MELBOURNE:
4 October 2013 -- There is something very
attractive about this series by Fr Peter Varengo (this is the
second - a few months back he published Seed Among the Vines, Year C),
and
you don't have to go far to realise what it is - the covers
give
you a hint: "A spirituality of the Sunday Gospels". That's
what makes
this series of interest not just to the priest or deacon
wanting an
idea or two for the Sunday homily, but for any Christian
reader wanting
to stay with Jesus for a little while.
Peter does not set out to provide scriptural exegesis of the
text he
has before him each Sunday. Instead he wants to wrestle with
experience, and touch that to the Gospel text. What emerges is
reflection in the light of faith on what happens to people.
What
unfolds is a spirituality and theology, not a system invented
by some
religious person then applied to human concerns, but the other
way
around - the person 'becomes' religious through reflecting on
human
experience in the light of the Gospel, hence, the
all-important
subtitle.
Foreword by Archbishop
Timothy Costelloe, sdb
The
Salesian Archbishop of Perth writes the foreword to this book.
"Fr
Peter invites us, through the generous sharing of his own
life, to
allow the Gospel of Matthew, read at Mass each Sunday, to
prompt us to
identify and welcome the touch of God in the daily reality of
our own
lives. This is the special genius of this book and it is
indeed a
spiritualtiy that can enrich each day and allows us to
recognise the
presence of God who is so close to us."
Back cover blurb
"The
reflections by a master craftsman are written to unpack the
Gospel -
not simply matthew's special theological emphasis but his
teaching
about how we are to live with one another in the stuff of
everyday.
Integral to the book is the author's assumption that life and
faith
belong together; that Gos who brings freshness and light into
our lives
is lavish with gifts, patient and energising for goodness, for
fruitfulness, for life in its fullness. Here is a book that
takes
seriously the command of Jesus that we be life-giving in our
world,
encouraging us to become people fully alive with theenergy of
the lfie
of the Creator".
Salt of the earth, Light of the world
A spiritualtiy of the Sunday Gospels
