Ancient Devotions To The Sacred Heart Of Jesus by Carthusian Monks of the XIV-XVII centuries

Hardback: The Psalmist wrote: "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:10). 

Coming from the deep silence and asceticism of mediæval Carthusian monasteries, this book's prayers and meditations have a unique ardour that reflects the genuine spirituality of their authors. 

In these days, overshadowed by so many fears and disquietened by so many preoccupations, it is by contemplating the Sacred Heart of our Divine Lover that we ourselves may hope to find therein a source of perfect trust and a sure refuge for our souls.

The piety of these monks, strongly grounded in Sacred Scripture and the early Fathers of the Church, cannot fail to impress and to inspire. 

Like that of Jesus, Carthusian prayer, but also any authentic prayer, is anchored in interiority, solitude and silence.

Jesus goes off to a deserted place, under the sole gaze of the Father. 

And in this solitude and this silence, He formed His disciples.

Our Lady Of Silence: The Devotion Of Pope Francis by Father Emiliano Antenucci

Paperback: Pope Francis has often spoken about the damage we can do by speaking ill of others and about the value of listening to God in the silence of our hearts.

The icon of the Mother of God with her finger pressed to her lips has been placed in a prominent position in the Vatican offices by the Holy Father.

In this booklet published in 2020, Fr Emiliano Antenucci gives a brief history of the meaning behind this icon, followed by a rich selection of devotions to Our Lady of Silence, enabling to us to pray this devotion with the Holy Father.

The cover image of this booklet is the icon of Our Lady of Silence by the Benedictine nuns of S Giulio d'Orta.

About the author: Fr Emiliano Antenucci is a Capuchin from Vasto, Italy. He is an author and retreat leader specialising in the spirituality of Christian silence. For more information, visit www.verginedelsilenzio.org

The Phoenix Of Rennes: The Life And Poetry Of John Of St Samson 1571-1636 by Robert Stefanotti

Hardback: Long considered the French John of the Cross, John of St Samson, the blind Carmelite mystic of Rennes is virtually unknown to the English speaking world. 

And, more remarkable still, his extensive body of poetry has never been studied in any language. 

The Phoenix Of Rennes (1994) presents both the man and his work so that, phoenix-like, he rises up from the ashes of time.

About the author: Dr Robert Stefanotti, a Roman Catholic priest in the Carmelite Order, is the Executive Director of the North American Carmelite Institute (Washington, DC). He has published numerous articles and reviews both in historical theology and contemporary art and lectures annually at the Gregorian University (Rome) and at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Vowels In Order

I'm Better Than Everyone

Encountering God In The Abyss: Titus Brandsma's Spiritual Journey by Constant Dölle

Paperback: Born on a Frisian farm in the province of Holland, Titus Brandsma (1881-1942) entered the novitiate of the Carmelites in Boxmeer. On his journey, he cultivated the spiritual garden of his cell in order to dwell in the face of his Creator. Becoming a scholar of philosophy and mysticism, Titus Brandsma was concentrated on the depths of human existence, but his contemplation gave him a broad view of reality and made him discover ever new horizons. 

Although a university professor, he was a productive journalist, engaged in questions of culture and education. Prophet of peace and justice, Brandsma defended from the beginning the Jews against Nazi ideology. During the German occupation of Holland he took a strong stand in favour of the freedom of the press. For him the dignity of the human person could never be sacrificed for ideological and political reasons. 

As a result he became a martyr in the concentration camp in Dachau.

Encountering God in the Abyss (2002) is translated from the Dutch by John Vriend.

About the author: Fr Constant Dölle was also from Friesland. Titus Brandsma loved to stop by at the Dölles to talk with Constant's mother. Constant Dölle, seven years old at the time, saw a simple man who inspired confidence, who had an interest in the family and was good to have contact with. Looking back, he said:

    He is a person you can absolutely trust. That is possible only if that person believes in God. For then he can surrender himself, let himself go, and say: 'let things happen as You want them to.' With such a person, you can take your chances, because he does not give priority to his own interests. With a person like that you will never end up holding the bag.

