'The Friends of Jesus' book cover from publisher Piccola Casa Editrice
Posted on 07/21/2010 10:41:12 AM PDT by NYer
.- A new children's book has been published under Pope Benedict XVI's name. It presents a collection of the Holy Father's descriptions of Jesus' relationship with his "first companions," taken from his catecheses at general audiences over the past five years.
The illustrated book titled "Gli Amici di Gesu" (The Friends of Jesus) was released in spring of 2010 by the Milanese publishing house Piccola Casa Editrice in Italian. Painted depictions from the hand of Franco Vignazia accompany the stories of Jesus and 14 of his "friends."
The characters in the book include each of the original 12 apostles, including Judas Iscariot; Matthias, who replaced Judas after the betrayal, and St. Paul.
The 48-page volume produced for the youngest of readers is a "route that takes the reader to the origins of the Church, through the events of the first people who found Jesus and became his friends," according to the publishing house.
Fr. Julian Carron, president of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, says in the preface of book that, through the stories, "The Pope takes us by the hand and accompanies us to discover who were the first companions of Christ, how they found him and how they were conquered by him until they decided that they would never abandon him again."
Lorenzo Murnigotti, editorial coordinator of the Piccola Casa Editrice publishing house, told CNA that it reproduces Pope Benedict's perspective of the most significant moments between them and the Teacher, dedicating each of them three to four pages.
The publisher, he explained, came up with the idea to compile the Pope's descriptions for a young audience after they noticed that references to the apostles during his traditional Wednesday catecheses were also directed to children.
Through an agreement with the Vatican's publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, they were able to produce the book with the name of the author, "Benedetto XVI," on the cover.
Mr. Murnigotti hoped that English and Spanish versions would be published within the next year and added that, if given the opportunity, they will continue to print works by the Pope "very willingly."
Looking forward to the English translation.
Too bad it’s not in English. I just bought a catechism curriculum for my 3 yr old that’s based on Pope John Paul’s writings. Can’t wait to start it with my daughter!
In my humble opinion, the majority of fallen-away Catholics have done so due to sheer ignorance of their faith. I’m not letting that happen to my little one. I’m going up make sure she knows the fullness & richness of the Church.
I like that books from the Pope are being directed towards children.
This sounds wonderful. I would be willing to buy the English translation for my grandchildren!
Looking forward to the English translation.
^^
Same here.
You are all much more in the know than I am so perhaps you’ve already heard of catholic heritage curricula. It’s a catholic based home school curriculum but I don’t use it for that. I don’t have the ability to homeschool so I just buy portions of it to supplement what my daughter learns at preschool. I probably will always use it to have things we can use at home to enrich her learning. Anyway, she’s 3 and they have a surprising amount of PK stuff. We read religious books every night before bed & she’s become quite interested in Jesus & Mary & can now say the Our Father & the Hail Mary all by herself. Their website is www.chcweb.com
Do you have a link to that source? Perhaps I can incorporate it into the Rel Ed program of the parish. Thank you!
Hi,
the website where I purchased it is www.chcweb.com. The series is called “who am I?”. I have the teachers’ manual, pre-k, and k curriculum for (I think) $30 or thereabouts.
There are also many other books on that site. I’ve purchased almost $300 worth of activity books, coloring books, big rosary beads (big for toddler fingers), etc etc etc. It’s great. If you have little ones in your family, take a look at the Catholic Childrens’ Treasure Box series. It’s wonderful. Old-school.
Oops!! Just looked at it again. It’s the Image Of God Series. The “Who Am I?” part is just the grade level.
My bad. Sorry.
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