Each month, in association with Pauline Books & Media in Camberwell, Sr Joanna Coleiro fsp gives book recommendations for parishioners, both big and small.  Pauline Books & Media is run by The Daughters of St Paul, which is an international congregation of religious women founded to spread the Gospel through the channels of the modern media.

Saints

Pray for Us: 75 Saints Who Sinned, Suffered, and Struggled on Their Way to Holiness
by Meg Hunter-Kilmer

Itinerant missionary Meg Hunter-Kilmer will stretch your preconceived notions of holiness by exploring the lesser-known lives of seventy-five extraordinary people whose human struggles and limitations reveal the power of God’s grace.  Some of these include a chain-smoking socialist, a teenage video gamer, an opium addict, a disabled beggar, and a self-absorbed mean girl became saints.

Pray for Us isn’t your ordinary saint book: Hunter-Kilmer highlights the sorrows, struggles, and idiosyncrasies of broken people who turned their lives around and dedicated themselves to God and his work.  Through these edgy profiles, full of fresh and fascinating stories, she explores the universal call to holiness and how God can transform anyone—from grouchy theologians to bratty teenagers—into saints.  You’ll discover that anyone—even you—can become a saint if you trust in the Lord.

Available online from Pauline Books and Media

Christmas

God’s Coming to Visit!
by Franz Hubner
Illustrated by Angela Gloekler and Rea Grit Zielinski

The news spreads like lightning: God’s coming to visit!  All the animals want to do something to impress God.  But what could possibly be special enough?  And when will God arrive?

With sensitivity and humour, this story explores the nature of God’s presence and love, affirming that although God may not appear in the ways we expect, we can always be certain that God is with us.

Available from Pauline Books and Media

The Art of Christmas: Meditations on the Birth of Jesus
by Jane Williams

Jane Williams’ meditations on the birth of Jesus take you deep into the story of the original Christmas as depicted in some of the world’s greatest paintings.

A beautiful book for Advent 2021, these profoundly perceptive reflections on the different ways in which artists have imagined the Nativity will deepen and refresh your appreciation of the real meaning of Christmas, and the message of love, joy and peace that it speaks to all the world.

Illustrated in full colour, with famous and lesser-known Western masterpieces, and presented in a small, easily portable format,  The Art of Christmas is ideal Advent reading for all art lovers, but it also makes a wonderful Christmas gift.

Available from Pauline Books and Media

By Sr Joanna Coleiro fsp

Sr Joanna Coleiro, fsp, is a Daughter of St Paul with a long-time interest in the spiritual growth, faith development and religious experience of both adults and children.