He was ordained to the priesthood on 12 July 1942 and celebrated his first mass on the first Sunday in August of that year. On that Sunday they learned that Titus Brandsma had died in Dachau on 26 July. Although Dölle never became a Brandsma specialist, Titus did play a role throughout his entire life. Yet it is no accident that he learned to know Titus Brandsma in his youth and has now written a book about him. He himself calls this "a kind of divine dispensation by which things happen as they do."

    I marvel at the fact that I also became a Carmelite 'by accident.' In 1985, I 'accidentally' wrote my first book about Titus Brandsma. The person who had been assigned to do this for the beatification said: 'I dread this job and feel sick about the whole thing.' Then the authorities got me involved and the job had to be done in three months. Nor was it my idea to write a book about him now. Things regularly come my way from others.

In fact, a short time after he started writing the present book, Fr Constant Dölle slowly became almost completely blind. In that way, writing Titus Brandsma's biography became a process of reconciling himself to his own situation of aging and becoming blind, and a spiritual process which yielded insight.

The Power Of Being Alone

 

Writing Should Make You Money With The Labour You Have To Put In

Some Literary Collective Nouns

 

The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Daré

Paperback: See? I tell you Adunni, even if you marry my father and you think all your hope is finish, your mind is not finishing. Inside of your mind, you can be the teacher you want. You like to be reading books, so feed your mind with reading of any book you find, maybe in the dustbins of Idanra town or some cheap ones in the market. - Chapter 12, The Girl with the Louding Voice

The Girl with the Louding Voice (2020) is shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2020. It is an instant New York Times bestseller, an Observer Hottest Tipped Debut Novel 2020, a 'Read with Jenna' Today Show Book Club Pick, a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by The New York Times, Marie Claire, BBC, Vogue, Essence, PopSugar, Daily Mail, Electric Literature, Red Magazine, Stylist, Daily Kos, Library Journal, The Every Girl and Read It Forward and the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize.

As the only daughter of a broke father, fourteen-year-old Adunni is a valuable commodity. Removed from school and sold as a third wife to an old man, Adunni's life amounts to this: four goats, two bags of rice, some chickens and a new TV. 

When unspeakable tragedy swiftly strikes in her new home, she is secretly sold as a domestic servant in the wealthy enclaves of Lagos, where no one will talk about the strange disappearance of her predecessor, Rebecca. No one but Adunni.

As a yielding daughter, a subservient wife, and a powerless servant, Adunni is repeatedly told that she is nothing. But Adunni would not be silenced. She is determined to find her voice - in a whisper, in song, in broken English - until she can speak for herself, for the girls like Rebecca who came before, and for all the girls who will follow. 

The Girl with the Louding Voice is a simultaneously heartbreaking and triumphant tale about the power of fighting for your dreams.

About the author: Abi Daré grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and has lived in the UK for eighteen years. She studied law at the University of Wolverhampton and has an MSc in International Project Management from Glasgow Caledonian University as well as an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University of London. The Girl with the Louding Voice won The Bath Novel Award for unpublished manuscripts in 2018 and was also selected as a finalist in 2018 The Literary Consultancy Pen Factor competition. Abi lives in Essex with her husband and two daughters, who inspired her to write her debut novel.

Rating: 5/5

The Way of Perfection by St Teresa of Ávila

Paperback: This classic of the interior life and Christian mysticism remains as fresh and inspiring today as it was 400 years ago. Written by a prominent sixteenth-century Spanish mystic and Carmelite nun, it forms a practical guide to prayer that embraces readers with its warmth and accessibility.

St Teresa of Ávila's detailed directions on the achievement of spiritual perfection designate three essentials - fraternal love, detachment from material things and true humility. 

She discusses a variety of maxims related to the practice of prayer and concludes with a thought-provoking commentary on the Lord's Prayer (Paternoster).

A work of sublime mystical beauty, The Way of Perfection is above all a treatise of utter simplicity that offers lucid instruction to all seekers of a more meaningful way of life.

The Way of Perfection is edited and translated by E Allison Peers. This Dover edition, first published in 2012, is an unabridged republication of The Way of Perfection from The Complete Works of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Volume II, originally published in 1946 by Sheed and Ward, New York and London.

About the author/saint: Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582), also called St Teresa of Jesus, was a Spanish nun and one of the great mystics and religious women of the Roman Catholic Church. She was the leader of the Carmelite Reform, which restored and emphasized the austerity and contemplative character of this religious order. Canonized in 1622, she was elevated to Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970, the first woman to be so honoured.

