APPROACH TO CALVARY

Every Lent one book on the subject of Christ's Passion stands out above all others. Last year Father Ralph Gorman's masterful Last Hours of Jesus was that book. This Lenten season Approach to Calvary by the renowned spiritual writer, Dom Hubert Van Zeller, O.S.B. should be that title. (This is the latest in a series of Father Van Zeller's ""Approach"" books which have included the well received Approach to Penance and Approach to Prayer). In a series of separate reflections on each Station of the Cross, Father Van Zeller deals with the subject of suffering in general as it relates to man today in terms of particular incidents from Christ's Passion. The book's format and arrangement make it suitable for personal devotion, and its meditations on Condemnation, Acceptance, Failure, Compassion, Cooperation, Generosity, Discouragement, Intention, Exhaustion, Detachment, Perseverance, Consummation and Aftermath point up the underlying theme of each Station. Father Van Zeller gives Approach to Calvary a timeless quality which will impel its owners to keep it close at hand throughout the year, and awake them to an awareness that ""a more serious menace to the Church's life than even atheistic Communism is apathetic Catholicism"".