Books

A YEARBOOK OF SEASONS AND CELEBRATIONS, by Joanna Bogle

Reviewed by Eric Hester

Contents - Feb 2008 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Can Catholic schools recover their 'salt' - Michael Gilchrist Spe salvi: Benedict's second encyclical calls for a rediscovery of hope in Christ - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Grace under fire: ordinations, and first Holy Communion in Iraq - Babette Francis Technical school: Salesians continue to help post-tsunami Sri Lanka - Michael Lynch SDB Paganism: 'New Age' activities continue in Brisbane Archdiocese - Tim Pemble-Smith A remarkable father remembered - Maria Rankin How to reform Catholic education: get the world view right - Chris Hilder The need for solitude and reflection amid today's cacophony - Andrew Kania What the social reign of Christ means today - Bishop Peter Elliott Letters: Dissent - Frank White Letters: Natural Law - Fr Bernard McGrath Letters: New look Mass - Jessie Roger Letters: Virgin Birth - Eamonn and Pat Keane Letters: True Church - John Frey Letters: 'Schoolies' - Fr. M. Durham Letters: Poor communication - Don Gaffney Letters: Vatican II - Anthony Bono Letters: From India - Fr. A. Alex Prabhu Books: NO PLACE FOR GOD: The Denial of the Transcendent in Modern Church Architecture - Tony Evans (reviewer) Books: WHEN MIGHT BECOMES HUMAN RIGHT:Essays on Democracy and the Crisis of Rationality - Tim Cannon (reviewer) Books: A YEARBOOK OF SEASONS AND CELEBRATIONS, by Joanna Bogle - Eric Hester (reviewer) Books: Books available from AD2000 and Freedom Publishing Reflection: Devotion to Our Lady: eclipse and revival - Br Barry Coldrey

A YEARBOOK OF SEASONS AND CELEBRATIONS
by Joanna Bogle
(Freedom Publishing/Gracewing, 2007, 112pp, $19.95. Available from Freedom Publishing)

If joy be a sure sign of true Catholicism, as it must be, then the truest Catholic is Joanna Bogle, as she surely is. This book radiates joy on every page, and the pages cover the year.

Those who know Joanna Bogle's weekly columns in The Catholic Times will know what to expect and they will have another treat. Quite simply, the book goes through the whole year and gives a background to the various feasts so that the feasts can be celebrated now in a practical way. The book is not antiquarian (though it contains much living history) and contains, for example, plenty of recipes which are, I am informed on the best of authority, that of my wife, accurate, easy to follow and producing of delicious food.

As Joanna announces, 'The books is unashamedly Christian' and yet it is in a climate she describes well where there is 'a widespread concern that marriages and families today seem fragile É and often Church spokesmen seem timid in the face of a public culture that is not merely indifferent to Christianity and its values but actively opposed to it.'

Well, Joanna is not timid. She is kind and full of fun but is a thorough-going Catholic with nothing of the milk-and-water about her.

Family-centred

Her joy in Catholicism is matched by her joy in the family: this is very much a family-centred book. She dedicates the book, by name, to four of her nieces and Joanna herself is like an auntie to the Catholic Church in England, just as the late Sir John Betjeman was described as the Teddy Bear to the nation. I know of no feminine equivalent in English to 'avuncular' but whatever it might be it would describe Joanna Bogle. Her blog is called 'Auntie Joanna writes'.

This is a book to be kept in the kitchen, the heart of the house, and it is a book that will gather stains on the cover as it is used in practical situations for cooking, making models or holding while conducting a game or reciting a rhyme. It would be worth buying just for some of its appendices - Christmas and Lenten quizzes, with answers, and a superb list of recommended books for children.

This book will make a wonderful Christmas present for Christians of any age. Since Joanna Bogle writes for the family, then this book is not age- limited: it would make a welcome present for children, or grandparents, or anyone in between. I should like to think that every Catholic family, and every Catholic school, would have at least one copy. One of our own copies will by the side of my practical wife in the kitchen and the other will be by my bed because, with everything else, the book makes an admirable bedside book.

Eric Hester is an English Catholic journalist.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 21 No 1 (February 2008), p. 18