Instructions on the Christian Faith

Raymond Raynes, C.R., Late Superior, Community of the Resurrection

Edited by Nicholas Mosley and Christine Sunderland, with kind permission of the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield, England

Price: $5.00

Book Description

Excellent accessible book for retreats and classes.

Chapter Titles: Whose Son Is He? – Truth – What Am I? – Freedom – What Shall I Do? – Love – The Wages of Sin – Repentance – The Holy Catholic Church – Union – The Sacrifice – The Light of the World – The Sacraments – The Gospel – The Communion of Saints – Vocation – Prayer – The Cross – The Bible – Heaven. 85 pages, Perfect Bound, Paperback.

Nicholas Mosley, biographer of Father Raynes (The Life of Raymond Raynes, Faith Press, London) wrote in 1961:

“These talks were taken down as spoken by Father Raymond Raynes, C.R. during a fortnight’s mission at the church of St. Michael and All Angels, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A., in October 1957. Father Raynes had been Superior of the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield for fifteen years: he was to die a few months later. These talks are a distillation and a climax of his teaching. The missions that Father Raynes took during his last years had an extraordinary effect upon his hearers. He was ill, and his appearance was gaunt and startling. He spoke with no rhetoric, but with an intensity that kept people transfixed night after night who had come at first only from convention. His message was dogmatic and sometimes stern (also funny): but he exhilarated all those who heard him. They knew that he spoke from the heart of his own experience; and that he cared passionately to convey his faith to others. All his life he was ‘as one having authority.’ ”

Book Review by Ian McCormack of New Directions Publishing

“One of the joys of a private retreat at the house of a religious community is the serendipitous fnds in the retreat house library. In my own case on a recent trip to Mirfeld, it was actually the bookshop which yielded up the greatest gift, but the principle is still the same.” Read entire review [pdf].