DIOCESAN NEWS
11/27/09
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Books make great gifts for all
Reviews by Frances Boeckman
     “The Glory of Angels” by Edward Lucie Smith, 192 pages, $35, HarperCollins, www.harpercollins.com.
     This magnificent book printed on fine heavy paper with all color photos is truly a treasure.
     Annotations at the end of the book include the location of each art work, information about the artist, and where the work of art is located.
     After defining the hierarchy of angels as the Deity, Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones, the historian who put this book together goes on to talk about the specific angels.
     For instance, archangels are the best know members of the heavenly host. Essential functions are as commandoes in the fight against evil. “They convey messages from God to us on earth, and they protect the souls of the righteous dead from Satan’s attempt to seize them.”
     The New Testament mentions Michael and Gabriel and Raphael. Raphael, for instance, is the healer. Gabriel is the messenger. Michael is the warrior. All of these are representing      God’s attempts to reach mankind.
     In Matthew 13:4-30, “the Son of Man will send his angels. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen.”
     “If you seek an angel with an open heart, you shall always find one.”
     Most Catholic churches have stained glass windows that frequently show some of our angels.
     And Christmas cards frequently use illustrations of our angels.
     Some of the enticing chapter headings are Concerning Angels, The Heavenly Kingdom, Archangels, What Angels Do for Us, Dreaming of Angels, Angels of the Modern World.
     One night this reviewer propped this big and heavy, very beautiful book up on a couple of cushions and had a wonderful evening reading and then went to sleep and dreamed of angels. The author says we dream of our angels often and just do not recall the dreams.
     You may remember as you read that Catholics frequently sing at funerals a hymn entitled “On Eagles Wings.”
     If you are not thoroughly acquainted with your angels, here you are, your very own angels. All of them messengers from God.
     Get acquainted with your personal archangel. You have one, whether you know it or not, the author states.
     And remember all those little boys named Michael running and marching around playing warriors. They are named for an angel of God named Michael in the New Testament and Micah in the Old Testament.
     It is easy to know why this author’s books are frequently used as textbooks. Both of art and religion.

     “True Compass, A Memoir” by Edward Morgan Kennedy, 532 pages, $35, Twelve publishing, www.twelve books.com.
     If you have anything you simply must do, you better not pick up this book. No matter where you open it, you will be caught up in the story of this man who served 47 years in the U. S. Senate.
     Open it anywhere and you will be intrigued by the story of this youngest in a family of public servants. On the dust jacket there is the smiling face of Ted Kennedy who led a fascinating life, a public life, even in the last year he lived, having been told that he would die soon of a diagnosed brain cancer.
     He was treated and proceeded to endorse Barack Obama for president in a tremendous effort to go on with the longtime effort of the Kennedys to carry the torch for various programs to make better the lives of people, all people in this country.
     This is the saga of the entire family of Joseph Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, their nine children and their many children and great-grand children.
     When Joe Sr. was ambassador of this country to England, he and his family were asked by FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) to represent this country at the coronation in Rome of Pope Pius XII in March of 1939.
     The next day after the coronation ceremony “Dad had an audience with the new pope, and on Wednesday, March 15, I received my First Holy Communion from the pope himself.      As he blessed me, he said, ‘I hope you will always be as good and pius as you are today.’ It caused a great deal of a stir in some circles — a seven-year-old American boy given his First Communion by the pope and to a non-Italian to boot.
     “But it was among the greatest moments of my life. I received a beautiful rosary blessed by the pontiff on that occasion, which I later gave to my stepdaughter Caroline Raclin on the day of her First Holy Communion some 60-odd years later.”
     Much of the book is from the notes and writings of Teddy Kennedy himself, carefully saved through the years, along with the many photos in this book.
     This is all about a large Irish Catholic family, several generations who have lived in this country and been noted for their public service.
     One of the earlier members of the Kennedy family once said he wondered when they would stop being called Irish Catholics and be called instead American Catholics.

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