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God Drops and Loses Things
Kilian McDonnell OSB
Out of a lifetime of familiarity with the great biblical narratives, Kilian McDonnell draws a portrait of the biblical God charged with vitality, at once prodigal in mercy and ruthless, thunderous, and painfully silent. It is dangerous to love this God, who exacts of "the God-mad Abraham" a faithfulness beyond sanity: "If God makes a covenant in blood with you, why are you surprised to see your flesh upon the altar?" Despite our longing, such apparent capriciousness can be reconciled only in the mysterium tremendum invisible to human eyes; for Father Kilian, such is "fire's absolute autonomy that scolds me / for putting dirty sandals on glowing cinders, / but invites me to approach barefoot." Equally compelling is the character of Jesus Christ as a true son of God hungry for human contact, who likes hanging out with a fallible humankind and often happens to drop by at mealtime. The children of God who people these poems have God's own murderous prodigality in their genes. They are jealous, weak, and proud. They compete, lie, steal, cheat, betray, repent, and despair; and God loves them. Conscious of their dignity as children of God, they are quick to take exception. Father Kilian says of the poems themselves, "I am contending with God." In God Drops and Loses Things, his third collection, the poems are by turns edgy, affectionate, gentle, deeply moving, and always compassionate.
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Sharing Sacred Space: Interreligious Dialogue as Spiritual Encounter
Benoit Standaert OSB and William Skudlarek OSB
If interreligious dialogue is to bear fruit—the fruit of mutual understanding, respect, and peace—it needs to be rooted in the specific spiritual space or milieu of each religious tradition. For Christians, that milieu is "Jesus space," a space shaped by faith in the paschal mysteries and nurtured by prayer, study, and love. With Jesus space as his starting point Benoît Standaert invites us to join him as he visits different religious spaces—those of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and agnostics. If we are willing to enter into and even dwell for a time in another spiritual space, we will be able to return to the space we call home, enriched by the gifts we have received and prepared to live in peace with those who dwell in a spiritual space that is very different from our own.
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Vote Catholic? Beyond the Political Din
Bernard F. Evans
Voting your conscience can be a challenge. In our emotionally charged political environment, many people are asking about the role of faith in elections. Of course, faith should inform the political choices we make and the way we use our time to try to improve the world. It seems the loudest Catholic political voices fall in one of two choruses-that of "the left," advocating for social justice issues, and of "the right," claiming abortion as the single most important issue. In Vote Catholic, Bernard Evans helps us get beyond the sometimes deafening din of these choruses. He takes us to the heart of an important third voice-Catholic social teaching-and shows how this teaching can inform Catholics as they wrestle with political choices. Without putting forward a particular platform or advocating particular candidates or positions, he presents a clear set of principles from the teachings to guide our decision-making process. With special attention to the Catholic position on life and human dignity, Evans shows that the issues and the solutions are more complex than our "headline news" world suggests. Complex though the issues are, Evans's straightforward presentation will help readers go to the polls with faith and confidence.
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Late Medieval Mysticism of the Low Countries
Helen Rolfson OSF, Rik Van Nieuwenhove, and Rob Faesen
This book contains translations and introductions to some of the major representatives of the spiritual tradition of the Low Countries from ca. 1350 onwards.
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Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter
Anthony Ruff OSB
In Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, Father Anthony Ruff, OSB, offers a simple chanted setting and makes it possible for the responsorial psalm to be sung at every daily Mass during the seasons of the liturgical year. These responsorial psalms were conceived for unaccompanied singing led by a single cantor, but keyboard accompaniments and guitar chords are provided for those who desire it.
The melodic settings use the eight Gregorian chant modes, as found in the psalm tones of Saint Meinrad Archabbey. Type melodies, one for each mode, are employed repeatedly for varying antiphon texts, making it easier for cantor and congregation to pick up the antiphon melodies. The psalm verses are provided in two translations, the New American Bible translation of the United States Lectionary for Mass and the Grail translation, as revised in 1983 for inclusive human language. This unique collection of psalm music allows us to celebrate the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter more fully.
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Demythologizing Celibacy : Practical Wisdom from Christian and Buddhist Monasticism
William Skudlarek OSB
When St. Benedict compiled his Rule for Monasteries in the early decades of the sixth century, the Buddhist monastic code had already been in existence for about nine hundred years. Since monastic life is shaped by spiritual practices that are very similar across different religious traditions, it should not be too much of a stretch to suggest that Christians can learn from the accumulated wisdom of Buddhist monasticism.
