In these three books the Pontiff Emeritus continues to provide insights for the faithful, through a series of reflections.  The most interesting of the three is perhaps learning to believe in which Benedict calls on all the faithful, especially those going through difficult moments in their life or belief, to continue their journal, with what…

Pam Rhodes will be familiar to many as the presenter for many years of Songs of Praise. One of the most genuinely popular religious programmes on television. But she is also the author of some five novels. This book however is the first in a new series, relating the chronicles of a small English town.…

Father Redmond will be familiar to many not only for his many; devotional books, but also for his musical compositions. "It is my hope," he writes "that this book will convey something of the continuity of the crowning act of providence, something of that witnessing appreciation and love" which some of the great spiritual figures…

Mark Patrick Hederman, OSB has already given a wide ranging appreciation in this newspaper of some of the special qualities that characterised the late poet Seamus Heaney, whose passing has been greatly mourned. But there are other things too that might be said about Heaney from the point of view of the literary historian.  …

Croagh Patrick: Irelandís Holy Mountain edited by Harry Hughes  (Croagh Patrick Archaeological Committee, €14.95 / £12.70; Croagh Patrick Visitor Centre, Teach na Miasa, Murrisk, Co. Mayo; email: info@croagh-patrick.com) We are all familiar with the photographs of pilgrimages making their slow way up the slops of Croagh Patrick at the time of the annual pilgrimage. The…

The World of Books

Pyjamas are back in the news again. The reports that a welfare office in Damastown in north Dublin had posted a notice that its clients coming in for interviews were not to wear pyjamas aroused great comment, even though the topic had been well aired in the media when Maya Derrington’s street-smart film Pyjama Girls…