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Why, in a world often thought to be 'post-Christian', would anyone seek to convert to Catholicism? Why would they stand up on the day of their reception into the Church and declare publicly that "I believe and profess all that the Holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God"? There are many answers to both of these questions, all of which must necessarily contain important aspects of an individual's own unique situation. Ivan Oliver seeks to locate the journey he and his wife Ann undertook together in the context of their conversion from Anglicanism, the searing experience of his terminal illness, and the encounter with Catholic worship, thought and action. Recognizing that Catholicism is definitely not a 'cafeteria' religion from which an individual chooses options at will, Ivan Oliver proves an invaluable guide to major aspects of the Catholic life - liturgy, music, symbolism, social and moral teaching and the prospects for a new evangelization. A new evangelization that Pope Francis has made the priority of the Church.Throughout all the difficulties and joyful experiences of becoming a Catholic he shows that this walk has proved to be a truly fulfilling encounter with the Lord. A journey which continues day by day into Catholicism as the most complete expression of Christianity. Moreover, a walk into a renewed Faith which he and Ann gladly invite others to share.Ivan Oliver's thoughtful reflections on his own journey to the Catholic Church will be invaluable to many: either contemplating the same move, helping others on their conversion path, or simply looking to understand their own faith in an increasingly perplexing world.Ivan James Oliver worked as a civil servant, taught at the University of Warwick and, thereafter, was a crofter rearing highland cattle in the far north of Scotland. His main academic interests were in social and political theory, religion, the philosophy of social science and the history of ideas in general - beyond these music, cycling, mountains, and the sustenance of the crofting way of life. He died in 2015.

What is the meaning of the expression 'pastoral' applied to the Second Vatican Council? This seems a most difficult question to answer. Vatican II was a pastoral council, presenting teachings in a new, enriched manner, in a style which was not assertive or censorious, but descriptive or narrative.It also inaugurated a new way of being Council, although one must be careful to ensure that an over-enthusiastic welcome of the Council as 'event' does not obscure the rich conciliar texts and constant teaching of the Church.This new conciliar style can perhaps be seen as the passage from what is the Church to how it operates in the modern world. As a new conciliar paradigm, it can open the way to seeing Vatican II in a new light-hence the need to differentiate carefully a number of elements: the mind of the Council, the different nature of the documents, and the different magisterial authority even within the same documents.This book aims at clarifying and indicating a possible hermeneutical principle, leading towards a more faithful reception of the Second Vatican Council, which respects the Council in its precise identity and so gives the conciliar teaching its true place in a revealed and defined structure.Hopefully this historical and theological research, involving numerous archive documents, might help looking at Vatican II as a way which will foster unity within the Church.

Here is a forthright, succinct and readable analysis of the nature and consequences of secularisation, including a wittily acerbic history of its ideological evolution. But this is not just a social history: it is also a guide to how we as individuals can change history.Every major institution in the West has been dominated by secular humanists for decades. The results for society have been catastrophic. The demise of the shared Judaeo-Christian beliefs, values and spirituality that hitherto had underpinned our society and given it stability has long since undermined its foundations, leading to a myriad of social ills. Here ten Christians, one Jew and one Muslim trace the effects on ordinary people of being the first post-religious society. The book's first theme is the value of religion at a personal level; the second, its value to society; the third that the freedoms which Muslims, Jews and non-believers enjoy in Britain and the West today are based on a Christian tradition of tolerance - in stark contrast to the restrictions on Christians in the Muslim world; finally, that the Judaeo-Christian tradition itself is the inspiration of our history, law and institutions and must be vigorously defended.Today the Judaeo-Christian tradition is under attack as never before by the relentless barrage of secularism. The defence of Western civilization requires a concerted rearguard action. Taken together, the book's twelve chapters, in a defiantly outspoken but also considered manner, articulate a coherent call to arms. Its polemics are backed by thorough research and written by thinkers of distinction. Here is both a counterblast to the secular humanists and ammunition for foot-soldiers wanting to defend Christian civilization.

