Union with God

Union with God PDF Author: Gabriel Of St. Mary Magdalen
Publisher: Sophia Institute Press
ISBN: 1622828593
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
Christian perfection consists in the twofold way of charity: service of neighbor and our direct quest for God's love. Many of us discover ways to love our neighbor, but few achieve intimacy with God. Why? Because we don't know how to prepare ourselves properly to reach this exalted goal. In these pages, Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen lays out for us a time-tested path toward achieving complete intimacy with God, the path first mapped out centuries ago by the Church's acclaimed master of the contemplative life, St. John of the Cross (1542-1591). St. John showed that God hungers for union with each of us but also requires arduous efforts on our part, the many details of which Father Gabriel explains in these enlightening pages. Do you perceive holiness as an unattainable goal for you? Or is fear of the fatigue of such an effort holding you back? Absorb this book, and allow gentle St. John to take you by the hand and lead you — as he has led so many others — to true intimacy with our Lord.

Union with God

Union with God PDF Author: Gabriel Of St. Mary Magdalen
Publisher: Sophia Institute Press
ISBN: 1622828593
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 150

Get Book Here

Book Description
Christian perfection consists in the twofold way of charity: service of neighbor and our direct quest for God's love. Many of us discover ways to love our neighbor, but few achieve intimacy with God. Why? Because we don't know how to prepare ourselves properly to reach this exalted goal. In these pages, Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen lays out for us a time-tested path toward achieving complete intimacy with God, the path first mapped out centuries ago by the Church's acclaimed master of the contemplative life, St. John of the Cross (1542-1591). St. John showed that God hungers for union with each of us but also requires arduous efforts on our part, the many details of which Father Gabriel explains in these enlightening pages. Do you perceive holiness as an unattainable goal for you? Or is fear of the fatigue of such an effort holding you back? Absorb this book, and allow gentle St. John to take you by the hand and lead you — as he has led so many others — to true intimacy with our Lord.

The Practice of Contemplation According to John of the Cross

The Practice of Contemplation According to John of the Cross PDF Author: James W. Kinn
Publisher: ICS Publications
ISBN: 1939272777
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Book Description
This book is for anyone who now meditates regularly or who practiced meditation in the past. As we grow in our prayer life, John of the Cross is an excellent and encouraging guide to show us the way to the practice of contemplative prayer. Many of us learned about meditation from spiritual directors or books. We practiced a reliable form of meditation for some years with varying degrees of success. Over time, however, our prayer slowed down and became simplified. We didn't find many new ideas to occupy our intellect and our emotions quieted down. In time, many of us experienced a crisis in our prayer life; our prayer became so simple that it almost disappeared. We tried different forms of prayer, but we seemed to be reaching a dead end. Throughout all of this, we were never told that our prayer was developing naturally and positively. What we were experiencing was not a dead end but the threshold of a new way of prayer. What we needed was an experienced guide to show us the road ahead. Enter John of the Cross! He encourages us to see that the place we came to is a necessary state of our progress in prayer. John teaches us that we come to contemplation not by struggling harder to pray but by calming remaining quiet before God. He encourages us to realize that we have not come to the end of the road but are being made ready to be transported on a wonderful journey. There is no better or more encouraging guide for us on this journey than John of the Cross. The entire focus of this book is quite narrow; it concentrates on John's teaching about the beginning of contemplation.

The Contemplative Life

The Contemplative Life PDF Author: Joel S. Goldsmith
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781889051444
Category : Spiritual life
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Originally published: Secausus, NJ: University Books, 1963.

Fire Within

Fire Within PDF Author: Thomas Dubay
Publisher: Ignatius Press
ISBN: 1681491826
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
This book is the fruit of Fr. Dubay's many years of study and experience in spiritual direction and in it he synthesizes the teachings on prayer of the two great doctors of the Church on prayer--St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila--and the teaching of Sacred Scripture. But the teaching that Fr. Dubay synthesized is not collected from Teresa and John for contemplatives alone. It is meant for every Christian and is based on the Gospel imperative of personal prayer and the call to holiness. All the major elements of these great teachers are ordered, commented on and put in the context of their scriptural foundations. Here is an outstanding book on prayer and the spiritual life written by one of the best spiritual directors and retreat masters of our time, and based on the writings of the Church's two greatest mystical doctors.

