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Understanding Our Story presents a concise introduction to the original, transformative thinking of Adrian van Kaam, CSSp, PhD (1920-2007). While many books are available on "spiritual formation" and "Christian disciplines," no other author of our time has offered such a holistic and comprehensive explanation of Christian formation and its relationship to the human spirituality of all persons. Understanding our Story culls the most seminal ideas and vocabulary from van Kaam's eleven volumes on formation science, formation anthropology, and formation theology, and provides examples of his theoretical-practical research drawn from everyday life, Scripture, Christian writers, and van Kaam's lif...
Some think that liturgy is formal, public, and for ordinary people, while mysticism is uncontrollable, private, and for extraordinary saints. Is there a connection between the two? In this volume, David Fagerberg proposes that mysticism is the normal crowning of the Christian life, and the Christian life is liturgical. We intuitively sense that liturgy and theology and mysticism have an affinity. Liturgical theology should reveal liturgy’s mystical heart. Liturgical theology asks “What happens in liturgy?” and liturgical mysticism asks “What happens to us in liturgy?”, and perfects our interior liturgy. In Liturgical Mysticism, Fagerberg directs the reader to look fixedly at Christ, who is the Mystery present in liturgy, and who bestows his resurrection power upon his adopted children. “In a time where both too wild and too mild spiritualities abound, it is audacious to put forward a book on liturgical mysticism. [This book] continues to enrich liturgical theology by amplifying its horizon and solidifying the foundation on which it rests.” Joris Geldhof Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Sister Mary David Totah was a nun of the Benedictine contemplative community of St Cecilia's Abbey on the Isle of Wight. American by birth, she was educated at Loyola University, the University of Virginia and Christ Church, Oxford. After a distinguished teaching career, she entered religious life in 1985. For 22 years until her early death from cancer she guided the young nuns of her abbey with enthusiasm, wisdom and wit. The spirituality to be found in the pages of this book demonstrates to the reader why her influence should have been so great and so deep. Her notes to the novices deal with issues of relevance to a world beyond the cloister: What is the meaning of suffering? How do we cope with living with people who annoy us? How do we relate to a God we cannot see? How do we make the big decisions of life? Sister Mary David's teaching was both profound and intensely practical, suffused with faith in God's joy in our work, leisure, community and family life but above all in our view and understanding of ourselves. This book, with an introduction by Abbot Erik Varden OCSO (author of The Shattering of Loneliness) shows us how to realize the Joy that is God.
God wants us to share our lives and our hearts with him. In this updated and expanded edition of a spiritual classic, Christian Brother Joseph Schmidt gently leads us to recognize that honest reflection before God on the ordinary experiences of our lives is the very means of our spiritual growth. As we speak to God about our personal story, we can explore the significance of our unrest, our joys, our fears, and our hopes. Then the Holy Spirit will lead us to self-knowledge and the freedom to accept and appreciate ourselves and our lives as they are. This book goes beyond any specific way of praying to the very heart of prayer: intimacy with God. - Valuable for any Christian, no matter where they are in their faith journey. - Helps readers view distractions in prayer as opportunities to draw closer to God. - Makes a thoughtful gift.
A collection of thirteen essays by leading scholars in the field, In God's Empire examines the complex ways in which the spread of Christianity by French men and women shaped local communities, French national prowess, and global politics in the two centuries following the French Revolution. More than a story of religious proselytism, missionary activity was an essential feature of French contact and interaction with local populations. In many parts of the world, missionaries were the first French men and women to work and live among indigenous societies. For all the celebration of France's secular "civilizing mission," it was more often than not religious workers who actually fulfilled the ...
This is a compilation of dialogues, prayers, and devotions intended to help everyone know, love, and follow the Holy Spirit.
Today, we can no longer hide under the pretence that the grace of God alone suffices to make one a good priest. A close study of the history of priestly formation has shown that not just the training of priests can ensure an authentic priest-product, rather a continuous effort to adapt the training to the current world situation so that priests would be in the position to discharge their duties effectively. Such readiness to adaptability should, of course, not lose sight of the meaning and function of the priest as revealed in the person of Jesus: a service to the world. In the bid to assess the models for the training of priests in South-eastern Nigeria, the author using a historical-critic...
The present book is the first work to highlight Catherine Doherty's vocation to spiritual motherhood. Drawing upon primary archival sources, the author traces Catherine's development as a staritsa, or spiritual mother in the Russian-Eastern tradition. Of particular interest are the chapters dealing with Catherine's exercise of spiritual motherhood for priests and laity alike. Previously unpublished letters of spiritual direction between Catherine and her major spiritual directors offer the reader a privileged glimpse into the soul of this servant of God and her spiritual children, as she grows in her vocation as staritsa. For example, in one striking letter, Catherine describes how she guided a disillusioned young priest who was struggling with a drinking problem and temptations involving young women, and was bordering on despair: "With clenched teeth I sailed into him, first gently, almost caressingly calling him back to Christ he once loved, then more sternly, then quietly. . . . He left full of thanks and some hope . . . ."
Lucid and inspiring, Behold the Man is a unique exploration of Catholic spirituality for men. Much of the literature written for Catholic men focuses on topical issues such as fatherhood and sexuality. While this book does not exclude these subjects, it is the first to present a comprehensive picture of Catholic male spirituality. What is authentic male Catholic spirituality? What distinguishes it from Protestant male spirituality? How does masculine spirituality complement feminine spirituality? These questions and many more are answered in this book. Drawing from Scripture and Church teaching, the author roots Catholic male spirituality in a covenant relationship with God and the cross of Jesus Christ. He demonstrates that when a man embraces the cross he is truly able to be himself the man that God created and calls him to be. Behold the Man can deepen a man s experience of Christ and help him to know the Lord more intimately.