were asked seriously to discuss whether the native Mexican Indians had souls (they could be exploited more profitably if they did not), it was extraordinary that the image of an Indian Mary could be made the emblem of the Mexican church through the work of a poor Indian peasant.
Australian Religious Diary 2009, 132 pp, hb, rrp $32.00
The ideal companion for the Madonna reader, with the details of the liturgical readings for every day of the year, together with saints days, celebrations for other Christian churches and Jewish and Muslim feasts, public holidays and United Nations days. Beautifully illustrated with images from the 2008 Blake Prize for Religious Art.
Religious Life and Priesthood, Maryanne Confoy (Rediscovering Vatican II series) New York: Paulist Press, 2008, 432 pp, pb, rrp $39.95.
Many of us think of Vatican II as a dream from which we awoke long ago in our past. The Paulist series of which this book forms part reminds us that the winds of the Council still blow, sometimes violently sometimes unnoticed, through the doors of the church.
The effects of the Council can be seen clearly in its documents on the priesthood and religious life. They are generally judged to be among the most disappointing of the Council. But Maryanne Confoy’s study of them shows how they have shaped church life since the Council.
Sr Maryanne Confoy teaches Pastoral Theology in Melbourne, and has encouraged a generation of women who work in ministry to the Christian churches. Her wide experience in pastoral ministry and in preparing people for ministry enables her to bring much wisdom to her reflection on the Vatican II documents.
She treats each document by looking first at its background. Then she studies the emphases and the controversies reflected in the text, and the way in which the document has been used after the Council. She concludes briefly by looking at the relevant challenges facing the Catholic Church today. Her readers will learn something of the history of the document, and come to a richer understanding of the often heated debates which are still heard today.
If you think that the Vatican Council is dead and buried, this book will persuade you otherwise. We should not hope to sleep dream-free.
I Wish I Were A Leper, Vince O’Rourke, Lumino Press, pb, 216 pp, rrp $29.95. Available from www.orourke.pbwiki.com.
This remarkable book is the story of a couple as they moved through the debilitating phases of Alzheimer’s disease. It is a story of courage and despair, hope and doubt, rage and circumspection, dignity and compassion. Above all it is a powerful love story.
Vince O’Rourke is a daily journal writer. The book poignantly tells the story of his wife Margaret and the early onset of Alzheimer’s soon after his retirement as the chief executive officer of Brisbane Catholic Education. Vince‘s reflection is gripping, very moving and deeply honest.
Here we have a couple who are moving into a phase of life where they hope to ‘live happily ever after’ their lives of a demanding public career and a supportive home-making role. Too soon they are thrust into the chaos and turmoil of a journey into the unknown, where the reality of a debilitating and life-terminating disease all but snuffs out this hope.
The book is an invaluable insight into Alzheimer’s. It offers significant and accessible commentary for those who are carers and of what may lie ahead for them and those who share the journey with them and the Alzheimer sufferer.
I recommend this book as a very practical, well-written account for those seeking understanding about Alzheimer’s disease (or any other debilitating disease), for carers and for those who care about them (Damien F Brennan).
Young Men Rise Up, Ken Barker MGL, Connor Court Publishing, 2008, 172 pp, pb, rrp $22.95.
It is not easy to write books for young men, particularly books that commend Christian faith. The writer needs to show an understanding of the way in which contemporary young men think and find a language that speaks easily to them and speaks truly of faith.
Fr Ken Barker, the moderator of the Missionaries of God’s Love, meets these challenges splendidly. He has spent his life engaging with young people. The number of young people attracted both to the Missionaries and to the Disciples of Jesus witness to their message.
In this book he explains what it means for young men to live a virtuous Christian life. It may seem rather old fashioned to speak of virtues, but they form an excellent framework for exploring high aspirations against the cultural world in which young men live today. He quotes tellingly the experience of young men, and offers a good range of role models.
A realistic, firm and encouraging account of what Christian life means for young men.
