Reviews

Books

The author rightly stresses the importance of adapting the material to the needs of the specific individuals using it as well as the necessity of experiencing the conversion process oneself as an indispensable foundation for leading others through the process. It would be necessary for catechumenate team members to work through the process themselves before attempting it with atechumens.
-- Alexander C. Larkin

Handbook for Ministers of Care
by Genevieve Glen, Marilyn Kofler,and Kevin O'Connor; Liturgy Training Publications, 1800 North Hermitage Ave., Chicago, IL 60622-1101; 1997; 89p; $6.
"Do you have anything to help me when I visit the hospital?" is a question often asked of pastoral ministers. Now we are able to answer, "Yes!" This excellent handbook helps form the caregiver, gives practical advice -- how to organize a hospital or home visit, how to leave a visit -- answers basic questions, gives phone numbers and addresses for resources, and tells how to conduct a prayer or communion service. In addition, a guide is presented for monthly meetings of the Ministers of Care. Pastoral staff members will be happy to present this handbook to any of their volunteers engaged in ministry to the sick or elderly. 
-- Mary Jane Treichel 

Walking Through the Valley: 
Understanding and Emerging From Clergy Depression
by Robert Randall; Abingdon Press, PO Box 801, Nashville, TN 37202-0801; 1998; 125p; $14.95. 
Randall, a licensed clinical psychologist and an ordained minister, combines his counseling skills, knowledge, and pastoral experiences into a very helpful book in the area of mental health.

The author focuses on clergy depression as a result of the great amount of expectations from parishioners of their minister. Randall's is a holistic approach, in which he looks at the entire person suffering from depression. He images the depressed person as honoring the depression, getting the help one needs, applying the brakes, holding still, returning home and stepping beyond.
The book contains many corrective suggestions to help the depressed person to grow in the process.

The book would be very valuable to bishops and those in positions of authority who could assist their men and women in coming to terms with this common ailment which often goes unnoticed until too late, thus becoming a detriment to the person as well as to ministerial efforts.

This is a book worth investing in for parish and pastoral libraries and for anyone working with ministers and their well-being. 
--Sr. John Martin Ebrom, CDP 

Worship As Body Language, Introduction to Christian Worship:
An African Orientation
by Elochukwu E. Uzukwu, Liturgical Press, St. John's Abbey, Box 7500, Collegeville, MN 56321-7500; 1997; 369p; $29.95.
The bulk of the book provides us with a history of worship and of ritual (body language) in worship. Worship in the United States, and indeed in the whole world, is filled with gesture and differs with the various cultures. Uzukwu's history of gesture takes us back to the early church, from St. Augustine (the body is bad) through St. Thomas (man is spirit with hands). He also touches on the Carolingian reforms and quotes Roger Bacon to the effect that our music is incomplete without dance. The importance of this book for ML readers is that when we read about gestures in former times and in different cultures, we become more aware, more critical, and more careful about gestures in our own worship. 
-- David O. Brown 

Simplify & Celebrate: 
Embracing the Soul of Christmas
by Alternatives for Simple Living; Northstone Publishing, 330-1980 Cooper Road, Kelowna, BC VII 908, Canada; 1997; 208p; $15.95.
If the frantic pace of preparing and celebrating Christmas leaves you physically, emotionally, and financially exhausted, and if you have only dreamed of peace and joy amid the season's stressful demands, then this book can offer you more than hope. The book gives creative ideas for simple and meaningful gift-giving as well as for prayerful reflecting. The first part contains many ideas for simplifying Christmas. The second part gives readings, reflections, and activities which make the Advent and the Christmas seasons more significant. Prayer services are included, each of which contain a prayer, a reading, a reflection, and suggestions for service-type activities.An Advent and Christmas calendar proposes daily acts of generosity. The authors have given us a workable way of easing and spiritualizing the lives of teachers, parents, and ministers by substituting peaceful and prayerful activities for the often too hectic ones of the season. 
-- Sr. Francis Borgia, OSU

A Personal Psalm Journal
by Joan Metzner; Twenty-Third Publications, PO Box 180, Mystic, CT 06355; 1998; 120p; $9.95.
This book offers the reader an opportunity to do some psalming. Metzer, experienced in classical and traditional forms of Christian prayer as well as prayer forms from the Eastern tradition, offers the reader more than 100 contemporary psalms and additional psalm starters with suggested topics for the reader to write his or her own personal psalm. This very attractive book will appeal to anyone who keeps a diary or daily journal. Everything is provided in the book for reflection, prayer and space to record one's own personal reflections. 
-- Sr. John Martin Ebrom 

Faces of the Church: Meditations on a Mystery and Its Images
ed. by Aidan Nichols, OP, and Geoffrey Preston, OP; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 235 Jefferson Ave. S.E. Grand Rapids, MI 49503; 1997; 310p; $35.00.
This series of meditations on the church is rooted in making present the mystery of God's salvation which reaches its full realization in Jesus Christ. Highlighting the church first and foremost as "mystery," the other images used to describe church flow from this one. In Faces of the Church many images are presented, some of which are rooted in the Old Testament. Preston explores the main images found in the Bible which describe and explain the church.

This book consists of four major sections: Part One, Imaging the Church: The Primal Metaphors; Part Two, Focussing the Church: The Sacraments; Part Three, Living the Church: Some Privileged Moments; Part Four, The Mystery of the Church.

This is a storehouse of insight into biblical, patristic, and spiritual dimensions of the church. Contemporary discoveries from many sources are most helpful in providing a deeper understanding of the church as mystery alive in our world.
-- W. Regis Halloran
 

Music 

Reviewers 

What do YOU Think? 
Send an e-mail to ML Editor 
or post an entry on the ML Current Issue Discussion Board. (All submissions become the property of RPI and may be edited for length.) 

—ML