The stories of Catholic family life collected in this volume originated in Nazareth Journal. I first discovered this inspiring Canadian quarterly magazine – alas, now defunct - in the early 1990s and was bowled over by the frankness and faith of the contributors. Every time it arrived on the mat I would drop everything and read it from cover to cover. And thus “Catholic family life” changed from being a pious ideal which it seemed impossible to measure up to, into vivid stories of ordinary men and women who, despite the usual hardships and difficulties of outrageous fortune, were leading lives of steadfastness, humour and fidelity to the teachings of the Church according to the theology of the body articulated by John Paul II. Key influences behind the stories are the papal encyclicals Familiaris Consortio and Humanae Vitae.

In these pages we meet a young wife struggling with marriage and misconceived feminism; a couple coping with a large family on a low income; the difficulties of adoption; the sadness of a child’s death; the courage to repent and change from a contraceptive/sterilization mentality; even an account of an unexceptional day in a Catholic marriage. Divided into sections on motherhood, fatherhood, marriage, family, old age and eternal life, each part offers a new and illuminating perspective on old and universal experiences. Michael O’Brien, Canadian novelist and icon painter, who edited the original journal and who has contributed the introduction to this book, writes of the urgent need to integrate “orthodox teaching with the ways we can incarnate them in our families.” The book’s aim is to help parents follow the path of sacrifice and trust, exemplified by the Holy Family of Nazareth, in their own married lives and to present “the Truth spoken in Love.”

With Catholic marriages in this country reflecting the same decline and failure rate as the rest of society, one might say that reading and reflecting prayerfully on this book could have more lasting and positive effects than all the other ways we chase happiness, such as changing partners, changing faces or changing kitchens. So often we flee from suffering; but as these heart-warming stories demonstrate, it is the choices that we make in response to sorrow that can transform our lives. Family life is the school where we have to learn the lessons of patience, acceptance and forgiveness over and over again; a school not geared to worldly or academic success but to eternity. This is what the authors of these accounts discovered for themselves – usually the hard way – and what they now want to share with the rest of us.

The book is a product of the fruitful partnership between Family Publications and the Centre for Marriage and Family at Maryvale Institute; Lord Alton of Liverpool has written the foreword. As well as suggesting it as a gift that parents could give their married children, I would recommend all parish priests buy a copy (or several) and present it to every couple who approaches them about getting married - after reading it themselves, of course.

© 2008 Francis Phillips

Theotokos Catholic Books - Book Reviews Section - www.theotokos.org.uk