Ward Books

One unfortunate phenomenon beginning over forty years ago resulting from the new use of the local vernacular in Catholic liturgies was the imposition of whose language and culture was the local vernacular. Thus we found the predominantly English speaking hierarchy in the United States imposed English in parishes where English was rarely heard. Thus was a predominating culture and the language of the oppressors imposed upon populations which did not speak nor pray in that language. Thus did Church become less a home of prayer, a support family and of compassionate solace and more of just another instrument of acculturation and of alien oppression, of cruelest and most callous assimilation into a local culture without any theological basis, without the all-embracing Catholicism by which we pray together. At least with the universal usage of Latin in our liturgy every parishioner of no matter what language group could become equally confused.

The demographic disconnect of hierarchy and faithful has only increased with the latest nominations to the College of Cardinals, yet we now discover some slight recognition of the cultural and linguistic diversity of our Holy Roman Catholic Church in the Americas, including the United States. Indeed we may note with interest the closing of English-speaking parishes for lack of parishioners and the abundant overflowing of Other-Than-English parish halls, including the Latin American, Filipino, Polish, etc. The hierarchy now welcomes the migrant in our midst, and provides wherever able sanctuary and services. The USCCB now puts out official letters encouraging the reception of migrant families as one family in the Faith, including such letters as One Family Under God (Publication / United States Catholic Conference). On the other hand we may read Breach of Faith: American Churches and the Immigration Crisis.

Here in "Many Faces, One Church" we have at hand an excellent collection of essays discussing cultural diversity within the United States Roman Catholic Church, edited by Father Peter Phan, S.T.D., PhD., D.D., who holds the Ignacio Ellacuria Professorship of Catholic Social Thought at the great Jesuit institution of Higher Education, Georgetown University. To understand more fully the significance of the late and Reverend Father Ellacuria, a martyr of the Americas, please see The Ground Beneath The Cross: The Theology Of Ignacio Ellacuria (Moral Traditions) and Love That Produces Hope: The Thought Of Ignacio Ellacuria as well as Mysterium Liberations: Fundamental Concepts of Liberation Theology and the account of his martyrdom presented in Companions of Jesus: The Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador with biographies of all who were massacred alongside him.

This present book is co-edited by Dr. Diana Hayes, J.D., S.T.D., PhD., an associate professor of Theology, also at Georgetown University. It is published by Rowman and Littlefield through the great Sheed and Ward's Catholic Studies series. In part, the series is explained as "present(ing) reader-friendly texts to college classrooms and the broader community of faith and learning. Authored by scholars committed to both solid academic context and the lived experience of faith today, the books in the series are interdisciplinary and represent the Catholic heritage in all its richness. Consistent with Sheed and Ward's distinguished history, these books promise quality, character, and an approach to the Catholic experience that is in tune with the sign of the times." In this present volume that promise is fulfilled.

The opening Introduction is written by Father Phan himself setting the context for the discussion which follows from several perspectives within our one Faith. Father Phan ably defines the terms and conditions to follow.

Two chapters which follow hold particular interest to me now as I live on the US and Mexican border and very actively attend Church in a Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, including serving as lector, etc. These chapters reflect "On America as a Single Entity: Catholicism and US Latinos" written by the Jesuit Boston College's Professor and Dr. Roberto Goizueta, author as well of Caminemos Con Jesus: Toward a Hispanic/Latino Theology of Accompaniment. The second chapter now of special interest to me and my devotions is entitled "Devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe among Mexican Americans" written by Professor Jeanette Rodriguez, PhD., author of several theological studies, including Our Lady of Guadalupe: Faith and Empowerment among Mexican-American Women.

As earlier I had worked in urban African American and Catholic Churches, as long ago as forty-odd years, I am also revitalized to read Professor Diana Hayes's contribution in "Black Catholics in the United States: A Subversive Memory." Other chapters are devoted to Caribbean American Catholics, Asian and Pacific People in the American Catholic Church, etc., plus a few general chapters on cultural diversity's gift to theology and our Catholic Church, and our facing up in a new way to our ancient diverse ecclesial reality.