Number 37 is the home of the Stout Priest and his dog Abey, and of his niece and nephew in their school holidays. The children are from the city and visit whenever they can, because they love the country and the creatures who live in their uncle's garden and in the field and forest and river close by.This book is about those creatures. Each chapter is about a different one, and is a story in itself. But as the year goes round chapter by chapter, and the creatures and humans re-appear from time to time, the whole book becomes a single story, which reaches a climax on Easter night.The Creatures of Number 37 will delight children, and charm many adults too - all indeed who remember their own childhood fondly and have a love of nature and of animals wild and tame.John Watts began writing books after retiring from a career in teaching. This is his tenth, and his first venture into children's fiction. His previous published works include Histories, a Biography and a novel. John is married and has six children and ten grandchildren. He lives in Addiewell, a former mining village in West Lothian, Scotland.

Marriage, abortion and gender selection, human fertilisation and embryology, sexuality, religious education, wearing of religious dress and the display of religious symbols, the use of the Bible or Christian prayers in public life are all issues confronting contemporary Christians. The genesis of this book lies in the address which Pope Benedict XVI gave to both Houses of the United Kingdom Parliament in September 2010 in which he spoke of the contribution which religion can and indeed should make to political debate: 'The central question at issue, then, is this: where is the ethical foundation for political choices to be found? The Catholic tradition maintains that the objective norms governing right action are accessible to reason, prescinding from the content of revelation. According to this understanding, the role of religion in political debate is not so much to supply these norms, as if they could not be known by non-believers - still less to propose concrete political solutions, which would lie altogether outside the competence of religion - but rather to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the discovery of objective moral principles'. Later he observed that 'Religion ...is not a problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contribution to the national conversation'. This book looks in detail at the relationship between Christians and the State today and addresses the question of how religion could and should contribute to political debate and also the challenges which it faces. Today there is a substantial body of opinion which would confine religion merely to private belief and would deny religious views of any denomination the right to be heard in public debate. John Duddington is a barrister and Editor of Law and Justice - the Christian Law Review. He is also an Associate of the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University and Secretary of the Medical Ethics Alliance. He was for many years Head of the Law School at Worcester College of Technology and is married with two children

Contrary to the view held by a number of contemporary economists, the conviction is fast gaining ground that before the socio-political situation can be changed it is first necessary to change the economic processes, these last being seen as the structure on which the superstructure is built (an interpretation shared by Karl Marx and Adam Smith, in different, though symmetrical, fashion). This book attempts to show that history in fact demonstrates, frequently, the opposite. England was able to experience the industrial revolution only after it had consolidated a revolution of rights. Indeed such has always been the case. Peace itself cannot be seen as the objective because it is actually a pre-condition, as the classic writers of the ancient and medieval world pointed out. The political field must thus recover both authority and autonomy from the economic sphere. What we need is dynamic order, without which there can be no progress. Another point emerges from thus study: many have adopted a negative and pessimistic attitude towards economic activity, asserting that it is only irrepressible human selfishness that creates private initiative. Yet from such initiative stems the well-being of society and the improvement of life. It is therefore in the interest of everyone that these aspirations are fulfilled within a legal framework. Lastly, uncertainty is a typical characteristic of human life and to the extent of being one of the components of everyday life. Because of this financial institutions such as insurance companies have grown up and these actually work with the nature of risk. This again demonstrates how unacceptable an anarchical-libertarian position is since through its uncertainty it brings with it risks that are not confined to the economy. However this study does not look forward to a world in which the positions are reversed and where politics can reach the point of stifling the economy.

The Year of Consecrated Life has given all Catholics the opportunity to celebrate and reflect on those living out the witness of consecration in the Church-but what is the Religious Life?In this small book Fr Aidan Nichols,OP provides a succinct introduction, showing how Religious Life emerged from the Gospels in the Apostolic Age, and then developed in the world of the Fathers of the Church in Egypt, in Palestine, Syria and Cappadocia and then in the Latin West-through St Augustine, St John Cassian, St Benedict and in the Medieval period St Thomas Aquinas. Roots on which all Religious Life in the modern world draws.There is no forest of trees called 'the Religious Orders of the Catholic Church'. There is only one tree with many branches. The tree is the monastic estate, the branches are the diverse forms of life the members of that estate can take up, combined with the different missions in the Church to which they can be mandated. This has wide-ranging consequences, not least for the later Religious Orders and Congregations, and the most recent 'new movements' of the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council, some of which have groups of ascetics at their heart. All need to recover the great lines of monastic spirituality as the common basis of their call in the Church. That is so notwithstanding the specificities of emphasis of this or that founder or the particularities of function they envisaged for their Institute. They should be seen as a single body with a shared contemplative spirit.

