New book showcases people’s personal encounters with God

“Food for Faith” is an online ministry of Christchurch-based diocesan priest Fr John O’Connor and the book, edited by Fr O’Connor, is titled Fifth Gospel Living: God’s People Sharing Food for Faith.

At Easter 2024, having enjoyed reader testimonies in response to his blogs, Fr O’Connor invited contributions for a book with content from “21st-century Gospel writers”.

He said he never imagined that his Easter request, inviting people to tell of one personal experience of God, “would bring such an enthusiastic response, with 90 carefully considered and crafted reflections arriving in my inbox over the six Easter weeks”.

He said it is a fact of Christian faith that Jesus Christ spoke 2000 years ago, but it is also a fact of faith that “Jesus Christ is speaking and is teaching, is preaching and is healing in our own time and in our own neighbourhoods”.

Instead of “climbing our way to God, seeking to please and appease a God we perceive to live in distant heavens”, Fr O’Connor wrote, “God has come down to earth to be encountered in the nitty-gritty demands, duties and distractions of daily twenty-first-century living, and is in every place, accessible to every person in every moment”.

There are 96 stories in the book that tell of recognition of Jesus: in joyous family times, addictions, illness, rainbows, rivers, grief, physics and by individuals in unlikely and everyday spaces.

In a review in Tui Motu InterIslands, Catherine Perry wrote that few of the stories in the book are written by professional writers, “so the stories, not the writing, are the focus”.

“It took me a few chapters to settle with this, but the stories deserve patience and deliver much: the honesty of sadnesses shared, openness to ‘coincidences’ versus ‘a God moment’; admiration for a tough life overcome.

“Many prompt personal reflection. The stories are brief, often a few paragraphs, allowing the reader to dip in and out of a book. This will resonate with anyone ready for surprises from God and, potentially, to healing.”

A second volume is expected to follow later this year.

FULL STORY

Fifth Gospel Living: God’s People Sharing Food for Faith (Tui Motu InterIslands)

Fifth Gospel Living: God’s People Sharing Food for Faith – The CopyPress (The CopyPress)