An Important Announcement

Since I have noticed that the web page for Real View Books has recently been updated, I am now able to post something important about a forthcoming book.

As you may have read here, from time to time I quote from the works of Father Stanley L. Jaki (most of which are available from Real View Books). These rank as some of the most important publications of recent time, primarily because they deal with both science and religion - and other than our Uncle Gilbert Chesterton, there really aren't very many people who write that way. The chief example is Jaki's book on Chesterton: it contains only four chapters, but quotes from perhaps four dozen books by Chesterton and another dozen of books about Chesterton. But that's just the beginning.

Jaki's books include wide-scope ones such as The Relevance of Physics; narrow ones such as The Paradox of Olbers' Paradox (just why is the sky dark at night?) and collections of essays, all meticulously referenced and detailed. Then there are the trio of books concerning the great French thermodynamicist, hiker, artist, Catholic, and historian of science - Pierre Duhem. As time permits, I will address these works in future postings.

But Father Jaki also has some very good books on more specifically religious topics, some of which are even more surprising than his works on science. For example, there are two rather small books which treat the topic of the Papacy under two specific symbols: the Rock and the Key... then there are even smaller books which review the mysteries of the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, and the litanies of St. Joseph and Mary (Loreto).

And this brings me to the announcement: Fr. Jaki's new book treating the Litany of the Sacred Heart is about to appear!

Why is this important?

Because it is perhaps the very best way in which we can try to become more practical in implementing Pope Benedict's Deus Caritas Est!

Clearly we need to have a better understanding of our fellow human neighbors (hence our GKC on "Man is" postings!) but we also need to have a better sense of the way in which God is love. And the Sacred Heart is an "icon" of the mystery of God's love - as incarnate in Jesus Christ.

The book is both a miniature history, a contemplation, and a meditation, all in a pocket-sized volume - it is no exaggeration to see this as an important book for our times - if not one of the most important.

So check out the RVB site and be ready... and in order to prepare for this, you may want to get out that litany and try it out yourself. It may surprise you.

To whet your appetite, I have an additional comment from our Uncle Gilbert himself:

We have all heard people say a hundred times over, for they seem never to tire of saying it, that the Jesus of the New Testament is indeed a most merciful and humane lover of humanity, but that the Church has hidden this human character in repellent dogmas and stiffened it with ecclesiastical terrors till it has taken on an inhuman character. This is, I venture to repeat, very nearly the reverse of the truth. The truth is that it is the image of Christ in the churches that is almost entirely mild and merciful. It is the image of Christ in the Gospels that is a good many other things as well. The figure in the Gospels does indeed utter in words of almost heart-breaking beauty his pity for our broken hearts. But they are very far from being the only sort of words that he utters. Nevertheless they are almost the only kind of words that the Church in its popular imagery ever represents him as uttering. That popular imagery is inspired by a perfectly sound popular instinct. The mass of the poor are broken, and the mass of the people are poor, and for the mass of mankind the main thing is to carry the conviction of the incredible compassion of God.
[GKC, The Everlasting Man CW2:319]

So keep an eye on their web site... or at least keep an eye on this blogg.