Lavinia Byrne

The Bible is a book of stories par excellence and is wholly realistic about human nature. Hero, Lover, Daughter, Queen retells ten timeless stories of biblical characters who grappled with the reality of the human condition and reached beyond themselves for understanding from within the messy confines of lives like ours. · Solomon – how to create your legacy; · The lover in the Song of Songs - what makes you beautiful? · Goliath – what makes you strong? · The paralytic man – where to find true friendship; · Jezebel – what it’s like to be thrown to the dogs; and more. Contemporary issues such as racism, the environment, mental health and wellbeing come under the spotlight in this imaginative book. In these striking stories we are offered a mirror in which to see ourselves more clearly, find wisdom for our own times, make better sense of our own experiences and insights for navigating our way through today’s complex world.

A powerful new Lent course for Bible study groups and individuals, based on the Oscar-nominated 2021 film West Side Story.

This book offers various themes from the Christian tradition to help the reader to pray. Its title makes a play on words, for original prayer is prayer that looks to its roots. So there are chapters that look consciously at great historical figures from the Christian story. Teresa of Avila takes us to medieval Spain and visions of growth in prayer that are strikingly contemporary in their psychological astuteness. With Francis of Assisi we learn to put God at the centre of everything and to let go of worldly ambition, finding instead true simplicity and contentment. Benedict takes us to the monastery as a 'school for the Lord's service', a place where we can learn how to live and pray in an organic way. Ignatius of Loyola teaches us to 'seek and find God in all things' and to discern the will of God in all our activities. Treasures from the Orthodox tradition come to us through the 'Jesus Prayer', as timeless as history itself. The chapter on the Taize community leads to the theme of pilgrimage in chapter six, while music and art too have a contribution to make and we learn to use both when coming into the presence of God. Then there is a chapter about online prayer and the book's title is given fresh force. The final chapter retreats from cyberspace and faces the really difficult question of how we pray when we are ill.

Lavinia Byrne believes that the Roman Catholic Church's teaching and pastoral practice is producing vocations to priesthood among women. This book looks forward to the day when Catholic women will be ordained, and addresses questions such as: when and how this might take place; who women are for and against; how women are organized; what the present-day Church thinking is on the subject; whether nuns are uncovering a call to ordination; and whether the ordination of women is a source of division or a source of healing.