This book therefore is highly recommended for scholars examining the present state of our Church in the USA, and especially for those ministering to our diverse Church. It is especially useful for those contemplating the essentials of our Faith as opposed to the cultural vestiges which are transformed and enriched from group to group. This book can help us become truly Catholic and effective missionaries in truth and in compassion within our own nation. This book is important for all Catholics to contemplate as we learn to live with and even to embrace, not simply at best tolerate, the fullness of grace of our great and Catholic Church.

Allen M. Ward's book is on the life and political impact of Marcus Licinius Crassus during the Late Republic. Crassus was a venerated member of the Roman nobilitas who was always a behind-the-scenes power broker in Rome and never really in agreement with his fellow patricians. He had a distinguished place in having served the consulship twice and as Censor once over the course of his life: the highest offices of state a Roman could attain. Modest and friendly yet wealthy and ambitious, he chose to remain mostly in the civil sphere as a court advocate instead of pursuing commands abroad: his service under Sulla, his command against Spartacus' slave revolt, and his Parthian expedition were the limits of his military posts. His father and older brother had perished under Marius' sanguinous siege and massacre of Rome itself and he became a strong ally of Sulla from whom he profited immensely. Sulla's proscriptions gave him much real estate and he had ties with the equestrian class in state contracts for tax farming: his father had also left him interests in Spain where he had much clientelae and several mines.

Distancing himself from the conservative retrenchment of Sulla's regime early on, Crassus came to follow more moderate positions by promoting poor patricians and wealthy plebeians to political offices by lending them money and, at the opportune time, asking them for political favors instead of interest as payment. Crassus following this traditional Roman custom of not levying interest with an ability to call the debt in full whenever he pleased was an extremely effective bargaining chip in getting the political results he wanted. Censors could strike someone out of political office if they were judged to be insolvent by a court enforcing a debt and a dependant political upstart would be willing to do anything to avoid the overwhelming pecuniary demands of such an influential a patron to the likes of Crassus. The debt-burdened Caesar realized that with his own creditors when Crassus bailed him out of a huge debt of 800 talents/19,200,000 sesterces just prior to the commencement of his Spanish governorship: a post of which Crassus probably needed help as his interests in Spain were most likely in jeopardy to Pompey's recent political encroachments there to primarily settle veterans and expand his clientelae. Senatorial power plays such as the latter often made Crassus a bitter enemy of Pompey The Great and Cicero. Crassus therefore saw much potential in Caesar to keep them in check.

Through incessant political machinations, Crassus and Caesar were the main force behind the formation of the First Triumvirate with a deflated Pompey at Luca in 56 B.C. Crassus' political zenith came soon after in 53 B.C. when he was campaigning in Parthia serving the proconsulship in the East he had won after very dirty consular elections involving bribery, political trials, hired mobs, and violence. Despite his strong political position in Rome, his poor knowledge of the immense Parthian empire and his overconfidence in his ten legions would cost him dearly. Cavalry was what he needed most to protect the flanks of such a large infantry and yet he was accompanied only by a slim auxilliary cavalry contingent of 4000 Gauls on loan from Caesar along with a small contingent of treacherous Nabatean horse/camel men on loan from Pompey. He and his eldest son perished in the parched valleys and hills near Cahrrae in modern western Iraq/eastern Syria after he and his army were enveloped by Parthian heavy cavalry and horse archers. The archers had a limitless supply of arrows from nearby camel caravans and simply turned in circles around the legions while decimating their ranks. More than half of his army would be dead or captured while the rest would withdraw in tatters to the sole remaining leadership of Cassius Longinus, the future tyranicide, who had stayed behind in Syria.

