Download or read book The Universal Christ written by Richard Rohr and published by Convergent Books. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From one of the world’s most influential spiritual thinkers, a long-awaited book exploring what it means that Jesus was called “Christ,” and how this forgotten truth can restore hope and meaning to our lives. “Anyone who strives to put their faith into action will find encouragement and inspiration in the pages of this book.”—Melinda Gates In his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr has never written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who Jesus was, but who was Christ? Is the word simply Jesus’s last name? Too often, Rohr writes, our understandings have been limited by culture, religious debate, and the human tendency to put ourselves at the center. Drawing on scripture, history, and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. “God loves things by becoming them,” he writes, and Jesus’s life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God—except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us, and in everyone we meet. Thought-provoking, practical, and full of deep hope and vision, The Universal Christ is a landmark book from one of our most beloved spiritual writers, and an invitation to contemplate how God liberates and loves all that is.
Download or read book The Inner Experience written by Thomas Merton and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-09-11 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in paperback, revised and redesigned: This is Thomas Merton's last book, in which he draws on both Eastern and Western traditions to explore the hot topic of contemplation/meditation in depth and to show how we can practice true contemplation in everyday life. Never before published except as a series of articles (one per chapter) in an academic journal, this book on contemplation was revised by Merton shortly before his untimely death. The material bridges Merton's early work on Catholic monasticism, mysticism, and contemplation with his later writing on Eastern, especially Buddhist, traditions of meditation and spirituality. This book thus provides a comprehensive understanding of contemplation that draws on the best of Western and Eastern traditions. Merton was still tinkering with this book when he died; it was the book he struggled with most during his career as a writer. But now the Merton Legacy Trust and experts have determined that the book makes such a valuable contribution as his major comprehensive presentation of contemplation that they have allowed its publication.
Download or read book Mindful Silence written by Phileena Heuertz and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hallmarks of contemplative spirituality—solitude, silence, and stillness—have never been more important for our fast-paced society. Filled with insights and wisdom from personal experiences, Phileena Heuertz introduces us to themes and teachers of contemplative spirituality, as well as several prayer practices, and invites us to greater healing and wholeness by learning to practice faith through prayer.
Download or read book Journey to the Heart written by Kim Nataraja and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive, fully illustrated overview of Christian spirituality from Jesus up to the present day. The contemplative tradition in Christianity traces its origins back to Mt. Carmel, the prophet Elijah's mountain-top place of encounter with divine power. In the Gospels, we frequently read that Jesus withdrew to quiet places to pray. These biblical precedents have inspired a tradition of contemplation through the centuries and this remarkable book reveals the life and teachings of the great spiritual teachers and Christian mystics, including St. John, Origen, St. Benedict, Julian of Norwich, St. John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart, and modern-day mystics like Thomas Merton, Simone Weil, Etty Hillesum, Bede Griffiths, and John Main. The contributors themselves offer an array of leading spiritual writers, including Laurence Freeman, Esther de Waal, Kallistos Ware, Shirley du Boulay, and many more.
Download or read book Embracing Contemplation written by John H. Coe and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does a Christian life lived "by the Spirit" look like? Bringing together Protestant scholars and practitioners of spiritual formation, this volume offers a distinctly evangelical consideration of the benefits of contemplation. Drawing on historical examples from the church—including John Calvin, Richard Baxter, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley—this book considers how contemplative prayer can shape Christian living today.
Download or read book Contemplation written by Willigis Jäger and published by Liguori Publications. This book was released on 1994 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative new study of the Christian contemplative tradition and its relevance to contemporary daily life in a cogent synthesis of scholarship and creative analysis. Willigis Jager is a Benedictine monk and author of three previous books--the most recent being The Way to Contemplation: Encountering God Today.
Download or read book Christian Contemplation written by Joseph H. Nguyen and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-12-02 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spiritual practitioners and experts across religious traditions are convinced that contemplation cultivates an awareness of the deeper desires of the human heart. But many will ask: does contemplation still exist? If one has been led to believe that there indeed exists the art of contemplation, one will still perhaps wonder what it is and whether or not it is still relevant and applicable today. For many, the term “contemplation” itself perhaps connotes a sense of an exotic practice from a distant past unrelated and impractical to the contemporary life. In this book the author explores the nature and functions of Christian contemplation and offers the reader a wide variety of contemplative prayer methods that can help cultivate an awareness of the spiritual dimension of the human life. The author argues that Christian contemplation is the work of the Holy Spirit. While drawing upon a variety of Christian traditions, the author bases his discussion on the Jesuit tradition of prayer, discernment, and spiritual growth as revealed in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.
