Finding the Peacemakers: A journey of faith from the mines of Chile to the deserts of the Middle East by Dan Morrice (Hodder & Stoughton, £14.99) Anthony Redmond There is so much in this truly extraordinary book, and it covers so much ground and so many subjects, that I find it difficult to know where to…
The Word is Very Near You by Fr Wilfrid Stinissen OCD (Ignatius Press £12.50/€12.00) W e all want a personal relationship with God. But that seems very difficult when, more often than not, he doesn’t speak to us in prayer. He may prompt or console, but verbal communication or physical contact – two essential components to…
The Best of Benedict; An Irish Perspective edited by Dualta Roughneen (One by One Press/Alive Newspaper, available from Knock Shrine Bookshop and Mayo Books, €12.99 plus postage) This is not, as the title might at first suggest, an anthology of the writings of the Pope emeritus. These now span many decades of theological investigation and social comment,…
Easter was never ‘a normal day’. Over the years in these pages we have often stressed the need to use words properly as an aid to clear thinking and so to a better understanding of things. Over recent days I have been struck by the way so many people speak of longing for ‘a normal…
A History of the Church through its Buildings by Alan Doig (Oxford University Press, £30.00) This is an unusual book by an author with unusual talents. Alan Doig studied architecture at King’s College Cambridge, later completing a doctorate in the same field. Having taught history of art for some seven years he was ordained into the Church…
Fortune’s Many Houses: A Victorian Visionary, a Noble Scottish Family, and a Lost inheritance by Simon Welfare (Simon & Schuster, £25.00) Here in Ireland for many people in the early 20th century (and some even now) the Earl and Countess of Aberdeen were figures of folklore among many nationalists, as both Lord Lieutenant Johnny Gordon and…
The Story of Nano Nangle: A Life Lived on the Razor’s Edge by Anne Lyons PBVM (Messenger Publications, $4.95 /£4.50) Anne Lyons has been appointed by the Presentation Order as the postulator to promote the cause of the beatification of the order’s foundress Nano Nagle, who died in 1784. The cause was opened on the bicentenary…
Pope Francis has returned safe and sound, despite the fears of many, from his historic four day trip to Iraq. His visit seems to have deeply affected many both in the country itself and in the wider world. The damage done in the decades since the original American interventions is still very real. But the…
Lord of the World, a novel by Robert Hugh Benson (Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, $15.95/£10.99) In January 2015 during an in-flight interview from Manila to Rome, Pope Francis referred to the ‘ideological colonisation’ of international family-planning agencies and national governments that impose population control as a condition of development aid. The reporter asked what he…
The upswing: How we came together a century ago and how we can do it again by Robert D. Putman with Shalyn Romney Garrett (The Swift Press, £25.00) Frank Litton This is a book for anyone who is interested in the history of the United States of America. Covering the last 125 years, from the ‘Gilded…
Peter Costello