KIRKUS REVIEW
Five years after the publication of Crossing the Threshold of Hope, this new volume is a pastiche of words and images designed to warm the heart and challenge the soul. A collection of excerpts from Pope John Paul II’s writings and speeches, this coffee-table-book-cum-meditative-devotional introduces the reader to the pope’s vision for the Church and the world. Interwoven with commentary by Time correspondent Greg Burke, the pope’s writings are divided into short thematic chapters. Those familiar with the pope’s teachings will find nothing startling in these pages; rather, they crystallize familiar material on such topics as the family, human rights, and Mary (though, curiously, treating neither God nor the Church in distinct chapters). The text is moving in places, thought-provoking in others, but what makes this book special are the color photographs. From the cover photo (which reveals John Paul II to be a surprisingly handsome, even sexy, pontiff) to the image of nuns sporting sunglasses, from the pictures of Karol Wojtyla as a boy to a striking snapshot of Fatima, from a picture of a young girl’s hands clasped in prayer to a depiction of the pope, clad in red, at prayer, the photographs are a feast for the eyes.
