Deacon Sean Loone from Our Lady of the Wayside parish in Shirley has issued a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to everyone across the Archdiocese and beyond who has snapped up copies of his books.

Thanks to this generous support more than £2,600 has so far been raised for those in need.

Over the last 18 months Deacon Sean has written no less than 150,000 words across three books and donated all the profits from the last two to charity.

The project started in October 2019 with the first book in the series, ‘Born For Us – A Journey Into the Real Meaning of Christmas’.

This was followed up in July 2020 with ‘Only In The Crucified God – Questions and Answers on Faith, Hope and Love’ with all the profits being donated to CAFOD.

The final book in the series, ‘Sharing In the Life of God – A Journey Into the Real Meaning of Easter’ was published in January with profits going to the Father O’Mahony Memorial Trust.

To date profits from the sales of the last two books have amounted to £2,673.75, which equates to about 813 units. And Deacon Sean is hopeful of hitting the £3,000 mark by the end of the year!

His new project, which explores what it means to be a ‘Servant of the Word’, is already underway.

“As a Deacon I wanted to combine two aspects of my ministry, that of being a servant of the word to that of being a servant of charity, in order to be able to help people in desperate need,” said Deacon Sean.

“All the books in the series only use the Bible, God’s Word, as the exclusive resource to reach out and touch people’s lives today.

“So I am absolutely thrilled at the sales so far - which have exceeded my expectations.

“I am extremely grateful for all the help and support I have received from people across the Archdiocese and beyond. It would be great now if by the end of the year we could reach a donation figure of £3,000.”

All three books are available to buy online at Amazon.