Trystan Owain Hughes – författare

Everyone suffers at some time or other - it's simply a part of life. But however bad things seem, we are never completely helpless. For the deeply affirming truth is that we can choose how to respond to adverse circumstances. Trystan Owain Hughes suggests that learning how to suffer and how to wait patiently may be the secret of finding joy in our lives. Diagnosed with a degenerative spinal condition, he was surprised to discover that, instead of increasing his unhappiness, it spurred him on to seek out sources of hope and meaning. The book opens by encouraging us to take a step back from our anxieties and worries and rest in the love of God. We then explore five areas where that love may be found in the midst of pain: in nature, memory, art, laughter and other people. By becoming conscious of the echoes of the transcendent in these areas, we will gain new strength. And paradoxically, through facing our suffering, learn to truly live.

In this lively and engaging follow-up to his much praised Finding Hope and Meaning in Suffering, Trystan Owain Hughes encourages us to develop an approach to life that looks beyond our own concerns. Using illustrations from poetry, literature and film, and drawing on contemporary scientific thought, the author reveals that our natural state is an interconnected harmony with God, with each other and with the world around us. Through showing compassion, which is love in action, we move towards that harmony and rediscover our reason for being.

This text charts and accounts for the remarkable growth of the Roman Catholic Church in Wales between the formation of its Province of Wales in 1916 and the commencement of the Second Vatican Council in 1962. This growth was at time when Noncomformity, hitherto predominant in Welsh religion, began its spectacular decline. It goes on to examine reaction to the expansion, both from within and outside the church. Catholics themselves became zealous in their enthusiasm as to the real possibility of the conversion of Wales to their faith, while many non-Catholics reacted with virulent hostility and prejudice. This reaction was heightened both as the growth came to be perceived as a political, and indeed Fascist, threat and as a number of prominent nationalists converted to Catholicisms. Anti-Catholic sentiment in Wales was strengthened by reactions to Papal dogma. Paradoxically, alongside this continuing animosity, there was also a gradual acceptance and reverence for the Roman Catholic Church, both for its individual members and for the Church at large.

Lent is not about giving up or taking up, but a radical opening up: the opening up of our lives to God’s transformative kingdom.That is the challenge Trystan Owain Hughes sets in Opening Our Lives. Through practical daily devotions he calls on us to open our eyes to God’s presence, our ears to his call, our hearts to his love, our ways to his will, our actions to his compassion and our pain to his peace.

While twentieth-century Welsh Nonconformity and the Anglican Church in Wales have both received historical attention, there is no similar treatment of the Roman Catholic Church. This study redresses this imbalance, and is based largely on previously unseen evidence. The book begins by charting and accounting for the remarkable growth of the Roman Catholic Church in Wales between the formation of its Province of Wales in 1916 and the commencement of the Second Vatican Council in 1962. This growth was at a time when Nonconformity, hitherto predominant in Welsh religion, began its spectacular decline. The book goes on to examine critically the reaction to the Catholic expansion, both from within and outside the Church. This new paperback edition of the book includes a fully updated bibliography and a new chapter exploring progress in the field since the book’s original publication.