Guidance To Heaven: On The Catholic View Of Life by Cardinal Giovanni Bona

Paperback: It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment. - Hebrews 9:27

Never in any other book, perhaps, has an author held up a mirror to human life so well as Cardinal Bona has done in the 17th-century classic Guidance to Heaven (1658).

If the reader derived no other value from this book than the realisation we are each one going to die - we know not when - and pass to our real life which will last for all eternity, and that our every waking hour of this one should be a preparation for that one, then a reading of this book would have been for him of ultimate value - the best thing he ever did.

Starting with a stark analysis of just what human life is and of our completely tenuous grasp on it, the author then proceeds to analyze each of the major vices we must conquer and the virtues we must acquire if we are to save our souls.

The unique contribution of Cardinal Bona in Guidance to Heaven is that he outlines starkly the Catholic attitude of philosophy about the nature and purpose of human life - which ultimately determines a person's whole course of action during his time on earth.

Though recreation has its place in our lives, as he acknowledges - and is even essential for successful living - nonetheless, we are basically not here on earth just to play and enjoy ourselves, as many people do, but to prepare ourselves for our real life in eternity. And that eternity for us can begin at any time - we know not when. Our only guarantee is that begin it shall, one day, and maybe for us very soon.

The Cardinal's great message is: "Do not live your life in fear of death because you are not prepared to die. Rather, live your life in anticipation of death - which will be your grand entrance into true life, true happiness - because you are ready for it, because you are prepared, because you have so lived that you are ready to go and be with God!"

Guidance to Heaven is translated from the Italian by Fr Andrew Byrne. The present edition of Guidance to Heaven is a careful adaptation for modern usage of Fr Andrew Byrne's 1852 translation of Cardinal Giovanni Bona's Manuductio ad coelum (1658), published by James Duffy and Sons, London in 1881 (third edition) under the title, The Hand That Leads To Heaven.

About the author: Cardinal Giovanni Bona, Italian Cistercian, cardinal, liturgist and devotional author, was born in 1609 to an old French family at Piedmont, Italy. Though his father wanted him to pursue a military career, Giovanni became a Cistercian instead and worked for fifteen years at Turin. He later became a superior general in Rome and modestly refused the Bishopric of Asti. He was eventually made a cardinal in 1669 by Pope Clement IX. Giovanni's literary works include An Easy War to God, Principia et Documenta Vitae Christianae, and Manuductio ad Caelum, the latter often compared to Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ on account of simplicity of the style in which the solid doctrine is taught. He died in Rome in 1674.

Letters From The Desert (Anniversary Edition) by Carlo Carretto

Paperback: Why? Why is the All-Powerful silent? Why doesn't he kill Herod? But this is the point: it is necessary to live by faith. Flee into Egypt, become exiles and refugees, let cruelty and injustice triumph. And so it will be until the end of time. - Carlo Carretto

In December 1954, at the age of 44, after a prominent career as a schoolteacher and Catholic activist working at national level in his native Italy, Carlo Carretto was summoned by a voice that said: "Leave everything, come with me into the desert. I don't want your action any longer, I want your prayer, your love."

Carretto responded by leaving for the deserts of North Africa, where he joined the Little Brothers of Jesus (founded in the 1930s) and embraced the example of Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916). He spent the next ten years as a desert hermit. 

Among the fruits of Brother Carlo's response was Letters from the Desert (1964), the first and most popular of his many books. Its affirmative message has inspired countless readers in a dozen languages. Simply, it reminds us that in the evening of our lives, we will be judged by love.

Letters from the Desert was first translated and published in English in 1972. This new edition, thirty years after their original English publication, is testimony to the staying power of this profoundly powerful spiritual master who has known both national fame and religious obscurity.

About the author: Born and raised in northern Italy, as a youth, Carretto joined the lay movement Catholic Action.  For twenty years he worked to spread the religious and social justice message of the Gospels in and around Fascist Italy.

In 1954, he felt the desert call and set out for the Sahara.  In El Abiodh, a remote Algerian outpost, he entered the novitiate of the Little Brothers of Jesus, a community of desert contemplatives based on the spirituality of Saint Francis of Assisi that had been founded by de Foucauld in the 1930s. Monastic austerity and silent adoration were to be combined with a life of humble labor, friendship, and solidarity with one's immediate neighbours.

