Download or read book Contemplative Bible Reading written by Richard Peace and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2015-06-22 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new way to read the Bible. Spiritual disciplines are simply ways to open ourselves to God. They help us become aware of the many ways God speaks to us and provide us with ways to respond to God. This book explores and explains how the historical disciplines and perspectives of the Christian faith can deepen both our walk with God and our community with others. Reading the Bible is something that most of us are familiar with. Some even do it regularly. But do we really think about how we read and respond to Scripture? How deeply do we allow ourselves to be impacted by it? Contemplative Bible reading (or lectio divina, as it is often called) is an ancient method of approaching Scripture. Consisting of four parts, this method begins with the selected biblical passage and moves to meditating, praying, and contemplating what God is revealing through the Bible. Many of us tend to think of meditation as something done individually, but reflecting on Scripture in a small group invites us to act and encourages us to share with others how God is calling us to respond. Contemplative Bible Reading examines this spiritual discipline and invites your small group to approach Scripture in a new and challenging way. By exploring different passages and learning to hear God's voice in them, this guide will help you meditate and act on the truth of the Bible.

Download or read book Ponder written by Mahri Leonard-Fleckman and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2022-09-03 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ponder: Contemplative Bible Study accompanies all hearers and preachers of the Word as they pray with and ponder the Sunday readings throughout the liturgical year. Everything needed for a rich experience of lectio divina and biblical exploration is provided: the full text of the Sunday readings, concise commentary, engaging reflections, and clear guidance on how to use this resource alone or with a group. This volume guides readers through the Year A lectionary.

Download or read book Contemplative Vision written by Juliet Benner and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2010-12-21 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Docent Juliet Benner began showing people how to meditate on Christian art treasures, which led to her much-beloved "O Taste and See" columns from the spiritual formation journal Conversations, now expanded into this book. In each chapter you'll encounter a passage of Scripture and a corresponding piece of art to lead you in a new experience of prayer in God's presence.

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 Enjoying the Bible written by Matthew Mullins and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2021-01-19 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many Christians view the Bible as an instruction manual. While the Bible does provide instruction, it can also captivate, comfort, delight, shock, and inspire. In short, it elicits emotion--just like poetry. By learning to read and love poetry, says literature professor Matthew Mullins, readers can increase their understanding of the biblical text and learn to love God's Word more. Each chapter includes exercises and questions designed to help readers put the book's principles and practices into action.

Download or read book Waiting in Joyful Hope written by Catherine Upchurch and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prepare spiritually for the coming of Christ with this popular and inviting annual guide. During the especially busy Advent and Christmas seasons, this book offers brief, down-to-earth reflections that bring prayer and Scripture into everyday life in a thought-provoking and lasting way. Through Catherine Upchurch’s reflections on Lectionary readings from the weekday and Sunday Masses, readers will grow in their understanding of the word of God. This book will help busy people achieve their goal of enriching their prayer life during the seasons of Advent and Christmas.

Download or read book Flee Be Silent Pray written by Ed Cyzewski and published by MennoMedia, Inc.. This book was released on 2019-02-12 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if prayer could be simple rather than strenuous? Anxious, results-driven Christians can never pray enough, serve enough, or study enough. But what if God is calling us not to frenzied activity but to a simple spiritual encounter? What if we must merely receive what God has already given us? In Flee, Be Silent, Pray, writer and contemplative retreat leader Ed Cyzewski guides readers out of the anxiety factory of contemporary Christianity and toward a God whose love astounds those quiet long enough to receive it. With helpful guidance into solitude, contemplative prayer, and practices such as lectio divina and the Examen, Cyzewski guides readers toward the Christ whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light. Ready to shed the fear of the false self and the exhaustion of a duty-driven faith? Flee. Be silent. Pray.

Download or read book The Daily Reader for Contemplative Living written by Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O. and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2009-03-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work brings together three prayer practices for each day of the year to enhance contemplative living.

Download or read book The Signature of Jesus written by Brennan Manning and published by Multnomah. This book was released on 2004-07-06 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Signature of Jesus challenges the gospel of "cheap grace" and calls the church to radical discipleship. With passion and boldness, author Brennan Manning invites readers to risk living life as Jesus lived—committed to simplicity, purity of heart, and obedience to the gospel. As a radical alternative this book is offered to Christians who want to live by faith and not by mere “religion,” for those who recognize that many of the burning theological issues in the church today are neither burning nor theological; who see Christianity neither as a moral code or a belief system but as a love affair; who have not forgotten that they are followers of a crucified Christ; who know that following him means living dangerously; who want to live the gospel without compromise; who have no greater desire than to have his signature written on the pages of their lives. “Behold,” Jesus proclaims, “I stand at the door and knock.” You may have already met him at the door…but do you truly know him? Have you been transformed by His furious, passionate, unexplainable love? Join Brennan Manning, the bestselling author of The Ragamuffin Gospel, on a personal journey to experience Christ’s love and live with His passion.

Download or read book Contemplating Christ written by Vincent Pizzuto and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2018-03-26 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The incarnation has made mystics of us all. What if we read the gospels as if that were true? In his book Contemplating Christ,Vincent Pizzuto offers an exploration of the interior life for modern contemplatives that is as beautiful as it is compelling. With an emphasis on the gospels and Christian mystical tradition, his book explores ancient themes in new and surprising ways. Drawing on his rich experience as an academic and priest, Pizzuto gradually unfolds the Christian mystery of deification to which the whole of biblical revelation and the Christian contemplative life are ordered: through the incarnation, we have all been made “other Christs” in the world.

