Bishop Hugh Gilbert
Catholic Truth Society
ISBN 9781784690076
eISBN 9781784694647
ASIN B074KB7X2T
CTS Booklet D782
Over the last several years I have read over 400 volumes from the CTS. I have read books from many series. And many authors. A few authors so captured my attention I tried to track down all the books by them. This however was the third book I have read by Bishop Hugh Gilbert and also the final in the CTS Words 4. Unfortunately, in the eBook edition there is not a list of other volumes in the series, and I have only been able to find four other titles in the series and three are by this same author. The print edition was published in 2014 and the eBook in 2017.
The description of this volume is:
“This collection of Bishop Hugh Gilbert’s homilies for the Advent and Christmas season are an ideal companion to these wonderful seasons of hope and joy.
As Abbot of Pluscarden Abbey in Scotland and now as Bishop of Aberdeen, Bishop Hugh Gilbert’s homilies have gained him a reputation as a clear and profound teacher of the faith. This collection of homilies for the Advent and Christmas season are an ideal companion to these wonderful seasons of hope. “Advent is a time of hope. Advent culminates in Christmas, in the birth of a child. And what gives so much hope as the birth of a child?'”
Introduction
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Advent - a Time for Silence
Advent - a Time of Hope
Advent - the Time of the Baptizer
Advent - a Time of the Holy Spirit
Advent - God coming to birth in the world
Christmas - Midnight Mass
Christmas Day
Feast of St Stephen
Mary, Mother of God
Epiphany
Baptism of the Lord
We are told in the introduction:
“The liturgical year - with its Sundays and weekdays, Easter and Christmas, Advent and Lent, Ordinary time, ferias and feasts - is one of the great givens of the Christian life. We live our lives within it. This is true even when we are not consciously referring to it. It’s a framework, a mould, a supporting rhythm, a background that at some peak times becomes the foreground. It has, too, been one of the great facts of European and Western cultural history. We’re familiar with the civil year (which comes to us from the Romans), the financial year, the academic year … But there is this other presence too, still hanging on even in semi-pagan Britain - and every revolutionary attempt to conjure it away (1789, 1917) has itself foundered.
In the Roman Rite now, we have a liturgical year both luminously intent on the essentials and rich in its details. “By means of the yearly cycle,” says the Calendarium Romanum of 1969, echoing Vatican II’s Sacrosanctum Concilium, “the Church celebrates the whole mystery of Christ, from his Incarnation until the day of Pentecost and the expectation of his coming again. Central is the Easter Triduum - from the evening Mass of Maundy Thursday to the Compline of Easter Sunday. Out of this flows the Easter season, with its fifty days culminating in Pentecost, and towards it flows the critical season of Lent. Such is the “Easter cycle”.
Second to it in stature is the “Christmas cycle”, with its similar pattern of a season of celebration, running to the feast of the Lord’s Baptism, and a season of preparation, much-cherished Advent. There is the fine Byzantine phrase for all this: “the winter Pasch””
The volume contains 12 pieces that span from Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the Baptism of the Lord. These 12 pieces form a collection of homilies. Some of them deeply profound, many of them good, a few excellent. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up the first volume, this time I was a little more prepared. The first two were excellent so I picked up this third one. It is
I highlighted many passages in this volume, some of them are:
“The liturgical year-with its Sundays and weekdays, Easter and Christmas, Advent and Lent, ferias and feasts-is one of the great givens of the Christian life. We live our lives within it. This is true even when we are not consciously averting to it. It’s a framework, a mould, a supporting rhythm, a background that at some peak times becomes the foreground.”
“Second to it in stature is the “Christmas cycle”, with its similar pattern of a season of celebration, running to the feast of the Lord’s Baptism, and a season of preparation, much-cherished Advent. There is the fine Byzantine phrase for all this: “the winter Pasch”.”
“She’s in heaven. We are on earth, still struggling along. But together with her, and with the whole Advent Church, we cry out, “Come Lord Jesus! Come and save us!”, completely confident we’ll be heard.”
“An early Christian wrote, “To someone who has experienced Christ himself, silence is more precious than anything else.” For us God has the first word, and our silence opens our hearts to hear him. Only then will our own words really be words, echoes of God’s, and not just more litter on the rubbish dump of noise.”
“For all the noise, rush and rowdiness of contemporary Christmasses, we all know there is a link between Advent and silence, Christmas and silence.”
““Create silence!” How much we need this! The world needs places, oases, sanctuaries, of silence.”
“At the very least, such silence is a courtesy towards those who want to pray. It signals our reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. It respects the longing of the Holy Spirit to prepare us to celebrate the sacred mysteries.”
“Don’t we experience the Epiphany here? Here over the last years have come people from Africa, Asia and the mainland of Europe: Africans with gold-the love of life and God; Indians and Filipinos with incense-prayer and spicy food; Eastern Europeans with the myrrh of a painful history and an embattled faith. Coming here to Jesus and Mary, to the Eucharist and the Church in this place.”
“Let our hearts be enlarged, as Mary’s and Joseph’s must have been by their exotic visitors. And let all of us, wherever we’re from, let us allow the glory of God to open our hearts, in the great new space of the Church. Let us welcome one another. And with Mary and Joseph, angels and stars, shepherds and wise men, let us worship our God. He has appeared in the flesh, he is present in this Eucharist.”
The sermons are very interesting reads. Because they focus on the readings and purposes of specific church feasts over advent and Christmas. As a book they can be read they can provide great encouragement and a challenge through the season of season, as we encounter these feasts.
I loved all three volumes in this series written by Bishop Gilbert. This is an excellent volume from the Catholic Truth Society I can easily recommend it!
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2025 Catholic Reading Plan! For other reviews of books from the Catholic Truth Society click here.
Books by Bishop Hugh Gilbert:
Living the Mystery
Unfolding the Mystery
Words for Feast and Saint Days
Words for the Advent and Christmas Season
Words for the Lent and Easter Season
Hearing Christ’s Voice A New Lectionary for the Church
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