Provides a reflection on the Gospel reading for each Sunday in Year A. Short inspirational meditations help unlock the heart of Scripture. Beautifully written and widely accessible. Each entry concludes with a specially written prayer.
'Gaze on him . . . Consider him . . . Contemplate him . . . As you desire to imitate him.' This advice from St Clare of Assisi is the key to unlocking the door to the heart of Jesus' teaching. Her words provide a pattern of meditation that brings alive the Gospel reading for every Sunday of the Revised Common Lectionary. 'At every point the author persuades the reader that the Gospel readings really are relevant to our contemporary lives . . . she offers many images that will help congregations and preachers alike . . . For its sheer poetry and imagination, Judith Dimond's Gazing on the Gospels . . . is well worth buying'. Robin Gill, in Outlook
The key to mystery of Jesus is hidden in the paronomasia of Chrēstos and Christos. Still the learned Egyptologist passes over in silence the real and profound meaning of the two appellations. The Talmud and the Masters of Wisdom affirm that Jesus ben Pandira was the historical Christ, who had lived a century earlier, in the fourth year of the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, King of Judea. An Initiate, who had succeeded in merging his spiritual being into the glorious state of Buddhi-Manas, may be regarded as a Christos after his last and supreme initiation, just as he was called Chrēstos before that. Carnalising the Christ-principle is an absurdity and a blasphemy. Theosophists will never accept a “Christ made Flesh,” or an anthropomorphic God, still less a “Shepherd” in the person of a Pope. However, a man of flesh assuming the Christ-condition temporarily is a matter-of-fact on the plane of matter, and a subjective reality in the spiritual realm, which is the proper habitat of he divine soul. We fully agree with our esteemed friend that the suppression and perversion of esoteric facts in the gospels is not so mischievously done as to prevent the Occultist from reading between the lines.
Tracing the Gospel text from script to illustration to recitation, this study looks at how illuminated manuscripts operated within ritual and architecture. Focusing on a group of richly illuminated lectionaries from the late eleventh century, the book articulates how the process of textual recitation produced marginalia and miniatures that reflected and subverted the manner in which the Gospel was read and simultaneously imagined by readers and listeners alike. This unique approach to manuscript illumination points to images that slowly unfolded in the mind of its listeners as they imagined the text being recited, as meaning carefully changed and built as the text proceeded. By examining this process within specific acoustic architectural spaces and the sonic conditions of medieval chant, the volume brings together the concerns of sound studies, liturgical studies, and art history to demonstrate how images, texts, and recitations played with the environment of the Middle Byzantine church.
In Scripting Jesus, Michael White, famed scholar of early Christian history, reveals how the gospel stories of Jesus were never meant to be straightforward historical accounts, but rather were scripted and honed as performance pieces for four different audiences with four different theological agendas. As he did as a featured presenter in two award-winning PBS Frontline documentaries (“From Jesus to Christ” and “Apocalypse!”), White engagingly explains the significance of some lesser-known aspects of The New Testament; in this case, the development of the stories of Jesus—including how the gospel writers differed from one another on facts, points of view, and goals. Readers of Elaine Pagels, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, and Bart Ehrman will find much to ponder in Scripting Jesus.
This twentieth anniversary edition (more than 111,000 copies sold) brings Henri J.M. Nouwen's writings on Eastern Orthodox icons to a new generation and adds to the Nouwen collection published by Ave Maria Press. With a foreword by Br. Robert Lentz, a well-known painter of contemporary icons, this classic Nouwen book invites readers to pray with four Russian icons with their eyes open by emphasizing seeing or gazing, which are at the heart of Eastern spirituality. Nouwen's meditations reveal his viewing of the icons not as decorations, but holy places. The book includes four full-color icons for private contemplation or meditation.
The perfect gift! A specially priced, beautifully designed hardcover edition of The Joy of the Gospel with a foreword by Robert Barron and an afterword by James Martin, SJ. “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus… In this Exhortation I wish to encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelization marked by this joy, while pointing out new paths for the Church’s journey in years to come.” – Pope Francis This special edition of Pope Francis's popular message of hope explores themes that are important for believers in the 21st century. Examining the many obstacles to faith and what can be done to overcome those hurdles, he emphasizes the importance of service to God and all his creation. Advocating for “the homeless, the addicted, refugees, indigenous peoples, the elderly who are increasingly isolated and abandoned,” the Holy Father shows us how to respond to poverty and current economic challenges that affect us locally and globally. Ultimately, Pope Francis demonstrates how to develop a more personal relationship with Jesus Christ, “to recognize the traces of God’s Spirit in events great and small.” Profound in its insight, yet warm and accessible in its tone, The Joy of the Gospel is a call to action to live a life motivated by divine love and, in turn, to experience heaven on earth. Includes a foreword by Robert Barron, author of Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith and James Martin, SJ, author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage
Knowing God truly, experiencing Him deeply. What would it look like to genuinely love God with our head AND our heart? To have a faith marked by right thinking AND right feeling? To know God deeply AND worship him passionately? Too often, Christians act as though these things are at odds with one another. But what if God intends for us to possess a Christianity that is radically committed to biblical truth, in a way that did not diminish the life of the heart, but actually intensified it? Adam Ramsey invites us to engage both our minds and our emotions in our walk with God as we gaze at him until our hearts sing. He sums it up like this: "My hope in these following pages is to paint a biblical portrait of what God is actually like, so that we can gaze upon him together until our hearts can’t help but sing. To behold him in such a way that our daily experience is transformed with a deepened awareness of who it is we pray to, who it is that is with us, and who it is that we are loved by. To let God’s truth set our hearts on fire." If you yearn for God but desire a clearer biblical picture of this God whom you love, or if you have been walking with God for a while now, but your experience of him has become settled or dry, then this book is for you.