A Radical Love, A Path of Light

The author is familiar to the readers of Magnet. This book, about religious life in the Church, is one of his most widely read ones; a bestseller and masterpiece that has gone into seven editions now.

The book, divided into three parts with 40 engrossing chapters, explores the heart of religious commitment from different angles. The author, a Salesian, draws several observations from exposure to religious life in different parts of the world. He shares many common struggles and doubts which connect with the readers. The book covers every aspect of religious life -- spiritual, psychological, social, structural -- and is intended for study and discussion. Each chapter ends with ‘Questions for reflection/discussion.’ 

The thought-provoking and humorous ‘The Body Scan: A Parable’ establishes the central point about religious life. In a dream sequence, a priest named Peter D’Souza is examined by a small committee of angels. A person’s status or belongingness to the Church or professing faith in Jesus matters only if it is done by one’s life, not by merely professing with the mouth. Being a priest, religious or layperson does not make any difference. How the faith was lived in love and charity is what matters!

The author starts with his own experience. Though brought up in a traditional Catholic family, he was soon bored with church and catechism; he was later drawn into this life through his exposure to the Salesian religious, their family spirit, joyful presence and generosity. He confesses that the deepest and most moving lessons of life have come from lay persons, beginning with his family. The first chapter reminds us that religious life, like any other path, is a call to be exceptional. Organized religious life has three goals – personal growth, community building and mission. The basis and reason for such a life is not a set of written rules; it is the person of Jesus.

Celibacy is “channelling our God-given passion and capacity to love in the direction of a God- inspired mission.” The vow of poverty, he observes, “really does not make most of us poor; it makes us exceptionally secure.” Obedience is not being a ‘frightened, dependent, self-pitying child, but a God- centered, love-filled, mission-focused person. Community life, he observes, is a quest for God in community, a group that a person chooses consciously, drawn by its ideals and inspirational character.”

Part II discusses the pitfalls and challenges that religious life faces. Part III lists the various ways in which challenges could be overcome and religious life enriched and fulfilled -- prayer, relationships, counselling, spiritual direction, and confession. The inspiring conclusion is: “Religious life, at its core, is not really about rules or founders, nor habits or buildings, not even about the legal code of vows; but about a habit of the heart, which makes it a ‘happy journey.’”

It’s Him!

The Fascinating Story of Jesus, and of men and women who have met Him

Joe Mannath SDB

This celebrated book, published in 2024, is in its second edition. In eight chapters, running to 50 subsections, it affirms that what is most intimate in human experience is also the most universal. It is a series of anecdotes drawn from the experience of several people, ancient and modern, who discovered Christ in essence and were radically transformed. As the author points out, the book is in one sense his own confession of the Jesus discovery that made him what he is: a priest, educator, author of books and a large volume of articles of international repute.  

It starts with a personal encounter with a man in Boston, who had a brush with death and survived a heart surgery, confessing to the author of his experience of God’s love as “more beautiful, deeper, and stronger than any love we know…” This sums up the central theme. Each chapter is organised into sections under a common theme drawn from the Gospels, beginning with the famous Emmaus Journey of the two unnamed disciples, the affirmation of the Lord’s Resurrection, the Lord’s walking with them, culminating in the bread-breaking moment that opened their eyes and brought about the change.

The next section invites us to the unimaginable vastness of God’s creation and its humanly ungraspable mystery, the profound paradox of that Creator whose “Word” became flesh and dwelt among us, making us sons and daughters of God. In Chapter II we are given a fresh look into the circumstances leading to the Birth of the Lord up to the 40 days’ fasting, the temptation in the wilderness and what it means for each of us.

Chapters III and V are the largest and dwell on Christ’s public life, His miracles, and the people He transformed through His encounters. The two sections of Chapter IV dwell on the Passover, the Last supper and ‘The Terror and Beauty of Good Friday’.

In Chapter VI, the reader gets a close view of the Lord’s Resurrection through those people who witnessed it and declared it to the world. This is perhaps the core of the book where the encounter with the resurrected Lord is highlighted as the ultimate discovery that transforms each person who meets Him -- the foundation of Christian faith. Innumerable anecdotes from lived experience connect the reader with these.  Each chapter ends with short verses for reflection.

The book engages the common reader with its direct, simple and conversational style; it is grounded in the author’s erudition as shown by the innumerable references ranging from cosmology, ancient history, mythology, philosophy to Christian hagiography.

The book concludes with two appendices, summarising Pope Leo’s speech in Rome at a gathering of clergy and his first apostolic exhortation, Dilexi Te, both of which dwell on Christ’s love.