A decisive moment - a "cut" - occurred when Carretto burned the address book containing the contact information for thousands of his friends back in Italy. He stayed for ten years as a hermit: translating the Bible into Bedouin, sitting for hours before the Blessed Sacrament in prayer.

At last he left the Sahara, returned to his hometown, and went to visit his beloved mother, who, for more than thirty years, had been living an active life, crowded with family, social, and parish responsibilities. Perhaps the surest sign of Carretto's sanctity is this: he recognized that, for all his time in the desert, his mother was at least the contemplative that he was.

The letters he had sent back were published as Letters from the Desert, his first book, in 1964 in Italy. A bestseller, the book was translated and published in English in 1972. In it, he observed, "Jesus is the 'Holy One of God.' But the Holy One of God realized his sanctity not in extraordinary life, but one impregnated with ordinary things: work, family and social life, obscure human activities, simple things shared by all men. The perfection of God is cast in a material which men almost despise, which they don't consider worth searching for because of its simplicity, its lack of interest, because it is common to all men."

Soon after returning to Italy, Carretto was asked to oversee a group of hermitages the Little Brothers had established near Assisi.  He stayed for the rest of his life, welcoming the flocks of pilgrims who came to learn about prayer and reflection, and writing a dozen or so more books. It was there, in 1988, after a long illness, that he died at the age of 78.

My Passport

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), French Writer, Intellectual, Existentialist Philosopher, Political Activist, Feminist and Social Theorist

No Lockdown Regrets

The Liar (Eddie Flynn Series) by Steve Cavanagh

Paperback: The Liar won the 2018 Dagger Awards Best Book and is the third book in the Eddie Flynn legal series set in New York.

WHO IS DEADLIER...

Leonard Howell's worst nightmare has come true: his daughter Caroline has been kidnapped. Not content with relying on the cops, Howell calls the only man he trusts to get her back.

... THE MAN WHO KNOWS THE TRUTH ...

Eddie Flynn knows what it's like to lose a daughter and vows to bring Caroline home safe. Once a con artist, now a hotshot criminal attorney, Flynn is no stranger to the shady New York underworld.

... OR THE ONE WHO BELIEVES A LIE?

However, as he steps back into his old life, Flynn realizes that the rules of game have changed - and that he is being played. But who is pulling the strings? And is anyone in this twisted case telling the truth...?

A missing girl, a desperate father and a case that threatens to destroy everyone involved - Eddie Flynn's got his work cut out in the thrilling new novel from the author of The Defence.

About the author: Steve Cavanagh was born and raised in Belfast before leaving for Dublin at the age of eighteen to study Law. He currently practices civil rights law and has been involved in several high profile cases; in 2010, he represented a factory worker who suffered racial abuse in the workplace and won the largest award of damages for race discrimination in Northern Ireland legal history. He holds a certificate in Advanced Advocacy and lectures on various legal subjects (but really he just likes to tell jokes). 

His novel The Liar won the 2018 CWA Gold Dagger award while his follow-up novel Thirteen won the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award in 2019. Twisted was a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller. He is married with two young children. 

Follow Steve on twitter @SSCav or on his website at www.stevecavanaghauthor.com or on Facebook. 

Rating: 5/5

The History of the Devils of Loudun: The Alleged Possession of the Ursuline Nuns, and the Trial and Execution of Urbain Grandier told by an Eye-Witness by Edmund Goldsmid

Paperback: This book (2018) contains all three volumes of Edmund Goldsmid's The History of the Devils of Loudun (1887), which deals with the purported demonic possession, sexual repression, religious fanaticism, and mass hysteria that occurred in the small town of Loudun in seventeenth-century France. 

This volume concentrates on the Roman Catholic priest called Urbain Grandier and the members of a convent containing Ursuline nuns who claim to have been possessed by demons as a result of a deal made between Grandier and Satan, examining eye-witness accounts and other evidence related to the events. 

