Novena for stressed-out Catholics
9 DAYS TO HEAVEN: How to Make Everlasting Meaning of Your Life, by Teresa O’Driscoll. O Books, 2006. 110pp.
Reviewed by Michael Shackleton
Novenas of all kinds have been common among Christians for centuries. This one is proposed as a modern novena, suitable for today’s stressed people who need comfort and assurance that God is at the centre of their lives.
It will be helpful for those who find it hard to concentrate on their spiritual selves and that they belong to the kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of earth.
In nine chapters, O’Driscoll begins by presenting a choice: we are free to make a journey towards God or away from God.
Then, covering a number of meditations on this, she presents nothing new to those who are already on the journey to God, but she does so in a manner that may provide a refreshing realisation that the commonplace devotions and time-honoured practice of prayer could have deeper depths than most people might ever have imagined.
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