Pure Joy Paperback

As the sub-title implies, conscience is something that often gets waylaid, buried or even forgotten.

Self-examination, which used to be seen as a pre-requisite before receiving Holy Communion, is now often relegated to being a minority exercise, which we may think of doing, perhaps in Lent.

This well presented 200-page paperback, with good bibliography and scriptural notes, aims to encourage readers to let Christ’s light sine into their consciences, to clean and liberate them. The four parts of the books look at what conscience is, what it tells you about yourself, how you respond to a guilty conscience, and how conscience can guide you and give you the blessings of joy following full and free forgiveness.

Although delving deeply into the subject this book is given added readability by the many fictional, but none the less realistic scenarios of people and their consciences (or lack of!) At the end of each chapter there is a helpful list of questions for personal study or group discussion.

However I found this book to be a journey of rediscovery of a very personal nature, as conscience is a most personal thing, which only you can examine. If you are prepared to go on this journey I would hope that you would find the route enlightening and, as a result, be helped to recalibrate your conscience according to God’s word.