I read this booklet during Lent, with a view to recommending it for Eastertide reading. However, I didn't get around to writing my review in Holy Week, and anyway I am not sure I want to recommend it.
I have to say, in all fairness, that I approached it with some trepidation, on reading that it was the initiative of the National Service Committee for Catholic Charismatic Renewal in England.
My experience of Catholic Charismatic Renewal is very limited - by choice. The only Charismatic Catholics I know well are a holy and delightful couple, whom I am proud to number among my friends. However, the only Catholic Charismatic event I have been to, I found troubling, both for the emotionalism of the talks and the style of liturgy, which seemed to me a long way from the dignity required for the Sacred Sacrifice.
I am also mindful of Scott Hahn's comment, that the Charismatic Renewal is a broad highway, with several lanes leading out of the Church, and one leading right to its heart: that seemed to reflect my own ambiguity.
So I was curious about this booklet and approached it with interest.
It is structured so that there is a reading for each day of each week from Easter to Pentecost, which is a very useful structure. There is also a Pentecost Novena. Each week has a theme, such as The Creation and Fall, for week 1, through to The Kingdom of God is for all People, for Week 6.
Each day has the same structure: a title, a brief quotation from Scripture, a meditation, a prayer, a quotation from the Catechism, and some further Scripture references.
In order to give you a real flavour of the book, here is Day One, in its entirety.
I have to say, in all fairness, that I approached it with some trepidation, on reading that it was the initiative of the National Service Committee for Catholic Charismatic Renewal in England.
My experience of Catholic Charismatic Renewal is very limited - by choice. The only Charismatic Catholics I know well are a holy and delightful couple, whom I am proud to number among my friends. However, the only Catholic Charismatic event I have been to, I found troubling, both for the emotionalism of the talks and the style of liturgy, which seemed to me a long way from the dignity required for the Sacred Sacrifice.
I am also mindful of Scott Hahn's comment, that the Charismatic Renewal is a broad highway, with several lanes leading out of the Church, and one leading right to its heart: that seemed to reflect my own ambiguity.
So I was curious about this booklet and approached it with interest.
It is structured so that there is a reading for each day of each week from Easter to Pentecost, which is a very useful structure. There is also a Pentecost Novena. Each week has a theme, such as The Creation and Fall, for week 1, through to The Kingdom of God is for all People, for Week 6.
Each day has the same structure: a title, a brief quotation from Scripture, a meditation, a prayer, a quotation from the Catechism, and some further Scripture references.
In order to give you a real flavour of the book, here is Day One, in its entirety.
Day 1: Known and Loved
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ. (Ep 1:4)
The book of Genesis starts "In the beginning..." and this would be a good place to start our journey. But before we do that let's look at what St Paul says in Ephesians above. Here is that wonderful mystery that even before the world was created you were already known, loved and chosen in Christ.
When a potter starts to make a pot he already sees the finished product in his mind. However for that pot to be made the clay has to be pliable. We have to be willing to be moved by the Potter's hands into his vision for us.
Prayer: Father, thank you for your love for me and for the vision you have of me as your perfect work of art. Help me to say 'yes' to you.
Catechism: For if man exists, it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. (CCC, 1)
Scripture: Ps 139:16; Ep 2:10
--
That's all fine, I suppose, but I personally don't find either the meditation or the prayer particularly inspiring - but that is a matter of taste, and may also depend what else one is used to reading and praying.
So if that sample moves you, then this may well be worth considering; if like me, you find it doesn't, perhaps seek elsewhere for your Eastertide Spiritual Reading.
I also come across one or two passages I found actively questionable, I thought.
Day 2 of the Pentecost Novena consists of prayers for the renewal of the Church, including:
Often our witness is marred by our sins as an individual and as a body... and
We are sorry for the times we have let you down Lord, as a Church and as individuals;
Given that we believe the Church to be the mystical body of Christ, and that we believe one of the four marks of the Church is Holiness (cf the Creeds and CCC §823 ff) I worry about this. Members of the Church are indeed sinners, but 'as a Church'? I turned to the front to see if the booklet has an imprimatur and it doesn't mention one. But perhaps I am being over-picky here.
The next day - prayers for the unity of Christians - seemed more problematic to me. Both the Reflection and the Prayer seem to suggest an equivalence between the Catholic Church and other denominations, and suggest that the differences do not matter: Help us to support each other when we can and not to judge the different ways we might do things, knowing that you Jesus, are at the heart of everything. That strikes me as unhelpful to say the least. Given the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi (the law of prayer is the law of belief - that is, how we pray informs and affects how we believe and vice versa) to suggest that the differences between, on the one hand, a Protestant Eucharistic Service designed to express a belief contrary to Catholic Faith, and on the other hand, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - to suggest that these differences should not be 'judged' is dangerous indeed. Sts John Fisher and Thomas More would have something to say about that - as would Cranmer et al.
So all in all I do not recommend this booklet. However, if you find that the example day I quoted suggests a useful structure and content, you may find it valuable: but I would caution you to approach the Novena prayers carefully, and perhaps to re-write those for Days 2 and 3.