Vol. 11 No. 7 JULY 1997

CONTENTS

Editorial - Complementary roles
The Editor

Mission to the British
Cardinal Basil Hume OSB
This year we commence St Augustine's mission to Britain 1400 years ago. Cardinal Basil Hume, in a sermon preached in Westminster Cathedral on Augustine's feast day, insists that we must follow Augustine's example. 'Our contemporaries have a right to the Good News. We must not shrink from our task or allow ourselves to get cold feet. Augustine got on with the job , and so must we.'

The Common Good and the British State
John Rist
After the British election we may be tempted to neglect the important statement by the bishops of England and Wales entitled The Common Good. John Rist, who was until recently professor of philosophy at Toronto University, sees the need for ongoing debate but this must be done with professionalism. 'Unless we can demonstrate the coherence and intelligibility of our first principles, as well as the spiritual and practical confusion of the alternatives on offer, we will be disnmissed as pie-in-the-sky idealists and told to stay out of politics.'

The necessity of enchantment
W. Jardine Grisbrooke
Enchantment is essential for true worship. W. Jardine Grisbrooke who was formerly lecturer in liturgy at Queen's College, Birmingham, and at St Mary's College, Oscott, describes liturgies where enchantment is absent and then proposes the conditions which are necessary for its presence.

The living bread
Francis Selman
Next month the Sunday Gospel readings are taken from the discourse on the Bread of Life fom John 6. Francis Selman, a priest of the diocese of East Anglia who teaches philosophy at Allen Hall, offers here some teaching on the Eucharist which is 'the mystery of faith'.

Mary in Byzantine spiritual life
John Samaha SM
What can the West learn of the East's devotion to Mary? John Samaha, who is a Marianist in their community at Cupertino, California, here examines the Byzantine Marian heritage.

Augustine and his Confessions
Gabriel McDonagh OSA
Sixteen hundred years ago St Augustine wrote his most popular work, The Confessions. Gabriel McDonagh, an Augustinian from Clare Priory in Suffolk, gives us some guidance as an incentive to reread what is still a best-seller or to pick it up and read it for the first time.

In the Catholic tradition: Dom Columba Marmion
Aidan Nichols OP
Aidan Nichols, author of many books of theology, the latest of which is Epiphany. A Theological Introduction to Catholicism (Collegeville, Minn. 1996) here looks at the life and teaching of Dom Columba Marmion. 'In an age such as our own, where spirituality too often sinks in a morass of psychotherapy and sentiment, Marmion's exultation in the sheer objectivity of the divine plan, life, nature makes him a needed prophet for the times.'

Results of the readership survey

Preaching and teaching the word
Denys Lloyd
Denys Lloyd, who is a parish priest of Our Lady in Stowmarket, Suffolk offers a commentary on the lectionary readings for the Sundays and Solemnities of the month of August.

Book reviews

Postscript: Do you know the code?
Vicky Cosstick

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