Pilgrimage: Journeys with Meaning by Peter Stanford (Thames & Hudson, £25.00/€30.00 approx.) Peter Stanford, a former editor of The Catholic Herald, is also the author of a long series of books that explore aspects of Christianity from a Catholic point of view which manage to appeal to a wide audience through his skill in making the often…
Raymond Chandler once said there were only seven plots. Everything else was just variations on a theme. The idea came back to me as I watched the French thriller In the Shadow of Iris (Netflix). It starts interestingly enough with a kidnapping but there are so many convolutions in the storyline afterwards I lost interest…
I could probably fill the whole paper with reviews of all the religious programmes on over the Easter season – the media tend to put in an extra effort at Easter. RTÉ’s coverage of the ceremonies was impressive. The Mass of the Lord’s Supper (RTÉ One) on Holy Thursday was a memorable event. Fr Martin…
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…
While googling for something recently the name Mirella Freni popped up on screen. It rang a bell immediately as it recalled Wexford 1962. She was making her festival debut as Elvira in Bellini’s I Puritani. I was attending my first Wexford production. Getting there was not without difficulty. A car had to be borrowed. A…
It was a great sign of hope to see churches opening for Mass in the North on Friday. Newsline (BBC One NI, Friday) reported from a lunchtime Mass at St Mary’s Church in Belfast describing it as “a small landmark along a difficult journey” – an understatement! One churchgoer said it was “the most important…
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…
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Ruadhán Jones