On Palm Sunday 2013, in St Mary's Cathedral, Rangoon, Burma, Benedict Rogers was baptised, confirmed and received into the Church by Cardinal Bo, with Lord Alton as his sponsor. This book tells the remarkable story of his journey to the Catholic Faith, through the lives of those who inspired him, from Burma to Rome.Benedict Rogers has travelled extensively in Asia, reporting on human rights violations and conflict and acting as an advocate for religious freedom. This work has taken him to North Korea, China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, East Timor, Burma and beyond. Through his travels, he encountered courageous Catholics whose faith and lives inspired him: Shahbaz Bhatti in Pakistan, assassinated in 2011; Bishop Carlos Belo and the fearless nun, Sister Lourdes, in East Timor; and Cardinal Joseph Zen in Hong Kong. Catholics in public life in Britain, such as Colonel Chris Keeble, the man who took the Argentine surrender at the Battle of Goose Green in the Falklands War, also played a significant part in his path to conversion. Further inspiration came from Catholic writers - G. K. Chesterton, Thomas Merton, Malcolm Muggeridge, Scott Hahn and Pope Benedict XVI. But it was Burma's first Cardinal, Charles Maung Bo, who played the crucial role, inviting him into the Church in Burma.

The present book, originally published in French, and now in English with a new foreword by Dom Alcuin Reid OSB, is a splendid example ante litteram of the task of the Hermeneutic of Continuity so courageously undertaken by Pope Benedict XVI. Without calling for a change in the post-Conciliar discipline of the Latin Church, the author offers a complete and trenchant historical and dogmatic critique of the recent neglect of the individually celebrated Mass in favour of concelebration. The discipline of the church after Sacrosanctum Concilium, up until the 1982 Code of Canon Law and the General Instruction of the Roman Missal for the third edition of the Missal of Paul VI, has always asserted the freedom of priests to celebrate individually, yet the liturgical and theological atmosphere of seminaries and religious communities has rarely favoured this freedom. Here is a careful discussion of the value of the multiplication of celebrations of the Eucharist, in the light both of the nature of the Eucharistic Sacrifice itself and of the theology of its fruits. A meticulous study of the history of the practice of concelebration shows that the present practice of daily concelebration, especially among simple priests without their Ordinary presiding, far from being a return to an ancient norm, is in fact a new development. The author concludes with a carefully nuanced set of practical proposals which, while giving to concelebration its due place, would serve to make better use of the infinite riches contained in the Holy Sacrifice. This conclusion may be summed up by the ancient prayer over the gifts found in both forms of the Roman Mass and quoted in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council: As often as the memorial of this Victim is celebrated, the work of our redemption is accomplished. May the careful examination of this beautifully reasoned study lead to a renewed sense of the efficacy of the Church's Offering and of its frequent and devout celebration by her priests.

BERNARD DE GIVE, for many years a member of the Society ofJesus, was for eight years a seminary professor, first in SriLanka then in India, before pursuing oriental studies at Oxford,where he formed friendships with Tibetan monks.Since becoming a Trappist in 1972, the author has enjoyedmeeting monks of other religions: Hindu Swamis, Jain ascetics,Buddhist monks and, above all, Tibetan Lamas.In 1977, a Benedictine and Cistercian Commission forMonastic Interreligious Dialogue (DIM - MID) wasestablished, and it was under these auspices that the author wasable to visit numerous Tibetan centres in Western Europe butalso in India and in Tibet itself.The invasion of Tibet by the Chinese communists in 1950,followed by the voluntary exile of the Dalai Lama and largenumbers of Tibetans, overturned the political and culturalcircumstances of a country which, though fiercely isolated forcenturies, now found itself suddenly propelled beyond itsborders. This traditional culture thus became accessible toWesterners who were eagerly seeking a form of spiritualitywhich corresponded to their needs and their anxieties. Theauthor, though he has a most real sympathy towards theDharma and its followers, is not a Buddhist, nor even a seeker.While stressing the 'obvious and considerable' doctrinaldifferences, he experiences an undeniable sense of encounter indepth with Tibetan Buddhists: 'The truest essence of thedialogue partners, especially when they are monks, encounters akindred spirit. Whether in conversation or in silence, they findthemselves in total dialogue.'

