November 21, 2004
You might be surprised to know I have just had an experience to
having a baby born in the family. This is the experience of having a new book
delivered from the printers. I’ve been through it about 20 times and it
is very much like receiving a baby; you’ve done all the work for months
and then you send the manuscript away. You usually hear little or nothing from
the publisher and then suddenly you open an envelope and there is the baby new
and smiling at you.
The book this time is ‘Praying to Our Lord Jesus Christ - prayers and
meditations through the centuries’. I worked on this book while I was
in the hospital because I wanted to do something effective to promote devotion
to our Lord Jesus Christ. Having walked up to the hour of death on two or three
occasions I was deeply aware as I recovered consciousness and awareness that
it was to Jesus that I owed my life. I had seen Gibson’s film shortly
before I had my accident. I was profoundly aware that Christ had suffered and
died for my salvation and – suffered horribly. I was too ill to write
a prose account and so I looked through my notes for a big book I have been
writing for years on devotion to Our Lord Jesus Christ. With the help of my
faithful editor Charles Pendergast I was able to assemble this book and write
the commentaries that link the 20 centuries of Christian history together. Unfortunately
skeptical approaches to sacred scripture and Catholic theology have tended to
undermine devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only is there a rich goldmine
of devotion by Catholic saints but an amazing and unrecognized parallel between
Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox devotion that I hope to bring out in my next
book. If you have a chance you may appreciate this labor of love to Christ.
It should be available on the friar’s website immediately and in bookstores
in a couple of weeks. (Praying to Our Lord Jesus Christ, Ignatius Press, San
Francisco, 2004. $12)
________________________________________________________________________________
www.franciscanfriars.com |
comments:
father benedict @
franciscanfriars.com |
