The Gaze of Love
by Ruth Patterson
(Veritas, €14.99)
Ruth Patterson is an Ulster Presbyterian minister long associated with the Restoration Ministries, who have worked in the North as well as elsewhere since the 1980s, in a non-denominational way to promote not just peace and reconciliation, but also healing.
But the key to this healing Rev. Patterson suggests lies in “the gaze of love”: God’s eternal love for each individual. This love of God for the person can be transformed into our love for others. It is a warm and encouraging book, written in an intimate and engaging manner. Her work and outlook have drawn the admiration of such different writers as Jean Vanier and Fr Richard Rohr. For many readers their recommendation will be spur enough to read her book.
Is anyone sick among you?: Family Prayers in Times of Illness
by Fr Kevin J. Scallon and Jacqueline Grchan
(Veritas, €7.99)
This little book is the work of an experienced minster and his personal assistant, the mother of eight children and grandmother of one grandchild. Between them they have seen and experienced many of the pains associated with illness within the family. It contains new prayers, reflections and long familiar prayers, especially for those whose illness is moving towards a closure of life.
These days the care of the ill has become very professionalised. But sometimes while treating the patient medical workers can be indifferent to the person. Following an accident a relative of the reviewer was deprived of his speech by a botched tracheotomy. But when I suggested he would like to see the chaplain I was told that as he had not requested this it could not be done. It was then and remains now a disturbing episode. Here, however, for families who may have similar feelings or experiences is a little book of comfort at what can be especially trying times.
1916 Surrenders
The review of 1916 Surrenders: Captain H. E. de Courcy-Wheeler’s Eye-Witness Account, by Alex Findlater, which appeared in our June 9 issue, was written by the Rev. Robert Marshall. Due to an editorial oversight, his name was dropped from the copy, for which we apologise. The book, we might remind interested readers, was edited by A & A Farmar and is produced by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, and costs €11.99).
