Fr John O’Brien explores the theme of hope by examining how the challenges and difficulties that we face can ultimately deepen our humanity.

“It’s the idea that we become truly human by working through these things; not in running from them or pretending that we don’t have them,” he said. “There’s a Jewish expression that ‘there’s nothing so whole as a broken heart’, so the book is along that line.”

He said the book also counters the so-called ‘prosperity gospel’ which suggests that “if you pray enough the money will flow in”.

“The best of people give away what they have and never become rich. And they have a happiness,” he said.

“I write about St Francis and St Clare on that. And then I write about one of my old favourites, (rabbi and theologian) Abraham Heschel, and the idea that, in all of our suffering, God suffers. And that if somebody we know is suffering, God is suffering in that person.

“So when we relieve pain, we’re not just relieving the pain of a person, but the pain of God. It’s to get that idea across of the sanctity of a person. It’s not riches that determine our value. Some of the best people, and holiest people, you find in hospices and hospitals.”