What is prayer? How may we approach our Maker in a simple, direct way?In listening to the Silence within. For if once we begin to attend to our deeper Self then we begin that most enriching encounter: to see Self enclosed within our Maker. Julian of Norwich tells us: 'God is nearer to us than our own Soul'. Educated by the Jesuits from the age of nine, John Skinner left school to join the Society of Jesus. For thirteen years he followed their formation, especially the Ignatian method of prayer. But ahead of ordination, he changed course to join The Times. Five years on Fleet Street left him breathless, so that he became a children's bookseller to found The Red House. Returning to his former trail twenty years on, he managed to spend a bare fortnight living, praying and working alongside the Carthusians of Parkminster. His narrative of that healing time, Hear our Silence, tells that tale; it also led to an invitation to those outside the cloister to deepen their own experience of prayer. 'I told the Prior: "I am going to steal your Silence, and take it outside".His answer: use our name".' What better invitation ... Gracewing is also the publisher of John Skinner's companion volume, Sounding the Silence, as well his first book, Hear Our Silence, and his translation into modern English of Revelation of Love by Julian of Norwich.

Devotion to the Five Wounds of Jesus has long been one of the most popular forms of Catholic spirituality. David Williams traces the roots of this devotion in Holy Scripture: the words of the prophets foretell the suffering Christ, while the New Testament witnesses to the victorious scars borne by the risen Lord. The Sacred Wounds of Jesus remained a persistent theme in the writings of the Desert Fathers and Doctors of the Church, a theme that was to be more fully developed in the devotional practice of the mediaeval period and on into modern times.Detailing the several forms devotion to the Five Wounds has taken (both mediaeval and modern) - in art, liturgy and poetry - David Williams recalls those holy people favoured by visons of the suffering Lord, as well as those who themselves came to bear the stigmata of Christ. He outlines the history of devotion to the specific wound in the Side - later seen as the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and describes the 'gift of tears' given to some from their reflection upon the Passion of their Master.David Williams is the author of The Cistercians on the Early Middle Ages and The Welsh Cistercians, both published by Gracewing.

What Happens at Mass draws the reader to a deeper understanding of the Mystery of Faith. The Mass is the gift of and an encounter with Jesus Christ. What Happens at Mass is about God acting in our lives through tangible human actions and words. This book draws us closer to the ritual of the Mass, which is nothing less than the very event of our salvation. "Father Driscoll has done something remarkable here. He has written an intelligent, yet widely accessible, guide to the Mass. This book will be very popular with parish study groups, adult education courses, and with individuals on the lookout for the best spiritual reading" Scott Hahn Father Jeremy Driscoll is a Benedictine monk of Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon. He teaches at Mount Angel Seminary and the Pontifical Atheneum of Sant'Anselmo, Rome.

THE SACRAMENTS are part of everyday Christian life, andin this book Fr Francis Selman looks beyond the signsand symbols to reveal the underlying theology of thesacraments as an encounter with Christ. He shows howthe sacraments are the means by which a Christian isincorporated into the life of the Church and ultimatelyinto the life of the Trinity itself. Fully up to date withrecent insights, it is nonetheless rooted in the thought ofSt Thomas Aquinas and the Fathers of the Church.'The Church receives and at the same time expresseswhat she herself is in the seven sacraments, thanks towhich God's grace concretely influences the lives of thefaithful, so that their whole existence, redeemed byChrist, can become an act of worship pleasing to God.'- Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum CaritatisFr Francis Selman is a lecturer, course book writer andtutor at Maryvale Institute in Birmingham. He is also Deanof Philosophy at Allen Hall Seminary, and Director ofStudies at the School of Evangelisation at St Patrick's,Soho Square in London. Fr Selman has published widelyon subjects in theology and philosophy, includingA Guide to the Eucharist also available from Gracewing.

