Written after a serious hip fracture had left her bedridden at the age of seventy-eight, With the Church belongs to the final period of Mother Loyola's long apostolate of devotional writing. Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that these pages carry a particular urgency. More than ever, she knew the importance of ordering our days toward eternity, for we “know not the day nor the hour.”
Yet With the Church is no systematic commentary on the liturgy. Instead, Mother Loyola invites us to live the mysteries of our Faith as the Church sets them before us throughout the year: to go where She goes, see with Her eyes, feel with Her heart, and learn from Her how to follow Christ. Beginning with Advent and continuing through Christmas, Lent, the Sacred Passion, Easter, and the Ascension, each season becomes an opportunity not merely to commemorate the mysteries of Our Lord's life, but to allow them to shape our own.
As always, Mother Loyola's thoughts range freely from Scripture and the liturgy to human nature, current events, everyday duties, discouragement, suffering, joy, and the practical demands of the spiritual life. The result is less like a formal treatise than the intimate conversation of a wise old friend who has traveled far along the road herself, and wants us to keep in step with our Mother the Church.
As Father Herbert Thurston, S.J., observed in his preface, there is a reality about these seemingly casual musings that is often lacking in more formal works. Here, perhaps more than anywhere, we are invited simply to sit beside Mother Loyola and ponder…with the Church.
You can find Volume II here.
5.5" x 8.5" paperback 380 pages
