VICTORI
AN AMUSEMENTS New Test:town' Problem,. by Mgr. '1'. Fahy tClonniore ek: Reynolds 18s.). (;uaging Sermon Effectiveness, by Sylvester MacNutt O.P. (Clonmore & I3s, 6d.),
Reynolds
The Interior Life by Louis Colin C.SS.R., trans. by Sister (Fowler Wright 30s.).
The Lords Day by Louis J. Putt. CSG (Fowler Wright 32s.).
Maria Constance SCH
THE spiritual pabulum of our Victorian forbears. Catholic and Protestant alike. consisted for the most part of books of sermons. In that age. before canned entertainment. sermons ranked high in the list of popular amusements, the art of preaching was lovingly cultivated and it was deemed most natural that any preacher with it good following should from lime to time collect his orations in a couple of bulky volumes fur which there would he a ready sale.
It is generally agreed that the standard of preaching has gone down sadly since those days and a sign of this (symptom or cause. or a hit of both?) is thc virtual disappearance of hooks of sermons and their replacement by aids to preachers in the form of sermon notes, sermon mater, ready made sermons for every Sunday and. of course. the obligatory syllabus of sermons now in use in many dioceses.
Father MaeNtitt in his book with its angular title essays a different and welcome approach to the sermon problem. He wants his seeders to develop their critical faculties in regard to preaching, His tattles and diagrams may at first cause dubious smiles but they are only aids to memory. summarising what is in fact an able exposition of the art of preaching illustrated by sonic well chosen examples from good and bad sermons.
Let us not be censorious. The parish priest has the hardest job in preaching. To produce something fresh and new to the sane audience every Sunday of the year for umpteen years is beyond human wits. but this little hook should help the poor preacher to go some way towards that impossible ideal.
infectious A university teacher in classics. Monsignor Etthy looks at some disputed passages of the New Testament with the keen eye of it Greek scholar. In his opinion the disputes arise largely from a faulty understanding of the language of the New Testament.
Wrong translation has led to erroneous doctrinal conclusions and he implies that the errors have not been confined to noncatholic theologians.
His own suggestions. put forward with an infectious enthusiasm are startling enough to demand attention; Our Lady and St. Joseph were already ,married al the time of the Amu/Ivies:lion: the " Ito ma ne" or St.. greatest epistle were Jewish converts. There are some closely argued papers on Justification, Christ and Divorce and the Entry into Jerusalem, which bear the mark of patient and learned meditation on the Scriptures.
Creatures Father Colin's spiritual writings are already widely respected. The Interior Life, perhaps a little unexpectedly, rejects any facile distinction between contemplative and active. Even for contemplaLives the two aspects of life are and should he compatible, but all life. active or contemplative should he "interior".
Recommending the approach to God through his creatures he is able to assign to asceticism its true and healthy place in the spiritual In The Lord's Day the Professor of Theology of Notre Dame gives its a series of meditations On the Masses of Sundays and principal feasts throughout the year. designed to assist fruitful participation in the Mass and with a marked apostolic slant.