The author – Fr Peter Corcoran of the Society of Mary (Marists), subtitles his book, ‘Unheard voices from the Gospels’. I prefer the subtitle:

‘Mary’s thoughts for TODAY’

I know Fr Peter as a very ‘down to earth … both feet on the ground type of person’ … and he is. He was a successful teacher but having ceased teaching is now a very competent and effective hospital chaplain, both in general hospitals and in the field of mental health, and now he has found time to write this ‘slim volume’. I heartily recommend it to you … especially with Christmas coming up. It’s very up-to-date; a new form of ‘spiritual reading’.

‘He was a good man, my Joseph, I will miss him’, those words conclude the first 40 pages. Those pages cover what we call ‘the infancy narrative’ … Fr Peter writes as if it’s all happening today. He writes in today’s terminology and colloquialisms. He covers the early years of Mary and Joseph’s life together (‘Joseph and I are very much an item’) until the time of Joseph’s death … ‘He was a good man, my Joseph, so wise I still miss him’.

Mary’s pregnancy and the birth of Jesus are carefully covered and the stages of Jesus’ childhood make excellent reading, for example for me ‘The finding of Jesus in the temple’ is interpreted in a way which is very realistic … ‘in the area around the temple, teachers and scholars gave talks and courses on various aspects of scripture; and there as large as life was our son, sitting with a group of other young adults. He was totally focused. We resisted the temptation to rush across to him and ask him what he was doing. We didn’t want to be overbearing parents with a cool adolescent. He apologises for any upset he had caused us, but also said we had to see his point of view … he felt that this was too good an opportunity to miss with these special teachers and lecturers in town for the festival.’

I can find only one point in the book to quarrel with. In the reception after the wedding at Cana, the author mentions ‘servants’ bringing in jars of water, shouldn’t it be ‘waiters or waitresses’!!

The latter half of the book, pages 41-98 deals with ‘interviews’ with Gospel characters well known to us.

You certainly won’t regret the time you gave to reading this book.

Copies are available from Our Lady’s Bookshop, in Hessle, and from other good bookshops priced at £5.99.

Published by Athena Press … ref no ISBN 978-1-84401-907-6 or ISBN 1-84401-907-1.

Fr Michael O'Connor