Good news for all

Where the Heart Is: How the Gospel Transforms Our Lives

by Bishop Donal Murray

(Veritas, €12.99)

This new book by the retired Bishop of Limerick might be read as response to or an application of what Pope Francis was imparting in his apostolic exhortation Evangelli Gaudium. The central idea for both the Pope and Dr Murray is the transforming nature of the Gospel; literarily its words can (if fully absorbed and inwardly digested) make a total difference in people’s lives. 

At every Mass Catholics hear and read for themselves the words of the Gospels. Many have read their way through the texts for themselves, or with a group. We can see in the world around just how taking the Gospel to heart has transformed many individuals, and so transformed society and creation.

Yet it is, alas, also obvious that the Sunday readings have on other days of the week little application. This should not be a matter for despair. In his book Dr Murray is hoping that his readers will become Gospel readers, that they will find by absorption just what the Gospel message they have heard spoke about since their childhoods, can really mean.

All too often people complain that there seems to be no ‘good news’ to be heard from the wider world around them when they turn on the TV or radio. But the Gospel is quite literally “the Good News” that they really ought to be attending to. 

Then perhaps those other forms of news would change as people applied what they have read and claim to believe.

The use of the word ‘heart’ (rather than ‘mind’) in the title is intentional. For all through the books an emphasis is laid on the heart with the emotional and loving access to the message and to its vital effect on people. The Gospels go the heart of the matter.

At the heart of Dr Murray’s book is chapter six on ‘The Heart of Morality’. So often morality is talked about by many in a reproof to others. But in fact morality, Dr Murray points out, should be rooted in love. So often it is not. But that is one aspect that the application of the Gospels would change

Written in an accessible and inspiring way, many will find in these pages many insights of immense value. It should not be missed, for it carries a vital message for all.