For Buddhists, celibacy, accompanied by skillful reflection on their personal reactions to it, is a means of letting go of attachment to sensory pleasure. Buddhist monks do not marry; they strive to relinquish the desire for sexual pleasure because this form of gratification obstructs the "one-pointed stillness" that leads to insight.
For Christians, celibacy-like marriage-is ultimately about love: responding to God's love for us and expressing selfless love for others. In light of the Christian understanding of marriage as an authentic-indeed, the ordinary-path to holiness, Skudlarek proposes a demythologized view of celibacy, presenting it as an alternate and equally valid spiritual practice for those who choose not to accept the demands of a committed sexual relationship.
Drawing on the monastic interreligious dialogue, Skudlarek considers the Buddhist view of celibacy, which is not mythologized as a response to a divine call or as a superhuman way of life. He examines their regard for it as simply-and profoundly-a path to freedom, peace, and happiness. As Christians become aware of the benefits of celibacy for monks who observe it without reference to the Gospel, they may be able to appreciate all the more its importance and value for those who wish to followChrist as celibates, and in this way come to share in the freedom of the children of God.
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Spirit and Reason: The Embodied Character of Ezekiel's Symbolic Thinking
Dale Launderville OSB
By comparing and contrasting the pictures gained from Greek and Mesopotamian cities with Ezekiel's Jerusalem, Launderville masterfully shows how Ezekiel fosters a type of symbolic thinking focused on making the Israelites into living symbols of God. The Spirit is the reality that connects humans with the cosmic order and enables the workings of the human heart—the place within which reason functions, according to ancient Israelite anthropology. Ezekiel's symbolic thinking is an integrative rationality in which reason is regarded as operating within the heart through the empowerment and guidance of the Spirit.
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Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform: Treasures and Transformations
Anthony Ruff OSB
Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform is a high-level study of liturgical music in the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Anthony Ruff, a preeminent scholar of liturgical music, proposes a hermeneutic for understanding the Second Vatican Council's teachings on worship music: a balanced 'inconsistency' rather than absolutist and rationalistic coherence. Ruff's focus in this study is on preservation and renewal, arising from the Council's decrees mandating, on the one hand, the preservation of the inherited treasury of sacred music (the thesaurus musicae sacrae), and, on the other hand, the adaptation and expansion of this treasury to meet the changed requirements of the reformed liturgy. Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform, with an extensive index essential for any student of liturgical music, also explores controversies surrounding liturgical music and provides a historical context for the musical changes in the Church. Drawing on the musical and liturgical history that led up to and informed the statements of the Council, Ruff offers a centrist interpretation of Vatican II's teachings on worship music and in the process seeks to reclaim and redefine the 'center.' This is an essential text for all professors and students of liturgical music, as well as music directors.Anthony Ruff, OSB, is a member of the Music Subcommittee of the Bishop's Committee on Liturgy and has numerous articles published in Antiphon, The Hymn, and Pastoral Music, among others. Father Ruff is currently an assistant professor of theology and liturgical music at St. John's University.
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God's Gift Giving : In Christ and through the Spirit
R. Kevin Seasoltz OSB
Beginning with the notion of gift giving, this book serves as a mediation on the central mysteries of the Christian faith - the trinity, redemption, the eucharist, human participation in the divine life and solidarity with one another - in a contemporary idiom
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Eternity Today: On the Liturgical Year. Volume 1: On God and Time, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Candlemas
Martin Connell
According to Dom Gregory Dix, the basic shape of the Christian liturgy has remained the same "ever since thirteen men met for supper in an upper room at Jerusalem" some two thousand years ago. According to Martin Connell, the same cannot be said for the liturgical year. The Triduum, or three days of Easter, only emerged in the fourth century. So, too, did Christmas. Earlier, Epiphany was the birthday of the Savior. Although a pre-Easter fast of variable length was observed since earliest times, the precise Forty Day span only appeared, once again, in the fourth century. And that foundational fourth century also saw the beginnings of the observance of Advent, which actually took centuries to catch on. As Connell demonstrates in this fascinating book, the varieties of Christian observance emerged in local communities stretching from Gaul to India and were often born in the struggles that were define orthodoxy and heresy.
