The book tells the life-story of John Bradburne[2] – mystic, poet, wanderer, care-taker of lepers. There are very few recordings of John reciting his own poetry[3] but a couple of them were featured in a short film about his life: Mombe! (Cry Cattle!)[4] and Love (1971)[5].

For a Catholic Christian, the Church and Jesus always go together, for the Church is Our Lord's mystical body[6], of which he is the head. The Apostle St. Paul in his epistle to Timothy refers to the Church as the "pillar and foundation of truth"[7]; St. Cyprian of Carthage, a bishop in the 3rd Century, would remind his flock that "he cannot have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother."[8] The Church is the context for my personal relationships with Jesus and His Blessed Mother[9]. It is in and through the Church that I have received and am continually strengthened by the life of Divine Grace[10], nourished with the very body and blood of Jesus[11], and taught the truth about myself, other men, the world and its Creator and Redeemer.

[1] http://www.johnbradburne.com/shop.php

[&] http://books.google.com/books?id=VjdXWDpt34YC&pg

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bradburne

[3] http://johnbradburnepoems.com/

[4] http://vimeo.com/23668242

[5] http://vimeo.com/23669547

[6] http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/docum...

[7] 1 Timothy 3:15, http://newadvent.org/bible/1ti003.htm

[8] On the Unity of the Church, paragraph 6, http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view....

[9] http://www.catholictreasury.info/books/true_devotion/index.p...

[10] http://www.christianperfection.info/tta5.php#bk1

[11] http://www.livemass.org/LiveMass/dailyHD.html