The death of Crassus death created a major political vacuum in Rome with the untying of his clientelae and political dependants such as senators, equestrians, tribunes, etc. Unable to wield the influential legacy of his father, the young Marcus Crassus followed Caesar instead as with many others who would mostly go either to Caesar or Pompey: polarizing the Pompeiian and Caesarian factions against each other leading to the Civil War and the end of the Republic. A great stigma was therefore attached to Crassus' memory and even Roman policy in the East. Fearing a devastating loss to the likes of Crassus, all emperors until Trajan mostly limited their diplomacy in the East in small commitments to none at all. Augustus himself was happy just to bring the old captured standards received from Parthia as a diplomatic gesture back to Rome.

By meticulously retracing classical references with a strong emphasis on Plutarch as well as Cicero's letters and trials, Ward reveals the biases and how they have been propagated by even modern scholars. He also adds new facts and paradigms as to Crassus in the political sphere. Ward demonstrates Crassus was no different in his methods than most of his noble and patrician contemporaries seeking public office and overseas appointments. Overall, Ward reviews the character and motives of one of Rome's wealthiest and most influential politicians by following the ups and downs of his political career. The book offers keen insight as to how Crassus used his wealth and political influence to establish alliances and so leverage his interests against those of his political opponents. Finally, Ward also criticizes the conclusions of previous writers such as Munzer and Syme identifying Publius as the younger son and Marcus as the older: he is of the contrary opinion and his supporting arguments are far more cogent than those of Syme or Munzer.

An erroneous presumption in this work and many others referring to Crassus is that he was a plebeian when historical evidence is more conclusive in showing that he was a patrician instead. Some scholars have argued that Crassus was of a plebeian branch of the Licinii clan because that was the case with his cousin Lucius Licinius Lucullus. Patrician clans often splintered into plebeian ones after the laws barring intermarriage between the two classes were lifted earlier in the Republican period. The fact then that both were of the same original clan and somewhat close relatives means nothing at all: Lucullus' clan having gone into the plebeian caste doesn't mean that Crassus' did so as well. The most conclusive evidence that Crassus was a patrician can be derived by his service as consul with Pompey The Great in 70 and 55 B.C. The laws of the consulship required that one candidate be a patrician and another a plebeian and nothing indicates that any exceptions were ever made to that rule. First of all, patrician lineage had to originate from the earliest days of Rome such as with Caesar claiming that the Iuli clan originated from Aeneas' son Iulius. Pompey was from Picenum which was a comparatively new region to have received the Latin rights granted by Rome. In comparison, the Licinii clan was an Etruscan one which originated as a patrician clan during the earliest days of Rome when it was a monarchy. The most obvious indication of Crassus being a patrician is through Pompey's father who served as a tribune prior to his consulship. Since only plebeians could serve as tribunes, Pompey was certainly one as well. In comparison, there is no evidence that any members of Crassus' immediate family ever served in the tribunate. Some have also argued that Crassus was a plebeian because of his equestrian status but that is by far the weakest argument. The fact is that equestrian status was not barred to patricians even though the class was usually dominated by plebeians. Both Crassus and Pompey were equestrians and could obviously not have been both plebeian if the class required it since the consulship mandated that one be plebeian and the other a patrician. Overall then, all of the facts more strongly indicate that Crassus was a patrician and not a plebeian contrary to Ward's conclusion and popular opinion.

In conclusion, there being perhaps only three concise studies of this most intriguing of Roman statesmen two of which are biased, this is one of those three books and is a must have for anyone who is interested in Crassus specifically or the Late Republic in general. I wouldn't recommend this work as an introductory text on Roman history as its depth and scope would already require some basic knowledge of the subject. It is indispensable to any one who wants to advance their knowledge on the politics of the Late Roman Republic.

Marketing Due Diligence is based on leading research performed at Cranfield University in the UK. It outlines a newly defined process that combines proven strategic and financial management practices with new concepts about organisational effectiveness to link marketing strategy to shareholder value. This book is a valuable resource for executives motivated to determine the relationship between the expense of implementing marketing strategies and share price.

If you like mysteries and great enganging writing skills. . . the kind that keep you up way past your bed time and get you into work late. . . this book if for you. I love Aurthur Conan Doyle, but this guy is better. Half way through the book I found myself reading slower because I didn't want it to end!