Download or read book Reading While Black written by Esau McCaulley and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition can help us connect with a rich faith history and address the urgent issues of our times. Demonstrating an ongoing conversation between the collective Black experience and the Bible, New Testament scholar Esau McCaulley shares a personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation.

Download or read book Forty Days to a Closer Walk with God written by J. David Muyskens and published by Upper Room Books. This book was released on 2016-04-01 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's been said that Centering Prayer is like two friends sitting together in silence, just being in each other's presence—completely natural and comfortable. Yet, Centering Prayer is sometimes viewed as too mysterious, too escapist, too hard. At first, it even appeared that way to the author, but events in his life and his further studies about prayer changed his views. Through Muyskens' insightful guidance, you'll explore a method of prayer that goes deeper than verbal conversations with God. This book teaches: silent communion with God a method of being open to the gift of God's presence a way of receiving a deep ad intimate relationship with God Each day's reading has a focal scripture verse and the author's reflection, ending with simple suggestions for contemplative prayer. You'll begin with as few as 5 minutes of Centering Prayer. By following the guidance in this book for 40 days, you will be led to a closer relationship with God. As you progress through the daily scripture and meditative readings in Forty Days to a Closer Walk with God, you'll find greater understanding and fresh awareness of Jesus' promise, "I am with you always."

Download or read book God s Battle Plan for the Mind written by David W. Saxton and published by Reformation Heritage Books. This book was released on 2015-01-13 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the seventeenth century, English Puritan pastors often encouraged their congregations in the spiritual discipline of meditating on God and His Word. Today, however, much of evangelicalism is either ignorant of or turned off to the idea of meditation. In God’s Battle Plan for the Mind , pastor David Saxton seeks to convince God’s people of the absolute necessity for personal meditation and motivate them to begin this work themselves. But he has not done this alone. Rather, he has labored through numerous Puritan works in order to bring together the best of their insights on meditation. Standing on the shoulders of these giants, Saxton teaches us how to meditate on divine truth and gives valuable guidance about how to rightly pattern our thinking throughout the day. With the rich experiential theology of the Puritans, this book lays out a course for enjoying true meditation on God’s Word. Table of Contents: 1. The Importance of Recovering the Joyful Habit of Biblical Meditation 2. Unbiblical Forms of Meditation 3. Defining Biblical Meditation 4. Occasional Meditation 5. Deliberate Meditation 6. The Practice of Meditation 7. Important Occasions for Meditation 8. Choosing Subjects for Meditation 9. The Reasons for Meditation 10. The Benefits of Meditation 11. The Enemies of Meditation 12. Getting Started: Beginning the Habit of Meditation Conclusion: Thoughts on Meditation and Personal Godliness

Download or read book Praying the Psalms in Christ written by Laurence Kriegshauser O.S.B. and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2009-03-15 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written centuries before Christ, the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible have been prayed by Christians since the founding of the Church. The early church fathers expounded the psalms in the light of the mystery of Christ, his death and resurrection, and his saving redemption. In this book, a Benedictine monk examines the Christian praying of the Psalms, taking into account modern and contemporary research on the Psalms. Working from the Hebrew text, Fr. Laurence Kriegshauser offers a verse-by-verse commentary on each of the one hundred and fifty psalms, highlighting poetic features such as imagery, rhythm, structure, and vocabulary, as well as theological and spiritual dimensions and the relation of psalms to each other in the smaller collections that make up the whole. The book attempts to integrate modern scholarship on the Psalms with the act of prayer and help Christians pray the psalms with greater understanding of their Christological meaning. The book contains an introduction, a glossary of terms, an index of topics, a table of English renderings of selected Hebrew words, and an index of biblical citations. Praying the Psalms in Christ will be welcomed by students of theology and liturgy, by priests, religious, and laypeople who pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and by all Christians who seek to pray the Psalms with greater profit and fervor.

Download or read book When the Soul Listens written by Jan Johnson and published by NavPress. This book was released on 2017-06-06 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you long for depth and authenticity in your relationship with God? Do you want purpose and daily direction but can’t seem to find the right prayer to receive it? When the Soul Listens will guide you away from formulas and step-by-step prayer plans toward contemplative prayer, “the lifestyle that allows you to experience God’s presence,” writes author Jan Johnson. Learn to find rest and guidance in God, opening yourself to God’s presence and direction through this practical approach. If you are disillusioned, experiencing spiritual dryness, or simply looking for the next step in your spiritual growth, When the Soul Listens offers a clear path to a fulfilling connection with God.

Download or read book What Do We Do With the Bible written by Richard Rohr and published by SPCK. This book was released on 2019-08-15 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do we do with the Bible? Does an ancient, sometimes violent and contradictory text that has been used to justify violence, racism, misogyny, homophobia and more, really have anything to teach us today? In this small but powerful book, Richard Rohr explores how we can read the bible in a contemplative and intelligent way. Focusing on Jesus' own method of using the Hebrew Scriptures, he shows us a way of interpreting the Bible that follows God's mercy, inclusion and compassionate justice, and creates a foundation for a hopeful vision from the beginning to the end of time. Warm and accessible, What Do We Do With the Bible? will give you a deeper, more genuine understanding of the Bible and transform your experience of Scripture - whether you are reading the Bible for the first time or returning to it over and over.

Download or read book Bible Readings for Caregivers written by Betty Groth Syverson and published by Augsburg Books. This book was released on 1987 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professional caregivers need to replenish their spiritual stock because they are always giving out. Here is a book that offers strength and encouragement from the Bible for lay visitors, nurses, doctors, social workers, clergy and volunteers.