The eight decades from the Bolshevik Revolution to the collapse of the Iron Curtain brought a wave of anti-religious repression comparable to anything seen in the fabled persecutions of the first Christian centuries. It inflicted sufferings and agonies equalling those of the darkest periods; and it stimulated writings and reflections paralleling the most insightful and moving from Christian history.This first volume of The God of the Gulag shows how the paradigms of persecution and martyrdom were established in the Early Church, when Christians were hounded by the Roman state as a threat to the established order-and how they reappeared when anti-Christian persecution returned on a mass scale after the French Revolution, as new hostile states and popular movements tried again to dismantle the power and influence of the Christian Church.Drawing on accounts and documents in many languages, it examines the first phase of communist rule after the 1917 Russian revolution, when a ruthless campaign was launched to destroy all organised religion and redirect spiritual strivings towards an absolute subservience to the Marxist vision. It looks at how Christians attempted to defend the Church and witness to their faith as the communist dictatorship was extended under Stalin to post-War Eastern Europe, bringing a new wave of arrests, trials and purges.

Rowland Broomhead was born into a recusant Catholic family in Sheffield, but his life and work were to impact on the whole of the Northern Vicariate-which included Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Northumberland and Durham-and especially in the establishment of Ushaw College; hence a veritable 'Apostle of the North'.The recusant experience formed his early years and laid the rudiments of his faith, and he continued his schooling at Sedgley Park Hall, near Dudley, before moving on in 1765 to the Venerable English College in Rome, where he spent the next ten years. He was appointed to the mission in Sheffield in 1775 and despite the short period of his tenure was there long enough to influence the local Catholic population, reluctant to see him go to Manchester in 1778.His apostolate was set against the backdrop of a nation rapidly changing with the Industrial Revolution and at war in Europe, especially with France, with political unrest in Ireland and revolution and war in America; all of which touched his life and the lives of the people in Manchester. These problems were a catalyst towards Catholic Emancipation, and Broomhead arrived in Manchester, where many of the inhabitants had a reputation for being anti-Catholic and anti-Irish in the same year as the government passed the First Catholic Relief Act.Until 1787 he worked not just in Manchester but across a large area of south-east Lancashire and parts of Derbyshire and Cheshire. When he then became missioner in charge at Manchester he was able to concentrate on work in the town, and established himself in civic affairs, especially charitable hospitals and serving the poor.Broomhead was deeply involved in his church of St Chad, Rook Street, and besides the everyday religious pattern of Mass, prayers and Sacraments he introduced 'Public Instructions' in order to listen, to question and to point the way forward to heaven-an exercise reaching out to people of all faiths and of none that was hugely successful, leading to a need to build more churches. The climax of his life was the opening of the church of St Augustine in Granby Row, which not only provided for his many parishioners but made provision of a room under the church for a school for one thousand pupils. His funeral stopped up the streets of Manchester, and business ceased, as thousands more mourned him for his ministry and for his contribution to life of the town.

"One of the many beautiful themes addressed by Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium is the importance of preaching. Not just its importance, but the nature of the dialogue which takes place between God and his people during the homily. By way of preparation, the Pope invites the one who is ordained to minister the Word and Sacrament to share prayerfully with his people. This short book of homilies is being published in response to the common request made of many preachers for copies of their homilies. The collection is dedicated to the deacons and priests at whose ordinations I have been privileged to preside." Archbishop George StackBefore his appointment, in 2011, as the seventh Archbishop of Cardiff, George Stack served for forty years first as a parish priest and then Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Westminster. Eight years of his ministry were spent as Administrator of Westminster Cathedral. In addition to his wide experience as school and hospital chaplain, parish priest and Vicar General, his regular broadcasting for BBC Radio 4 in the Daily Service and Prayer for the Day has ensured a rich and varied ministry. The different situations in which he has had to preach and speak have convinced him that, even in this age of highly technical means of communication, people still make a space in their lives for the word of God to be proclaimed and preached. Pope Francis speaks eloquently of this in Evangelii Gaudium when he writes about 'words which set the heart on fire'. (par. 142) This collection of homilies takes as its theme the ordained ministry of the Church. They are offered in the light of more words from Pope Francis, 'The homily is the touchstone for judging a pastor's closeness and ability to communicate with his people'.