Eternity Today is a vade mecum for anyone who wishes to observe the liturgical year with intelligent devotion. Throughout, Connell aims to recover the theology and spirituality of the Christian year. As an aid to reflection, he incorporates numerous selections of contemporary poetry, thereby demonstrating how secular poets can often hit upon a point that finds its echo in Christian life and ritual.
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Eternity Today: On the Liturgical Year. Volume 2: Sunday, Lent, The Three Days, The Easter Season, Ordinary Time
Martin Connell
According to Dom Gregory Dix, the basic shape of the Christian liturgy has remained the same "ever since thirteen men met for supper in an upper room at Jerusalem" some two thousand years ago. According to Martin Connell, the same cannot be said for the liturgical year. The Triduum, or three days of Easter, only emerged in the fourth century. So, too, did Christmas. Earlier, Epiphany was the birthday of the Savior. Although a pre-Easter fast of variable length was observed since earliest times, the precise Forty Day span only appeared, once again, in the fourth century. And that foundational fourth century also saw the beginnings of the observance of Advent, which actually took centuries to catch on. As Connell demonstrates in this fascinating book, the varieties of Christian observance emerged in local communities stretching from Gaul to India and were often born in the struggles that were define orthodoxy and heresy. Eternity Today is a vade mecum for anyone who wishes to observe the liturgical year with intelligent devotion. Throughout, Connell aims to recover the theology and spirituality of the Christian year. As an aid to reflection, he incorporates numerous selections of contemporary poetry, thereby demonstrating how secular poets can often hit upon a point that finds its echo in Christian life and ritual.
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Lazarus at the Table: Catholics and Social Justice
Bernard F. Evans
This book is the fruit of more than two decades of instructing students in the social teachings of the Catholic Church. For most of these years Bernard Evans has taught graduate students. Lately he also teaches lay Catholics engaged in parish ministry and enrolled in diocesan ministry formation programs. This book is written specifically for the latter group.
Evans agrees with the bishops of the United States who insist that any Catholic education that does not include Catholic social teaching is not fully Catholic. And so he writes clearly, concisely, and convincingly about how Catholic social teaching addresses such contemporary issues as human dignity, abortion, assisted suicide and euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, the death penalty, war, family, marriage, poverty, superfluous income, just wages, unions, and peace. Excerpts from the church's official teachings in papal documents abound throughout the book.
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Yahweh's Other Shoe
Kilian McDonnell OSB
Only eternal life is worthy of the name, writes Kilian McDonnell, O.S.B., in an elegy for a brother monk, and in his poetry one feels the working out of this life that begins with Adam and proceeds beyond our own span of time on earth. These poems breathe human air, but are always conscious of the larger picture of life in Christ.
I wrestle with God 'flesh to flesh, sweat to mystery,' and I limp away. This is how Father McDonnell describes his poetic project, and in these poems the reader attends a wrestling match of the highest order. He takes on the great themes of poetry: desire, mortality, love and age, brotherhood and God. Beginning with the figures of the Old and New Testament, he is aware of the human fallings, failings, and laughter in the stories as of what they say about God with us. Engaging with the events of our day, the great physical world around us, the intricate world of human relationships, and the spiritual journey of a monk, the poems continuously reveal what it means to be human. -
Lord of the Cosmos: Mithras, Paul and the Gospel of Mark
Michael Patella OSB
In Lord of the Cosmos, Patella demonstrates the ways in which the Roman Imperial religion imbues Paul's letter and subsequently Mark's Gospel. Mark resonated in the imperial capital and beyond because of its inherent participationist theology, a theology probably augmented by Paul and possibly introduced by him. In his own writings, Paul draws from Mithraic vocabulary and symbolism. Mithraism itself functions within the cosmic framework outlined in Plato's Timaeus. Pauline theology, with its Mithraic overtones, coheres with the Markan theme of Christ's cosmic victory over Satan; Paul and Mark share a similar view of Christ's salvific act. With the Bartimaeus pericope (10:46-52), the Markan Gospel demonstrates that believers, by their call to discipleship, participate in that victory. This whole process is signaled by the baptism with its divine communication and actions of descent and ascent, a strong Pauline concept. Patella shows that the Markan presentation of Jesus' death, the climax of the narrative, brings the act of divine communication full circle. At the baptism, God communicates to creation, and with Jesus' cry from the cross, creation replies in despair. Jesus' death is not the end of the story, however. The women at the tomb realize this fact and are awestruck at its significance, which is the reason that they do not tell anyone what they have witnessed. The notice to meet Jesus in Galilee is an affirmation of the resurrection. By moving from the area of the dead, that is the tomb, to the land of the living, Galilee, Mark echoes the cosmic theology in Paul, which moves from life to death, and back to eternal life.