Born at Rouvère, near Sablé, at the very end of the sixteenth century, Urbain Grandier was curate and Canon of Loudun. On obtaining this living, he became so popular a preacher that the envy of the monks was excited against him. He was first accused of incontinency; but, being acquitted, his enemies instigated some nuns to play the part of persons possessed, and in their convulsions to charge Grandier with being the cause of their visitation. This horrible, though absurd, charge was countenanced by Cardinal Richelieu, who had been persuaded that Grandier had satirized him. It is this celebrated case which our credulous author endeavours to prove! 

The History of the Devils of Loudun will appeal to those with an interest in occult subjects and notable historical cases related to purported occult subjects in particular. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with the original text and artwork.

It is translated from the original French, La Veritable Histoire des Diables de Loudun, De la possession des Religieuses Ursulines, et de la Condamnation d'Urbain Grandier, par un témoin.

About the writer: It is written by an eye-witness, an actor in the scenes described in the book. The eye-witness's name is Monsieur des Niau, Counsellor at la Flèche and a firm believer in the absurd charges brought against the priest, Grandier.

Saint Valentine's Day

 

Feast of Saint Valentine

Only Bad Writers Think They're Good

Butler's Lives of the Saints: Concise Edition, Revised and Updated by Alban Butler and Michael J Walsh (ed)

Paperback: Growth in faith can be helped by stories and legends of the saints. The lives of good men and women can be, and often are, an inspiration to us. Happily, their memory is recorded in one of the classic works on Christian sainthood, Butler's Lives of the Saints. - Cardinal Basil Hume, OSB, Archbishop of Westminster.

For more than two centuries, Butler's Lives of the Saints has been hailed as the authority on the Christian patron saints. It has come to be known as one of the most influential works of piety produced within the English Catholic community.

Now, in this new edition of the original classic, Michael Walsh has culled the rich resources of earlier editions to accentuate the more modern and best-documented saints. Echoing the charm and style of the eighteenth-century edition, Walsh's volume has been edited to make the fascinating and inspiring lives of the saints easily accessible to readers today. 

This edition features saints from many nations and backgrounds and includes new articles on recently canonized saints. The index offers the list of saints from the complete edition, and includes all new canonizations and new dates, making it the most up-to-date listing of saints available. 

Butler's Lives of the Saints was originally published in 1756-9. The revised edition in four volumes edited by Herbert J Thurston SJ was published in 1926-38. 

This edition (1991) remains a remarkable reference source and, through its comprehensive biographies, a valuable aid to devotion and a rich source of historical information.

About the author and editor: Alban Butler (1710-1773) was an English Roman Catholic priest and hagiographer. He taught philosophy and theology at the English college at Douai for a time. The middle years of his life he spent on the mission in England, working chiefly in Staffordshire, and in Norwich as chaplain to the family of the Duke of Norfolk. In 1766, he was appointed President of the English College at St Omer, from which the English Jesuits had recently been expelled, and died in that office on 15 May 1773. In the midst of a very busy life, he had found time to copy manuscripts for Bishop Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests, and to write a number of learned works of his own. Butler's Lives of the Saints has remained his masterpiece.

Michael Walsh is the author of The Triumph of the Meek and editor of Butler's Lives of the Patron Saints.

Walking The Little Way Of Thérèse of Lisieux: Discovering The Path Of Love by Joseph F Schmidt FSC

Paperback: Pray this book, and please don't rush it. Or maybe it's better to say, live it. We can do no better than listen. - Sr Miriam Pollard OCSO, Prioress, Santa Rita Abbey, Sonoita, Arizona.

From her early years, Thérèse of Lisieux desired to be a saint, so the primary focus of her life was to walk the path of love - what she called “the science of love.” But she often asked herself if her love was pure and authentic. 

With sensitivity and insight, author Joseph Schmidt shows us how Thérèse discovered six unique qualities of the heart that told her that she was indeed walking the path of authentic love. These qualities - inner freedom, creativity, compassion, willingness, self-surrender or abandonment, and gratefulness - “opened her heart to a new depth of God’s life in and through her.” 

Eventually, they played a very practical role in Thérèse’s ordinary day-to-day life relationships - and they can in our own as well.

As he did in his earlier book on Thérèse, Everything Is Grace, Joseph Schmidt breaks new ground in his latest book and offers tremendous food for thought and reflection on the spirituality of this great saint.

Walking The Little Way of Thérèse of Lisieux (2012) is a must read for those interested in the spirituality of Thérèse.

