Books about Catholicism.

The Booknotes cover books sent to us by publishers. They are authored by Catholic Insight staff, covering both Catholic and non-Catholic books with Catholic Insight giving a more careful overview of the former than the latter.

From Emmaus Road Publishing, Inc., 827 N. Fourth St., Steubenville, OH., 43952. Tel.: [phone].Emmaus Road, 625 Cochrane Drive, Suite #600, Markham, ON L3R 9R9. Tel.: [phone].

Tim Gray, The Luminous Mysteries: Biblical Reflections on the Life of Christ, 2005, $11.95 U.S., softcover, 134 pages. Scripture scholar and professor Gray presents the Mysteries of Light through biblical passages and meditations from the Church Fathers--John Chrysostom, Origen, Augustine, +and Hippolytus. The selections preserve the beauty of the original texts with appeal to the modern-day reader. There is a foreword by Archbishop Raymond Burke.

Scott Hahn & Leon J. Suprenant, Jr., Eds., Catholic for a Reason II (Second edition): Scripture and the Mystery of the Mother of God, 2005, $15.95 U.S., softcover, 228 pages. Nine renowned American Scriptural experts present their brilliant studies, demolishing common misconceptions about Catholic teachings on Mary. This second edition of Scripture-based apologetics also includes a new chapter on the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary--Mysteries which lead us to a better understanding of the life and mission of Jesus Christ. The new appendix of this edition, by Scott Hahn, outlines Mary's role in Church tradition and shows the scriptural basis of several Marian dogmas by tracing "types" of Mary in the Old Testament to "antitypes" in the New Testament.

From Scholarly Book Services Inc., 127 Portland St, Third Fl., Toronto, ON, M5V 2N4. Tel.: [phone].

Mark Edward Ruff, The Wayward Flock: Catholic Youth in Postwar West Germany, 1945-1965, 2005, $71.95 Cdn, hardcover, 284 pages. The postwar years in Germany saw a drastic decline in religious life, reflected in the youth organizations, mainly due to generational differences, the ethic of consumerism, and political changes. Ultimately, Church leaders were unable to effectively combat the hostile subculture, which became the mainstream of German society. The author, who presents this analysis, is assistant professor of history at St. Louis University.

John Paul II, Let us be on our way,, New York, Warner Books, pp. 230, $33.00 Can. In this book John Paul provides simple accounts of his vocation as a priest and how this worked itself out in daily life in Poland, including his task as bishop. A bishop should be a father to his priests and the faithful, an ideal he learned from his own superior, Cardinal Adam Sapieha of Wroclaw. A bishop should continue to practise some of the duties of the parish priest such as celebrate marriages, anoint the sick and hear confessions, both of which he himself continued to do even as Pope.

There is nothing earthshaking in this little volume though he does say that he thinks he did too little in the way of admonition. But as he explains, "there is always a problem in achieving a balance between authority and service". Christ, he says, "asked His apostles not to dominate but to serve."