This impressive and helpful Marian treatise, blessed with both the Censor Librorum's Nihil Obstat as proof that nothing, doctrinal nor moral, obstructs its publication, and the Imprimatur of the Vicar General of Westminister ordering its publication, serves as companion piece to this influential and effective author's Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter With God.

First published in 1954 in the Netherlands as Maria, Moeder van de verlossing, it reflects perhaps the highest point of orthodox Thomistic methodology. I review here the 1964 Sheed and Ward edition while recognizing another edition emerged thirty years later, which I long to see, as the author continuously revised and amended each edition.

In any case, and following the stern warnings of Pope Pius XII, it avoids scrupulously any heretical idolizing of the Virgin Mother, but always maintains Mary as foremost in the light of the Redeemer, hence the careful title, and chapter headings.

Nevertheless we find here at the climax of this beautiful book the most profound and meaningful examination of the spiritual, psychological, sociological and theological implications of the daily prayer of the Rosary, both in solitude and silence and as a family or prayer community. This section alone remains essential reading in every Catholic family or in every hermitage, and is substantial and nourishing and fortifying food for our letio divina, as is the rest.

Some readers may find the Thomistic methodology and technical theological language discouraging, which is why this is best read as lection divina, with its slow process of meditation and re-reading for comprehension. Like with the great novelist Mr. James Joyce, we ever understand more deeply the more we re-read it, which is an elevating joy in itself. THe more often we read this work the more we enter the mystery of Mary, the MOther of God, and the more we build our abilities to read further works by this great Catholic theologian, teacher and preacher, not only his Christ, the Sacrament mentioned above but also his monumental theological trilogy consisting of Jesus: An Experiment in Christology, Christ: The Experience of Jesus as Lord and Church: The Human Story of God.

Meanwhile I remain with this very welcome book. Perhaps we no longer read and think along Thomistic lines, but I find a home here, and a depth, and I receive this holy book with great gratitude and thanks to Almighty God as an aid to my weak intellect and my Faith within this present darkness.

Please acquire this old yet traditional book today, still closely studied by Catholics everywhere and see if it doesn't slowly over time with careful and repeated reading clarify and deepen our appreciation and understanding of the primary place of Mary within all salvation history, and impulse and compell our prayerful practice of praying under her protection, with her generous help, as our advocate and Mother longing to stand with us in prayer. As we see clearly in Our Lady of LaSallette, she pleads our case contnually with her Son:

"They have no wine."
"Woman, what is this to me."

And she instructs us:
"Do whatsoever He tells you do."

And He tells us to love one another, to turn the other cheek, to do good to those who harm us, to love our enemies, to do unto others what we want them to do unto us. And He changes our water into wine, and the wine into His Most Sacred Blood, which He gives that we might have Eternal Life in abundance.

And she presents the most powerful prayer after Her Son's own prayer, in the Magnififcat, once prayed daily with particular liturgical gestures and openings by religious throughout the Church, now mostly unknown to the Catholic laity for its revolutionary eschatalogical message, as beautfully commentated by Father MAestri in Mary: Model of Justice (Reflections on the Magnificat).

Read this Book, and that one, too.

I have presented a few product updates for this excellent introduction to the mysteries of Mary, including that this book is not four but fifty-eight pages, and with author listed as Elizabeth Hart, MA, not yet Mother Columba Hart.

The wonderful hardcover edition which came to me through the excellent Saint Anthony's sellers originally resided well cared for and loved in a Dominican College Library in New Orleans. It came to me in nearly unused condition after all of these years and upsetting events. But this review is not of the miracle of its provenance but of the early Scriptural commentary itself.

What is most remarkable about this book entitled for the mighty canticle of Mary for which it is named is how very few of the Magnificat's many revolutionary verses the author actually examines, or even quotes. The author instead meditates Rosary and Angelus mysteries, including the Annunciation, the Visitation (scene of the declaration of the Magnificat), the Nativity, the Presentation or Purification, and the Epiphany.