Download or read book Invitation to Love 20th Anniversary Edition written by Thomas Keating and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-06-21 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Keating was a Cistercian monk who founded the worldwide 'Contemplative Outreach', teaching people the art of meditation. Invitation to Love provides a road map for the journey that begins when Centering Prayer is seriously undertaken. Pointing to some of the recognizable landmarks on this journey, as well as to its ultimate destination, Father Keating addresses common questions regarding contemplative practice: How will it affect my life? Where does it lead us spiritually? What obstacles will I encounter along the way? How does it work? Following on from Open Mind, Open Heart, this book establishes a dialogue between the insights of contemporary psychology and the classic Christian spiritual masters, providing a solid conceptual background for the practice of Centering Prayer. This is a practical book, articulating the stages of the process of spiritual growth, and outlining how we might develop a deeper relationship with God and move from contemplation to action.
Download or read book Into the Silent Land written by Martin Laird and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-07-01 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sitting in stillness, the practice of meditation, and the cultivation of awareness are commonly thought to be the preserves of Hindus and Buddhists. Martin Laird shows that the Christian tradition of contemplation has its own refined teachings on using a prayer word to focus the mind, working with the breath to cultivate stillness, and the practice of inner vigilance or awareness. But this book is not a mere historical survey of these teachings. In Into the Silent Land, we see the ancient wisdom of both the Christian East and West brought sharply to bear on the modern-day longing for radical openness to God in the depths of the heart. Laird's book is not like the many presentations for beginners. While useful for those just starting out, this book serves especially as a guide for those who desire to journey yet deeper into the silence of God. The heart of the book focuses on negotiating key moments of struggle on the contemplative path, when the whirlwind of distractions or the brick wall of boredom makes it difficult to continue. Laird shows that these inner struggles, even wounds, that any person of prayer must face, are like riddles, trying to draw out of us our own inner silence. Ultimately Laird shows how the wounds we loathe become vehicles of the healing silence we seek, beyond technique and achievement. Throughout the language is fresh, direct, and focused on real-life examples of people whose lives are incomparably enriched by the practice of contemplation.
Download or read book The Heart of Centering Prayer written by Cynthia Bourgeault and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2016-12-27 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The best-selling author of The Wisdom Jesus and The Meaning of Mary Magdalene demystifies the popular Christian meditation method rooted in contemplative prayer Centering Prayer is the path to a wonderful and radical new way of seeing the world. It is not, as is sometimes thought, simply an act of devotional piety, nor is it simply a Christianized form of other meditation methods. Cynthia Bourgeault here cuts through the misconceptions to show that Centering Prayer is in fact a pioneering development within the Christian contemplative tradition. She provides a practical, complete course in the practice and then goes deeper to analyze what actually happens in Centering Prayer: the mind effectively switches to a new operating system that makes possible the perception of nonduality. With this understanding in place, she then takes us on a journey through one of the sources of the practice, the Christian contemplative classic The Cloud of Unknowing, revealing it to be among the earliest Christian explorations of the phenomenology of consciousness. Cynthia Bourgeault’s illumination of the Centering Prayer path provides compelling evidence of how important the practice has become in the half-century since it first arose among American Trappist monks, and of its maturation and refinement over the ensuing years of sincere study and practice. It will resonate with beginners on the Centering Prayer path as well as with seasoned practitioners.
Download or read book Invitation to Love 20th Anniversary Edition written by Thomas Keating and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-06-21 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Invitation to Love provides a road map for the journey that begins when Centering Prayer is seriously undertaken. Pointing to some of the recognizable landmarks on this journey, as well as to its ultimate destination, Father Keating addresses common questions regarding contemplative practice: How will it affect my life? Where does it lead us spiritually? What obstacles will I encounter along the way? How does it work? Following on from Open Mind, Open Heart, this book establishes a dialogue between the insights of contemporary psychology and the classic Christian spiritual masters, providing a solid conceptual background for the practice of Centering Prayer. This is a practical book, articulating the stages of the process of spiritual growth, and outlining how we might develop a deeper relationship with God and move from contemplation to action.