About the author: Joseph F Schmidt FSC is the author of the highly acclaimed and best-selling Everything is Grace: The Life and Way of Thérèse of Lisieux (2007) as well as Praying with Thérèse of Lisieux and Praying Our Experiences. He is a De LaSalle Christian Brother currently serving in Nairobi, Kenya as a spiritual director, lecturer and retreat master.

The Diary Of Princess Pushy's Sister: A Memoir (Part 1) by Samantha Markle

Paperback: Things are not always as they seem, in a world where social labels and perceptions often define who we are, how we live, and how we view each other. 

With a BA in sociology, and an MA in counselling, Samantha never thought she would find herself caught in between the cross hairs of media mayhem, as she defends herself, and her father, by dispelling social labels, and fake news, when her sister marries a Duke, and a Royal fairy plummets from the tea towels. 

Samantha holds firmly to the belief that truth, family, and faith, triumph over all perceptions, plots and ultimatums. 

The truth is stranger than fiction.

The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister (2021) is the author's look back on her life since the 1960s, growing up in a very extraordinary and normal family. It is a memoir of Samantha Markle's personal experiences and observations as a granddaughter, daughter, sister, mother, in a family that collided with history in an unexpected but relatable way.

About the author: Born in Chicago in 1964 and raised in Southern California, Samantha Markle is an author, screenwriter and counsellor. Having battled MS in a wheelchair for most of her adult life, she is no stranger to challenges or tenacity. With one screenplay in pre-production, and her first book completed, she continues to roll uphill as a squeaky wheel to defend the truth and inspire others to look beyond social labels and fake news, to understand who we are as people. 

A Gracious Life, The Life of Barbara Acarie, Blessed Mary Of The Incarnation by Emily Bowles

Paperback: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.

We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This reprint is first published in 1879 by Burns and Oates, London and dedicated "to the Carmelite Nuns of the Rue d'Enfer in Paris, true daughters of St Teresa, brave, constant and single of heart, who owe their foundation to Barbara Acarie."

Carmelite Mysticism Historical Sketches by Titus Brandsma OCarm

Paperback: The lectures on the development and progress of Carmelite mysticism written by the Rev Titus Brandsma, OCarm, PhD, formerly rector of the Catholic University of Holland and professor of the history of mysticism and Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy in the same school, will be doubly welcome. First, authoritative works on Carmelite life and history written in English are somewhat rare; second, the author by his many years of research and lecture in the matter discussed is eminently qualified to speak. The lectures are a development of the lecture given at the Catholic University in Washington on 26 July 1935.

It seems well to single out for comment a few points from the many important conclusions drawn by Father Brandsma. The first concerns the foundation of the Carmelite Order. Father Brandsma together with the early Fathers of the Church assumes that the Prophet Elias was the founder and inspiration of all eremitical and religious life. Whatever ideal other orders and religious may have added to those offered by the great Prophet of Carmel, the Carmelites have chosen to retain Elias for their ideal and teacher and have always striven to realise in their own lives the example set by him. They have never recognized any other teacher. They alone of all those who in the beginning strove to imitate the great Prophet, remain faithful to their first ideal and so have every right to claim the Prophet Elias as their Founder.

The second point refers to the spirit of prayer and contemplation of the Order of Carmel. The learned author points out that it is a mistake to point to St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross at the beginnings of the Carmelite school of mysticism. These two saints were trained in the spiritual life and made their religious profession under the mitigated Rule of Carmel. They were, therefore, only continuing the tradition of the Order in which they had made their religious profession and were transmitting to posterity the spirit of Carmel imbibed from their parent Order. Thus the spirit of prayer and mysticism is not different in the two Orders of Carmel; rather it is the same, since one spring gives rise to the two streams flowing side by side.

The third point deals with the Marian character of the writings of St John of the Cross, the Mystical Doctor. Some have criticised St John of the Cross and have tried to show that he has neglected the Virgin Mother of Carmel in his writing whereas as a Carmelite he should have made much of her. Our author shows how St John assumes devotion to Mary as common Carmelite heritage. It was as useless to enlarge on what was taken for granted as to enlarge on the fact that one breathes. He shows that St John's doctrine cannot be conceived without devotion to Mary the Mother of God.

