A Celebration of Summer by David Adam
This moving and uplifting volume of personal reflections, poems and prayers is beautifully illustrated with over twenty fine art paintings. The long days of summer invite us to break out of our routine, to relax in the sunshine and simply enjoy living. Whether on a busy seashore, adrift on a river or in a flower garden, there is plenty to reawaken our appreciation of the beauty of the created world. Summer provides opportunities for adventure too - days to let ourselves be challenged, knowing that God always journeys with us and that we are bound to him with cords of love. David Adam reminds us how the saints we celebrate during the season - St John the Baptist, St Peter and St Mary Magdalene - experienced this kind of security, and suggests how each, in their way, can add colour to our lives. Darker is the parallel he draws between the mushroom cloud that engulfed Hiroshima on 6 August, and the explosion of love, evident at the Transfiguration of Christ, which we celebrate on that same day.