Download or read book In the Grip of Light written by Paul Murray and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-05-17 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increasingly the contemplative tradition in Christianity is being seen as essential to our understanding of Christianity itself. Here is the book to explain all.
Download or read book Christian Contemplation written by Joseph H. Nguyen SJ and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-12-02 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spiritual practitioners and experts across religious traditions are convinced that contemplation cultivates an awareness of the deeper desires of the human heart. But many will ask: does contemplation still exist? If one has been led to believe that there indeed exists the art of contemplation, one will still perhaps wonder what it is and whether or not it is still relevant and applicable today. For many, the term "contemplation" itself perhaps connotes a sense of an exotic practice from a distant past unrelated and impractical to the contemporary life. In this book the author explores the nature and functions of Christian contemplation and offers the reader a wide variety of contemplative prayer methods that can help cultivate an awareness of the spiritual dimension of the human life. The author argues that Christian contemplation is the work of the Holy Spirit. While drawing upon a variety of Christian traditions, the author bases his discussion on the Jesuit tradition of prayer, discernment, and spiritual growth as revealed in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.
Download or read book On Christian Contemplation written by Thomas Merton and published by New Directions Publishing. This book was released on 2012-06-20 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compendium of spiritual guidance in a beautiful special edition. “Every moment and every event in every man’s life on Earth plants something in his soul,” wrote Thomas Merton. A Trappist monk, Merton was both a poet and a theologian who pondered monastic life. He was praised for his meditations and conversations with God, as well as interfatith dialogue, tolerance, and non-violent activism during the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War. On Christian Contemplation, edited by Merton scholar Paul Pearson, is a collection of the great monk’s work, compiled into a gift-size edition. With poems, reflections, and social commentary, this is the perfect book to nurture the spirit of faith and duty guided by one of the twentieth century’s leading voices of theology and social justice.
Download or read book Pilgrimage of a Soul written by Phileena Heuertz and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2010-05-25 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You can only go so far for so long before you find the limits of yourself. For Phileena Heuertz that moment arrived, mercifully, around the same time as a sabbatical to mark her twelfth year of service with Word Made Flesh, a ministry to some of the poorest people in the world. With six months' respite from the daily task of serving those who have nothing, Phileena rediscovered the genius of contemplative spirituality. Activists often see contemplation as a luxury, the sort of thing that must necessarily be laid aside in the quest to see the world set aright. But in Pilgrimage of a Soul we see that contemplation is essential--not only to a life of sustained commitment to the justice and righteousness of God, but to the growth in faith and discipleship that the Holy Spirit beckons each of us to. Tracing seven movements from a kind of sleepfulness to a kind of wakefulness, Heuertz shows us that life is a journey that repeats itself as we are led by Christ deeper and deeper into our true selves and a truer knowledge of God.
Download or read book Contemplation and Counseling written by P. Gregg Blanton and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can contemplative prayer be integrated into therapeutic work? Building an alliance between science, theology, and Christian contemplative thought, Gregg Blanton presents a new paradigm for integrating contemplative prayer with counseling practice. This practical resource offers eleven fundamental interventions to fit the needs of clients and a practical four-stage process for helping clients change.
Download or read book An Ocean of Light written by Martin Laird and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the third of Martin Laird's best-selling books on Christian contemplative life, Laird considers the deepening dynamics of contemplation for those who have settled into a maturing practice of meditation. Drawing on the works of writers ranging from St. Augustine and St. Teresa of Avila to Flannery O'Connor and David Foster Wallace, Laird grounds his methodology in both ancient practice and contemporary language. With characteristic lyricism and gentleness, he guides readers through new challenges of contemplative life, such as the danger of using a spiritual practice as a strategy for personal gain; making ourselves the focus of our own contemplative project; dealing with old pain; and transforming the isolation of loneliness and depression into a place of liberating solidarity with all who suffer.