The Cloud of Unknowing

The Cloud of Unknowing PDF Author: William Johnston
Publisher: Image
ISBN: 0307809056
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING and THE BOOK OF PRIVY COUNSELING are the first explorations in the English language of the soul’s quest for God. Written in Middle English by an unknown fourteenth-century mystic, THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING expresses with beauty a message that has inspired such great religious thinkers as St. John of the Cross and Teilhard de Chardin, as well as countless others in search of God. Offering a practical guide to the life of contemplation, the author explains that ordinary thoughts and earthly concepts must be buried beneath a “cloud of forgetting,” while our love must rise toward a God hidden in the “cloud of unknowing.” THE BOOK OF PRIVY COUNSELING, also included in this volume, is a short and moving text on the way to enlightenment through a total loss of self and a consciousness only of the divine. William Johnston, an authority on fourteenth-century mysticism and spirituality, provides an accessible discussion of the works, detailing what is known about the history of the texts and their author. In a new foreword, Huston Smith draws on his extensive knowledge of the varieties of religious experience to illuminate the relevance of these works for contemporary readers.

Is Centering Prayer Catholic?

Is Centering Prayer Catholic? PDF Author: Connie Rossini
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780692518489
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
What is Centering Prayer? What are its origins? Is it a form of New Age meditation, or a thoroughly Catholic prayer method that can lead to contemplation? Connie Rossini digs into the writings and public statements of Fr. Thomas Keating, one of Centering Prayer's foremost proponents. She compares his words with the writings of St. Teresa of Avila on prayer, and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on New Age spirituality. Find out if Centering Prayer is a reliable method for union with God, or a counterfeit that Catholics should avoid.

The Impact of God

The Impact of God PDF Author: Iain Matthew
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1444717650
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
St John of the Cross testifies to a God who longs to meet us in our deepest need. Whilst rejection and imprisonment played their part in the life of this sixteenth-century Spanish friar, John's poetry and prose reveal the beauty and power of a wondrous God. It gives us courage to believe in the possibility of change in our own lives, however unlikely or impossible this may seem. Father Iain Matthew uses this classic inspirational Christian writing as his starting point, and offers five interpretations which make its richness relevant to the modern reader.

Carmelite Spirituality

Carmelite Spirituality PDF Author: Cardinal Anders Arborelius, O.C.D.
Publisher: EWTN Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 1682781402
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
Centered on prayer and contemplation, Carmelite spirituality seeks to awaken in its practitioners an intense thirst for an immediate and direct experience of God, from which can grow a deep and loving friendship with Him. Most fully developed by St. John of the Cross (d. 1591) and St. Teresa of Avila (d. 1582) and then further enriched by St. Thérèse of Lisieux (d. 1897), Carmelite spirituality flourishes in solitude and silence, nurtured by quieting external noise and turning away from interior distractions. Not at all limited to persons in monastic or convent life, Carmelite spirituality is meant for all who yearn for a deeper and sustained union with God. That is, it is meant for you. In this illuminating book, the Swedish Carmelite Cardinal Anders Arborelius shows you how, by praying, sacrificing, and meditating in your own particular circumstances, as the great Carmelite saints did in theirs, you, too, can awaken to the sweet presence of God within you and grow ever more eager to hurry toward Him in your daily pilgrimage toward eternity. With the help of good Cardinal Arborelius and these enlightening pages, you'll learn: Why true silence is necessary if you are ever to be transformed by the Word of God How to access — or create for yourself — such a transforming silence Why temptations are an essential part of every living spiritual life How, even amid tasks and temptations, you can recognize the enduring presence of Christ in your life How, if you ask with sincerity, the Holy Spirit will rush to your aid as you advance step by step toward an abiding intimacy with Jesus and with God the Father

Christian Insight Meditation

Christian Insight Meditation PDF Author: Mary Jo Meadow
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0861715268
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Despite the long history of mysticism within Christianity and its many and varied approaches to meditation and contemplative prayer, more and more Christians have turned to Eastern religions to find a kind of guidance for their interior life that they were not able to find in Christianity. Some have completely abandoned the religion of their childhood, believing they have found the "pearl of great price" in Eastern meditation. Christian Insight Meditation offers an ancient Buddhist meditation practice within a Christian prayer tradition, to teach readers a process of inner purification meant to lead to deeper Christian faith and to the direct vision of God. This wonderful, inspiring book offers reliable guidance and a way for any of us to begin to follow the footsteps of such towering figures as John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. Readers will soon discover for themselves the power of Christian Insight Meditation to bring inner peace and healing and to deepen and enhance their Christian life, and the inseparable connection between wisdom and compassion known for centuries to both Christian and Buddhist meditators.

The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross

The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross PDF Author: Juan (de la Cruz)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description