Tired of all the Bad News
by Fr Bryan Shortall (Columba, €12.99)
This might be just the book for The Donald when he feels particularly hard done by. But Fr Bryan, a Capuchin, while accepting that we seem to live in a period suffused by negativity, not just in the news but in life, has other answers.
He draws what he has to say from the real experiences of his parishioners in inner Northside Dublin, suffused with insights from Scripture and theology. The pieces are all short, easily read in a minute or two, making it ideal for that quick morning touch-base with faith. Here is a book from which every reader, whatever their circumstances, whatever their status in life, will be able to draw something vital for living today in the real world.
Something Within: Reflections and Sketches
by Nollaig O’Donnell (Veritas, €8.99)
This is a very personal book, a collections of thoughts, poems and drawings through which new writer Nollaig O’Donnell expresses her love and appreciation for her world and all the little joys and experiences that are in which she wants to share with her readers though her writing. She makes effective use of a sort of haiku form, into which those moments of life are intensely recorded.
This may look like a little book, but it is filled with a lot of life, observations and feeling, for the world, for others and for God.
Love One Another As I Have Loved You: Prayers, meditations and Reflections in Family Love
by Gareth Byrne(Veritas, €4.99)
In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis developed for his readers his thoughts on the theme of love and the family. In this little booklet, Dr Gareth Byrne, a priest of the Dublin diocese who directs the Mater Dei Centre for Catholic Education, introduces materials which will help his readers draw from the Pope’s thoughts their own reflections, influenced by his challenging ideas.
He has in mind that the World Meeting of Families will be hosted by Ireland in the summer of 2018. To gain the most out of the occasion he feels Irish Catholics (and others) should make thoughtful and prayerful preparations. This booklet will be of assistance to many in that aim. It is made up of brief but focussed extracts from the scriptures, from papal documents, from the writings of such people as Jean Vanier, and ordinary folk here and there.
These texts are intended to provide both a challenge and a comfort. In this they succeed very well.
Studies An Irish Quarterly Review, Winter 2016 / 2017
(Messenger Publications, €10.00)
Over recent years Studies, now in its 105th volume, has presented themed issues. This latest number represents, though subtitled ‘Framing the News’, a slight break with that format. There are several article on the news, how it is made, how it is presented, what it does. But more general and assorted articles make a welcome return, the most striking being one on a trip Yeats planned to Taiwan.