Carmelite Mysticism Historical Sketches was first published in 1936 by the Carmelite Press. This edition was published in 2002.

About the author: Titus Brandsma OCarm was declared Blessed by Pope John Paul II on November 1985. Since then, the promotion of his cause for sainthood has been in progress. An Interprovincial Committee of Carmelites exists, here in the United States, to educate and inform the Body of Christ as to its progress.

The life of Titus Brandsma began in the quiet countryside of Friesland, Holland, where he was born on 23 February 1881, and ended some sixty years later on 26 July 1942, in the notorious hospital of the Dachau concentration camp.

Titus Brandsma, Dutch priest, educator, journalist and modern mystic, has much to say to Twenty-first Century Christians. His joyful countenance in the face of chronic illness and finally, at the torturous hands of the Nazi’s, is a study in humankind’s sharing of its portion of the Cross of Christ. The frail, bookish-looking clergyman with the big cigar, labeled “That dangerous little friar” by his enemies, was able to perform heroic acts of suffering, followed by forgiveness, because his faith and trust in God was so firmly rooted in prayer. Unlike Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, who made a deliberate commitment of her life as an atonement for sin, Father Brandsma did not seek martyrdom, yet when he was thoroughly convinced it was God’s Will, he was able to accept humiliation and even death.

The Fine Points

Hostage To The Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Living Americans (Non-Fiction) by Malachi Martin

Paperback: What happens when a human being becomes possessed by Satan? 

What are the horrors of being possessed? 

What type of man is an exorcist?

Why should he offer himself as hostage to the devil so as to free the person possessed of evil?

What are the physical tortures and mental anguishes of the exorcist?

Malachi Martin, an eminent theologian, fully documents five case-histories of men and women who were possessed and of the exorcists involved, and discusses the significance of his findings which must influence our thinking and beliefs today in his Hostage to the Devil (1976).

About the author: Dr Malachi Martin (1921-1999), eminent theologian, was born in Kerry, Ireland, educated at Belevedere College and entered the Society of Jesus in 1939. He studied at the National University where he took a bachelor's degree in Semitic Languages and Oriental History, with parallel studies in Assyriology at Trinity College. From 1958 until 1964, Malachi Martin served in Rome, where he was a close associate of the renowned Jesuit Cardinal, Augustine Bea, and of Pope John XXIII; and where he was Professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute of the Vatican, teaching Hebrew, Aramaic, Paleography and the Bible. After twenty-five years as a Jesuit, he was released from his vows of poverty and obedience in 1964. He wrote thrillers about the Roman Catholic Church such as Hostage to the Devil, The Keys of This Blood, Windswept House, and more than a dozen other books. He lived in Manhattan and died at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan.

A Good Family by A H Kim

Paperback: Beth is the darling of God Halsa, a pharmaceutical giant, and she has got the outrageous salary and lifestyle to prove it. Until she lands in white-collar women's prison, thanks to a high-profile whistleblower suit.

Sam, Beth's husband, used to be the town's most eligible bachelor, and he has never had to do anything for himself. Until his wife goes to jail, and he is left to raise two daughters on his own.

Lise, the au pair, is the whistleblower. But is she? Everyone knows she is not clever enough to have done it alone.

Hannah, Sam's sister, is devoted to her family. There is nothing she would not do for them.

Eva, Beth's sister, is the smart one. (Read: not the pretty one.) Her life seems perfect on the surface, but sibling rivalry runs deep.

Martin, Beth's brother, is the firstborn, the former golden boy turned inside-the Beltway businessman. But what is he hiding?

Someone knows something. Someone betrayed Beth.

A Good Family (2020) is the story of the Min-Lindstroms. This is the story of the all-American family as it implodes under the weight of secrets, lies and the unchecked desire for wealth and power.

About the author: A H Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to the US as a young child. She was educated at Harvard College and Berkeley Law School, where she was an editor of the California Law Review. She is a practicing attorney and has served as chief of staff to the CEO and head of investor relations at a Fortune 200 company.

A H Kim is the proud mother of two sons, a longtime cancer survivor, community volunteer, and member of the Writers Grotto. She and her husband live in San Francisco. 

A Good Family is her first novel.

Rating: 5/5

Kenzaburō Ōe (b 1935), Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Essayist, Nobel Prize in Literature 1994