"Some of the meditations collected in this book are on explicitly religious topics: the timeless glory of the Easter Vigil; how we talk to God in prayer; what our bodies will be like in Heaven. Others are vignettes of everyday life in New York City: encountering a rude beggar and a kind one; wondering how a little boy seen in Central Park will go through his life; surviving a cacophony of cell phones. Father Austin's observations are always razor sharp, his insights often surprising (I had never thought of a Xerox machine in just that way). 'Priest in New York' is a rich book, funny, moving, instructive, illuminating." (Linda Bridges, author and editor) --------------------------------------- With a foreword by Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, who writes: "This is a quiet book about a loud city, a faithful diary of a world too often given to faithlessness."