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Psalmody and Prayer in the Writings of Evagrius Ponticus
Luke Dysinger OSB
Evagrius Ponticus was the most prolific writer of the Christian Desert Fathers. This book is a study of his life, works, and theology. It gives particular attention to his little-studied exegetical treatises, especially the Scholia on Psalms, as well as his better-known works, in order to present a more balanced picture of Evagrius the monk.
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Praying with the Desert Mothers
Mary Forman OSB
Introduces the reader to the lives, sayings, and stories of the fourth- and fifth-century women who were foundational members of the early Christian community in the Mediterranean region; invites readers to explore their own spiritual journeys
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Educating Leaders for Ministry : Issues and Responses
Victor J. Klimoski, Kevin O'Neil, and Katarina Schuth
In an increasingly secular society, the Christian community must witness a way of life that produces whole and holy people who testify to the truthfulness of the story of Jesus in their lives. Internally, church membership reflects nearly every race, language, culture, spirituality, and Christian theology in existence.
There are three particular challenges for those who prepare people for the church's ministries and those working in ministry itself: diversity, integration, and assessment. Educating Leaders for Ministry examines what each challenge means and identifies ways to respond. The material presented here draws on a six-year project, the Keystone Conferences. The project involved twenty Catholic seminaries and schools of theology reflecting on the mission of their institutions within the life of the church as it becomes manifest in the processes of teaching and learning. As these conversations continued over seven years, the issues of diversity, integration, and assessment emerged as persistent and defining aspects of every school in some way.
These three issues touch the daily life of the entire Christian community, not just theological schools and seminaries. While there are aspects of these issues in theological education that are particular to Roman Catholicism, Educating Leaders for Ministry is helpful for anyone engaged in theological education today.
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The Gospel According to Luke
Michael Patella OSB
Luke continues to challenge our lives. Focusing on Jesus and his earthly ministry among the early church, Michael, F. Patella, OSB, opens the Gospel of Luke to the 21st-century reader.
Patella presents literary, textual, and historical criticism in a readable manner to give readers a solid background for the Lukan Gospel. A brief introduction informs reader of Luke's literary technique, Luke as an evangelist, and other historical data.
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A Sense of the Sacred : Theological Foundations of Sacred Architecture and Art
R. Kevin Seasoltz OSB
There have been many histories of Christian art and architecture, and many that have paid attention to the various cultural, social, and economic contexts in which the architecture and art appeared. Most of these accounts have been written by art historians. Kevin Seasoltz writes as a theologian, whose aim is to relate theological and liturgical developments throughout the course of Christian history to developments in sacred architecture and art. Believing that sacred buildings and artifacts have often been more constitutive of theological developments that constitutive of them, Seasoltz wants to help people discover architecture and art as theological loci—places of revelation.
Following a chapter on culture as the context for theology, liturgy, and art, Seasoltz surveys developments from the early church up through the conventional artistic styles and periods. He pays particular attention to the conflicts that emerged between religion and art since the Enlightenment and to the significant advances made since the middle of the twentieth century to reconciling a wide range of competent architects, artists, and craft persons to the ministry of the Protestant, Anglican, and Catholic churches. Comprehensive, illuminating, ecumenical.
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Formed in the Image of Christ : The Sacramental-Moral Theology of Bernard Häring, C.Ss.R.
Kathleen A. Cahalan
The Christian life is an imitation of Christ's response to God—a religious response to God’s initiative. We are called to make all responses—religion and morality—acts of adoring worship and praise. This sacramental theology is the fundamental moral theology of Bernard Häring, CSsR, whose contributions as a twentieth-century theologian have prepared the way of renewal in Catholic theology today.
