A Little Book of Encouragement
edited by Vinita Hampton Wright, adapted from Sacred Space the Prayer Book (Messenger Publications, €9.95)
The items in this book have been adapted from the prayer site, but this book is small enough to fit in a briefcase, pocket or handbag. Here are warm words of encouragement that will lift the heart and sprits on the gloomiest of days and the darkest of nights.
Each piece consists of a gospel passage, a short reflection and prayer, and given by the editor a title which will guide the reader to a piece appropriate for their own situation. For those who value the site in their daily lives, an ideal little book.
A Musical Offering: Essays in honour of Gerald Gillen
edited by Kerry Houston & Harry White (Four Courts Press, €50.00)
Now Professor Emeritus at Maynooth University, Gerald Gillen has been a leading figure in the promotion of church music and in developing the subject as a teacher in both UCD and in Maynooth itself, which has been a centre of church music since the 19th Century. Here, some 17 of his colleagues present a festschrift in his honour, devoted to his range of his interests and activities. They reveal both the intertwining of music and nationalism in Ireland and elsewhere, but also explore important aspects of religious musicology.
The essays fall into five parts, dealing with church music in Ireland, organ music studies, sacred music in the liturgy and performance, and music in cultural history.
There is even an essay on ‘Joyce, Music, and Catholicism’, by Harry White, a topic neglected by those who see Joyce only as a literary figure even though he was a devotee of sacred music and attended when he could solemn Easter ceremonies.
These pieces represent an important contribution to Irish writing about classical and religious music in Ireland, and should find a place in every important library; but also (we suspect) on the shelves of many private working collections.
Correspondence from the Papers of Canon Sheehan of Doneraile
edited by James O’Brien (Smenos Publications, €25.00 / US$45.00)
For those who have already encountered Msgr. O’Brien’s earlier volume of the collected Correspondence of Canon Sheehan, here is a rare item, the letters that were written to the canon himself.
As much as his own letters did, they reveal the range of his contacts across the world, and the even wider range of his interests.
This will be a very valuable adjunct to the materials now available, largely through the hard work and diligence of O’Brien himself, for studying the life and novels of Canon Sheehan.
What is surprising about this dedicated labour of love is that it is not supported by an Irish or American university, but rests on the editor’s shoulders.
Of course, doing it this way ensures that the books are fully under his control, and moreover he is able to restrain the price to be charged.