Hidden Treasures, Archbishop Christopher Prowse. ST PAUL’S PUBLICATIONS, ISBN 9781925494846.
In discussions about the Catholic Church bishops are often regarded as a homogeneous and faceless group. Their individual personalities and gifts are swallowed up by their collective role. Even their sermons and writing are sometimes seen as interchangeable.
Hidden Treasures, a collection of spiritual reflections by Canberra Archbishop Christopher Prowse, shows why people might think like this. But we can also see how unjust it would be. This is certainly a Bishop’s book. It reflects the thought of a Church leader whose life is dedicated to the Catholic Church, and to sharing the Gospel within his Church.
The book is thoroughly and unapologetically Catholic. But it is also deeply personal. Prowse reflects on his experiences before and after being made a bishop, on personal encounters with people who enliven his faith, and on the day-to-day challenges of proclaiming the Gospel in a world unfamiliar and sceptical about its language. He deals with the large coinage of every human life: faith, hope, peace, with people including prisoners and victims of bushfires.
It is a conversational book in which he explores questions, shares his puzzlement and failures, and comes to conclusions while leaving space for the reader to disagree with him. This makes it an excellent book for reflection, companionable rather than magisterial, invitational rather than didactic, and – dare one say – humble rather than episcopal (in the heavy sense of that word). He writes not as a heavy but as a brother. It is indeed a hidden treasure.