Part One of this book introduces Bernard Häring and his place in the history of Roman Catholic moral theology. Part Two examines the central concepts of Häring’s sacramental-moral theology: responsibility, Christ as Word of God and High Priest, the human person as word and worshiper, and the sacraments as dialogue and response. In Part III the author illustrates how Häring takes a minor category—the virtue of religion—and places it at the center of moral life.
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I Am with You Always: The Notebooks of Nicole Gausseron
Nicole Gausseron, William Skudlarek OSB, and Hilary Thimmesh OSB
From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, Nicole Gausseron, a Catholic woman in France, recorded in her ìlittle notebookî the conversations she had with Jesus. Her chronicle of these talks does notinclude revelations or visions. Her story is simply a reporting of one womanís conversations with God. It shows, in simple yet breathtaking dialogues, that Jesus seeks a deeply personal relationship with those who believe in him. I Am with You Always, the final book in a three-book series, presents profoundly intimate encounters between Gausseron and Jesus that have never before been published.
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Walk with Me: The Notebooks of Nicole Gausseron
Nicole Gausseron, William Skudlarek OSB, and Hilary Thimmesh OSB
"I have taken everything unto myself, have absorbed everything. Do not be afraid. I am here," says Jesus. These comforting words appear in Walk with Me, the second of three books that document Nicole Gausseronís conversations with Christ. Reading like the transcript of a conversation between dear friends, Walk with Meis proof that Jesus lives now and seeks a personal relationship with those who believe in him.
Nicole Gausseron doesnít claim to be a saint or a visionary. An ordinary woman, she serves as the director of a shelter for homeless men, and is a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. In stunningly simple language, Gausseron shares her frailty, her fears, her joy, and her doubts with Christ, who responds with words of comfort and encouragement, not just for her but for all who love him.
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Preferring Christ: A Devotional Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict
Norvene Vest and Luke Dysinger OSB
The Rule of St. Benedict continues to attract those who seek to live a deeper life, connected to Christ. But with such an ancient text, how can we authentically engage St. Benedict’s Rule in a manner that is true to its profound insights―and to our own spiritual journey? Norvene Vest suggests that the answer lies in the way we read the Rule. “It shouldn’t be studied like a book of regulations, or a school textbook. It should be read as lectio divina.”
This profound yet very practical volume speaks to our urgent spiritual need. People yearn for an interior life deeply rooted in God, humanly balanced, and substantially founded in the Christian heritage. Vest offers a valuable resource by rendering much more accessible the spiritual wealth of the key text of the ancient Benedictine charism. Here is the solid, balanced wisdom that has nourished and guided innumerable Christians for nearly fifteen centuries. -
Projects That Matter: Successful Planning and Evaluation for Religious Organizations
Kathleen A. Cahalan
Projects That Matter introduces project leaders and teams to the five basic elements of project design and describes in detail a six-step process for designing and implementing a project evaluation and disseminating evaluation findings. Written for the nonexpert, leaders in religious settings will find Cahalan's guidance clear and invaluable. Presenting evaluation as a form of collaborative inquiry, Cahalan show how leaders can use evaluation design to develop effective project plans and prepare case statements for donors or grant proposals for foundations. She introduces project planning and evaluation as mission-related practices and invites leaders to consider how their tradition's particular mission and beliefs influence the way they plan and evaluate. Cahalan concludes the book by making explicit her own theological presuppositions―that the virtues of discernment, stewardship, and prudence are essential for good project planning and evaluation.
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Believe That I Am Here: The Notebooks of Nicole Gausseron
Nicole Gausseron, William Skudlarek OSB, and Hilary Thimmesh OSB
In a small, simple chapel during the celebration of the Eucharist, Jesus revealed his presence to Nicole Gausseron and began speaking to her. In the first in a series of three books, Gausseron documents her conversations with Christ. Nicole Gausseron is not a visionary. She was born to a prosperous French family and was educated to be a professor. Translated from French, this volume is a record of Gausseron's first encounter with Christ and many others, kept daily in her "petit cahier"-her little notebook.
Devoid of the reverential tone often found in works of piety, Gausseron's journals read more like Gospel accounts of Jesus' ministry; episodic, terse, and objective. The value of the notebooks lies in their cogent reminder that Jesus lives and seeks a personal relationship with those who believe in him.