What is rather unique about this rather slim and beautifully printed volume is its early and close consideration of unwritten aspects of Mary's life and experiences of the Divine, reading between the Biblical lines, and its being written by a woman (here called Elizabeth Hart, MA, rather than Columba as advertised. Whether Elizabeth later became the well known Mother Columba Hart merits further research on my part, and I beg you forgive my laziness at this time). Thus it contains a very traditional presentation of the Marian mysteries, enlivened from a woman's viewpoint (not yet called feminist nor inclusive).

Certainly a volume worthy of close and prayerful study today, written from within the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of sixty-five years ago, a time in which such scholarly Biblical studies were not widespread, nor those written by women aside from the great Dorothy L. Sayers.

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Recently I received Spirit of Grace (an early meditation on the gifts and presence of the Holy Spirit) by the same author, which explains that Elizabeth Hart indeed became Mother Columba HArt, OSB, although written while still Elizabeth.

Massage Made Easy begins with background information on the history and benefits of massage, basic massage strokes, and information about acupressure and reflexology. The rest of the book consists of massage routines for specific goals, including relaxation, and relief of backache, tension headache, and joint pains. The reader is given a step-by-step routine of which stokes to perform, and acupressure and reflexology techniques. The routines are illustrated with hundreds of color photographs that show exactly how to do it. Important safety guidelines and information about massage oils are also provided. Overall, I found this book very interesting and easy to understand.

After many years of study, I have come to accept the reality of automatic writing, the method by which Suzanne Ward tells us that the contents of the book were communicated to her by her discarnate son, Matthew, some 14 years after his transition to the "other side" following an auto accident.

Nevertheless, I did approach this book with much skepticism, not the pseudo-skepticism of the closed-minded cynics who call themselves skeptics. One never knows for certain whether the writing is in fact coming from spirit or whether it is coming from the subconscious. Of course, it could also be total fabrication. Suzanne Ward seems honest and sincere and so I ruled out the latter. To fabricate such material would be in total opposition to the message. As for it coming from the subconscious, Ward recognized this possibility and explained that many of the ideas coming from Matthew were totally alien to her, even to her imagination. Thus, I was left to conclude that Suzanne Ward may very well be one of those gifted with the ability to communicate with the spirit world.

While many of the ideas expressed by Matthew are foreign to Christianity and other religions, they are similar to other revelation through mediums, including automatic writers. They appeal to reason and are consistent with a just and loving Creator. It should be kept in mind that much of the Bible is based upon such medimship. Moses receiving The Ten Commandments is an example of automatic writing.

Matthew describes his environment, the activities in his realm, the nature of time, the difference between angels and spirit guides, the effects of prayer, and other aspects of the "larger life," including the nature of transition from this side. Very little of it was new to me, but it would be very enlightening to people who have had little exposure to such "Truths," if we can accept them as such.

Since I am the first person to review this book, it seems that few people are open to these Truths. I think that is sad. We spend time reading "Harry Potter" and other fiction, but totally ignore books offering real wisdom, as this one does.

This book was well-planned from the outset. Three of the most highly respected authors from the US, Great Britain, and Germany bring treatment philosophies together in a manner that pays great attention to pictoral demonstration. A comprehensive book dealing with current approaches to cranio-maxillofacial trauma has been long overdue. Of particular mention here is the respect to which these authors have given to reconstruction of the soft-tissue component of injury, including facial nerve injury. The book is well-written in general. The treatment concepts reflect current practice standard, including the use of modern imaging and case preparation techniques. The color illustrations are well chosen throughout. It is highly recommended

Jeffrey R. Marcus MD
Chief, Pediatric Plastic Surgery
and Craniofacial Surgery
Director, Craniomaxillofacial Trauma
Duke University
Durham NC USA

This is an interesting tale for elementary-school aged kids. Tasneem moves to a new town and quickly makes friends in her new school. But the new friends can't understand why Tasneem wears her scarf at school and not at home, and why she won't eat meat at school despite enjoying burgers at home.
The story takes place in England, so some of the terminology needs to be explained to American kids. My daughters enjoyed reading about a Muslim girl in an everyday setting.