Magnificat has collected together 10 of its published books, past and present, in order to present them to a new readership. Beautifully illustrated, often with Old Master paintings, and drawing on well-known religious writers, they would make thoughtful, devotional gifts for parish priests, married couples and friends, both inside and outside the faith.
Several of the books have been written by Fr Romanus Cessario, senior editor at Magnificat, including Compassionate Blood: Catherine of Siena on the Passion (£11.60). Catherine, a 14th-century mystic, Dominican laywoman and Doctor of the Church, reminds us, in Cessario’s words, that “the shedding of [Christ’s] compassionate blood causes the transformation that once and forever enters our world on that blessed day that the Church everywhere reveres as ‘Good’.” In his essays the author quotes Flannery O’Connor and Oscar Wilde on the reality of sin, as well as the forceful statement of Catherine herself: “If you want love you must begin by loving.”
Heather King, a regular contributor to the monthly prayer guide Magnificat, draws on her own experiences as a former addict in her penetrating meditations on Gospel passages, Holy Days and Gospel Reflections (£9.10). Taking inspiration from writers such as the two great 20th-century mystics, Caryll Houselander and Simone Weil, she reminds us that Weil, for all her eccentricities and failures, “offered up her wounds, her neuroses, her weaknesses, her motives and her body. She ‘sold’ all that she had and distributed it to the poor. That is more than many of us do.”
Comprising a novena in honour of the priesthood, texts for meditation, essays and devotions, The Year for Priests Companion (£1.60) also includes a memorable quotation from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Writing about his own vocation, he admits: “Since I was diffident and downright impractical, since I had no talent for sports or administration or organisation, I had to ask myself whether I would be able to relate to people. Bound up with this was naturally the question of whether I would be able to remain celibate, unmarried, my whole life long.”
Illustrated appropriately by Fra Angelico’s transcendent paintings of Jesus’s life from the monastery of San Marco in Florence, The Magnificat Rosary Companion (£2.30) has a thought-provoking essay by Fr Peter John Cameron OP, answering the question, why should we pray the rosary? He reminds us that the rosary is a powerful way to contemplate the face of Christ, a source of self-discovery, a sublime encounter of friendship, and a supreme source of comfort and solace.
The Seven Joys of Mary (£9.20) and its companion The Seven Sorrows of Mary (£9.20), both by Fr Cessario, are illustrated with Hans Memling’s The Seven Joys of the Virgin and Giotto’s frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. They are a delight to the eye as well as profound reminders of the most significant stages of Christ’s life.
In his foreword to the first book, Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston tells us that for him “the sixth joy of Mary, one that comes to us from tradition and that I find most engaging, is the appearance of the risen Christ to Mary on Easter”. Although not documented in the Gospels, the mystery is part of ancient, pious tradition. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, in his foreword to the second book, speaks of Mary’s “total, undivided gift of herself to God’s will” and how she and her Son “travel together [in] the school of divine mercy”.
Throughout the Christian centuries, followers of Christ have meditated on his sayings on the Cross. In The Seven Last Words of Jesus (£9.20), illustrated with events from the painted cross with scenes from the Passion by the Master of Rosano, Cessario takes the reader through each of the poignant and profound statements.
In particular I was struck by his essay on the second “word”, Jesus’s response to the Good Thief, known by tradition as St Dismas. Cessario refers to the apocryphal story of Dismas encountering the Holy Family years before on their flight into Egypt and being moved “by the beauty, gentleness and love that radiated from the Mother and her Child”.
The Catholic philosopher and convert Fabrice Hadjadi’s The Resurrection: Experience Life in the Risen Christ (£11.60), with a foreword by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, is wittily dedicated “To the reader of self-hell(p) books, this little book about heaven-help.” Into its pages he brings his own French and Jewish background, his wide reading and his rich understanding of modern culture.
The final two books are by Pope Francis: Love in Marriage (£6.10) and In Him Alone Is Our Hope (£13.20). The first book is partly an explanation of St Paul’s great paean to love in his First Letter to the Corinthians and partly the Holy Father’s own thoughts on conjugal love. Each passage is followed by a reflection and examination of conscience. The second book is composed of “Spiritual Exercises given to his brother bishops in the manner of St Ignatius of Loyola”, first preached to the bishops of Spain.
I have only alluded briefly here to particular aspects of this treasury of books. They all deserve closer reading and reflection.
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