Books

THROUGH THE YEAR WITH POPE FRANCIS: Daily Reflections, ed. Kevin Cotter

Reviewed by Paul Simmons

Contents - Oct 2015 Pastoral statement: Marriage Reinvented? - Bishop Michael Kennedy Call to action: Call for urgent action on Religious Education Pastoral visit: Pope Francis’ subtle challenge to Barack Obama - AD2000 Report Pastoral visit: Positive outcome of Pope Francis’ visit to Cuba - AD2000 Report APREL: Wake up the world - Religious Life back on the map - Anne Reeves Russia: Church and State in contemporary Russia - Fr Lawrence Cross Hebrew Catholics: “Salvation comes from the Jews” (John 4:22) - Andrew Sholl The Rosary: The Luminous Mysteries explained - Audrey English Letters: Audrey English responds to Dr Mobbs ... - Audrey English Letters: A further response to Dr Mobbs ... - Anne Lastman Letters: What is eternal life? - Francis Vrijmoed Letters: The rights of children - Robert Bom Books: ABORTION AND MARTYRDOM, edited by Aidan Nichols OP - Paul Simmons (reviewer) Books: HOW THE REFORMATION HAPPENED, by Hilaire Belloc - Paul Simmons (reviewer) Books: THROUGH THE YEAR WITH POPE FRANCIS: Daily Reflections, ed. Kevin Cotter - Paul Simmons (reviewer) Reflection: Fruit of the Garden - Anne Lastman

Daily reflections of Pope Francis

THROUGH THE YEAR WITH POPE FRANCIS:
Daily Reflections
Edited by Kevin Cotter
(Our Daily Visitor. PB 383pp. ISBN 978 1 61278 766 4. Available from Freedom Publishing. Rec. Price: $33.90)

This book is a series of daily quotations, taking short extracts of homilies and addresses given by Pope Francis, then with a reflection added by the Editor. There are 365 of them: one for every day of the year.

It is a useful book to encourage us to think about our faith, and how we must respond to the challenges of faith in our lives.

From the book we also get an insight into the thinking of the Holy Father: his radical commitment to the poor and underprivileged, his sense of his own unworthiness, and his willingness to ask the hard questions which most us would prefer not to think about.

In this sense, it is an uncomfortable book, but one which forces us to think more deeply about how we are to live out our faith in today’s world: in our families, our schools, our workplaces, our offices and farms.

Through the Year with Pope Francis also comes with a valuable index, for finding that particular comment or quotation. This would make a good Christmas present for anyone wanting to have a book of daily reflections for 2016.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 28 No 9 (October 2015), p. 10