What Jesus Saw from the Crossby AG Sertillanges, Sophia Institute Press, £12
This beautiful series of reflections and meditations, first published in French in 1930, has just been reissued. Its author, a Dominican priest and scholar, was inspired to write it after spending a year in Jerusalem in 1923.
Although utilising the topography of Jerusalem at the time of Christ (there are maps at the front and back of his book), Fr Sertillanges is not writing about archaeology; this is rather a spiritual and poetic work in which his knowledge of Scripture and biblical history has been enhanced by his gifts of the imagination.
In the prologue he states that although the site is changed, “we can recognise and even establish with precision the theatre of the drama”.
Leading the reader through the holy places of Jerusalem, such as the Mount of Olives, the Temple, Fort Antonia and so on, the author reminds us that “greatness is not measured only by dimensions”. Jerusalem, though small compared with other great world cities, through its divine election “becomes the city of the universe and the focus of religious hearts in all ages”.
Sertillanges’s eloquent style superbly evokes the unique drama of the peoples, personalities and places in Jerusalem 2000 years ago. For instance, his description of the “people of Israel” vividly suggests the contradictions of the race into which God chose to be born: “A people at once fearless, turbulent, restless, violent and weak; a nation of idealists and a nation of rebels; a nation of merchants and priests, of small money-lenders and heroes; a people enslaved and kingly; sordid yet protectors of the poor; mean yet superhumanly proud; prophetic yet killing the prophets; faithless in the name of an inflexible faith in their destiny; many times friends to their slaughterers and slaughterers of their friends.”
His psychologically acute portrait of Judas is chilling: “The feeling of his moral desolation appals him”, and Judas’s despair shows that “self-hatred is salutary only when associated with the love of God. Alone it is homicidal; it has the power to destroy everything and it has no power at all to repair.”
What makes this book a classic is its timeless quality: a combination of the author’s intensity of vision, linked to his scholarly understanding of history and theology alongside his evident devotion to his subject. One cannot read it without immeasurably deepening and widening one’s understanding of the mystery of Christ’s Passion, death and Resurrection, as well as the Christian faith that has its origins in this sacred drama.
The Path to Marriageby Markus Graulich and Ralph Weimann, Gracewing, £6.99
Written by two priests who have long experience of lecturing in Rome, this book provides an excellent summary of unchanging Church teaching on marriage as the lifelong union of a man and a woman. Making only a brief allusion to the two recent synods on marriage, the authors concentrate on explaining what sacramental marriage actually consists of and why.
Describing a good marriage as “a really great treasure”, they present the beauty of Catholic teaching, particularly aimed at couples planning to marry and those in marriage preparation courses.
Each chapter looks at the vows taken by the couple and explains what, for example, it means to say “we are ready to accept the children that God may send us”. Significantly, the guide for further reading at the end includes the Church’s two most famous documents on this subject, Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae and John Paul II’s Familiaris Consortio, but not Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia.
The authors point out that ancient pagan Rome, “a stronghold of the multicultural and the multi-religious practices, where adultery, divorce, homosexuality, injustice, evil and so forth were the order of the day”, was gradually changed through the “lived witness of Christian married couples”.
Commenting that modern society is in a similar situation, they state, “All the more urgent is it for the Christian understanding of marriage to be made accessible again.”
The Catholic Survival Guide to Dating and Relationshipsby Mary Beth Bonacci, CTS £2.50
The author of Real Love, a guide to marriage and relationships in the light of Church teaching, Bonacci discusses themes such as how to prepare for love, how to find the right person to marry and how to begin and maintain healthy relationships. Distinguishing between “abstinence” and “chastity”, she shows how sexuality is designed for the context of a loving marriage. Giving talks in schools about the real meaning of chastity convinced her of the “unfulfilled desire for real love”.
Praying the Crucifixby Julien Chilcott-Monk, CTS, £2.50
The author has written a helpful booklet appropriate for Easter. Although he does not draw on the scientific findings concerning that compelling relic, the Holy Shroud of Turin, his meditations on the different features of the crucifix lead the reader into a deeper understanding of the Passion of Christ. Chapters include the label put on the Cross by Pilate and commentary on the shoulders, arms, hands and wounded side of the Redeemer.
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