Beauty Through Broken Window
Extent: Paperback
Pages: 246
Size: 215 mm x 138 mm
Publisher: Veritas Publications
‘This book has the potential to transform lives. A most engaging and inspiring book, it challenges us to stop and reflect and look at the world with new eyes and a new heart opened to be transformed in the deepest Christian sense.’
--Sr Stanislaus Kennedy, social campaigner and founder of Focus Ireland
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During his funeral homily for the late Queen Elizabeth II the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby memorably remarked; People of loving service are rare in any walk of life. Leaders of loving service are still rarer. But in all cases those who serve will be loved and remembered when those who cling to power and privileges are long forgotten. The words apply well to the story and vision of Edmund Rice who two centuries ago looked out his window, saw people in dire poverty and was moved to action in the service of the poor and marginalised. A new book which Sr Stanislaus Kennedy, describes as engaging and inspiring and ‘having the potential to transform lives’ offers nineteen essays from the pens of a diverse range of contributors who, inspired by the Gospel message have similarly responded to the needs of the excluded and the poor. Peter McVerry, Una Agnew and John McCourt are just a few of the authors assembled by the editors Aidan Donaldson and Denis Gleeson in order to move and encourage the commitment to serve others.
In his foreword to the publication Jim Deeds recalls sitting in a classroom in Belfast in 1983 as a first year Grammar School boy in St Mary’s CBS and looking at the painting of an old man which hung in his classroom and who seemed to be looking out the window on a war torn and impoverished city. The old man, Edmund Rice, was to have a profound influence on Jim’s life as he later went on to become an inspiring poet, author, pastoral worker and retreat giver. This passionate and engaging collection of essays deserves the widest possible audience. Each chapter concludes with a series of reflections and questions making it suitable for group as well as personal reading. It’s royalties are unsurprisingly perhaps directed to an orphanage and Maternal Health Support Programme in Zambia and Kenya respectively.
Reviewer: Fr Paul Clayton-Lea, Intercom, November 2022
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Description
More than two centuries ago, Edmund Rice looked out a window in Waterford and saw people in dire poverty. Looking into his own heart, he trusted in the Spirit for guidance and was moved to action as he answered God’s call to serve the excluded and marginalised. Thus, the foundations of what has become the Edmund Rice Network throughout the world today were laid.
In Beauty Through Broken Windows: Empowering Edmund Rice’s Vision Today, editors Aidan Donaldson and Denis Gleeson bring together a diverse range of international contributors who, inspired by the gospel call to service, looked out onto a world in need and responded. This timely and valuable work places Edmund Rice’s vision and the gospel message in a wide range of contemporary settings, inspiring us to find the courage, passion and commitment to serve others.
About the authors:
Aidan Donaldsonis an educational consultant to the Catholic Schools Support Service for the Diocese of Down and Connor and former lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast and St Malachy’s Junior Seminary. He is the author of Encountering God in the Margins (Veritas, 2010) and The Beatitudes of Pope Francis: A Manifesto for the Modern Christian (Veritas, 2018).
Denis Gleeson is a Christian Brother and former school principal. He helped establish the Westcourt Centre in Belfast and the Edmund Rice Schools Trust in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. An author, spiritual director and retreat facilitator, he is a committed member of Contemplative Outreach.