SAN DIEGO: The latest book from Catholic Answers Press promises to open up rich new layers of meaning in the most familiar scenes of the Gospels. Secrets from Heaven by Norbertine Father Sebastian Walshe presents the parables and conversations of Jesus that most Christians think they know well—and shows that most of us have barely scratched their surface.
“The parables aren’t complicated, but they are inexhaustibly deep,” says Fr. Walshe, a priest and professor at St. Michael’s Abbey in Southern California. “No one needs a book to get something from them, but with guidance we can draw out the details of Jesus’ teachings in a way that a simple reading would never provide.”
Those fresh details—theological, historical, moral, typological, and more—are the “secrets” hinted by the title. Although Jesus preached publicly, the saving truths he communicated indirectly in his parables and conversations (as opposed to the direct way he taught the apostles) can only be fully appreciated by those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Drawing on Catholic tradition and sound biblical scholarship as well as his experience as a homilist and teacher, Fr. Walshe offers readers a chance to sharpen their eyes and ears—and so to know the heart of Jesus more intimately.
About the Author: Originally from Pasadena, Fr. Sebastian Walshe is a Norbertine Canon of the Abbey of St. Michael in the Diocese of Orange, California, where he is a professor of philosophy for the seminary program. After completing his studies at Thomas Aquinas College in California, he continued studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., receiving a license in Philosophy. Later, he attended the Pontifical University of St. Thomas at Rome (the Angelicum) where he received a Masters in Sacred Theology and a Doctorate in Philosophy.