NEW TITLES FOR 2023

Looking Ahead

A Catholic Handbook for School Students

The Association of Catholic Women / Catholic Truth Society £14.95 CH75 | Hardback | 112pp ISBN 9781784697471

Figuring out what it means to be a disciple of Christ as a young person today is tricky. If you think about it, you probably have a lot of questions: How am I supposed to know what’s true? Or know what to do? Who has the answers? Is it science? Is it the Bible? How does it all fit together? And what does it mean for my life?

Looking Ahead answers big questions about life, God, and the world. Full of useful information, quirky facts, assorted prayers, stories of saints and heroes, and beautiful illustrations, this is a book to help you make sense your amazing calling to follow Jesus Christ.

When did Christianity arrive in Britain? Two thousand years ago, Britain was part of the Roman Empire – that same Roman Empire into which Christ was born. The Empire stretched across nearly all of what we today call Europe, as well as Asia Minor, much of North Africa and the Holy Land.

After Christ told his Apostles to go out and spread the Good News to all nations, they set out to do just that, and they gathered other missionaries to help them.

We don’t know the names of the first Christians to arrive in Britain, but it was certainly in Roman times. A legend says that it was a small group led by Joseph of Arimithea, the man who provided the tomb for Christ’s body to be laid in. The group is said to have landed on the western coast of Britain, at Glastonbury in Somerset –then a marshy district where boats drew in from the sea – but so far there is no reliable evidence for that story.

Looking Ahead would make a beautiful (and useful!) gi for a young person moving on om primary school or just finding their feet in secondary school. This attractive volume is perfect for a prize giving or presentation book. It would pair well with a Bible and a copy of YouCat to bring the Faith alive in the heart and mind of a young person. Not a book to be le on the shelf, the breadth of its contents means that it contains something to catch the interest of virtually any schoolchild.

It is certainly a fact that there was trade between western Britain and the rest of the Roman Empire. For example, tin from Cornwall was sold as far away as the Middle East.

Christianity flourished here in Britain as it did in the rest of the Roman Empire. When the Empire collapsed, pagan Angles and Saxons invaded from across the North Sea, taking over what came to be known as England.

Christianity survived in western areas, including what we today call Wales and Cornwall. In their turn, the Saxons were converted to Christianity by missionaries sent from Rome, including St Augustine of Canterbury. When he arrived in Britain in the seventh century, Augustine encountered strong groups of Christians whose history dated back to Roman times.