Al and Ron Lindner, recognized leaders in the sport fishing industry and members of the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, share stories from their decades-long careers on the water and share the life-changing truths God has taught them along the way. See how God "scooped them up into the gentle net of His grace." Discover that He loves to reveal Himself in everyday, routine events as well as moments of trauma, danger, or high-charged adventure. And find inspiring reminders that God can... open doors when you see only dead ends guide you when you don't know which way to turn equip you with everything you need fill you with peace when everything goes south give you your own life-changing story to share with others These short reflections will help you sense that God is with you, too, at first light on the water.
In this important book of Quaker spirituality, Jim Newby writes about his spiritual journey and the ways he has sought to navigate an increasingly complex world and understand his purpose in it. A lifelong Quaker, Newby seeks to discern the primary ways in which he has grown spiritually, which are divided into the following parts: turning inward, community and relationship, pain and growth, path of a seeker, and affirmations. Each chapter within these parts concludes with queries to encourage readers to reflect upon their own spiritual journeys. Readers may find what Newby writes humorous, or his writing may provoke tears, questions, and challenges to one’s beliefs. Humor and tears, questions and spiritual challenges, are all of God, for to grow in Spirit encompasses all the feelings and emotions through which we pass in this life. In the words of Newby’s late friend and author, Malcolm Muggeridge, “Every happening great and small is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.” These reflections are Newby's attempt to get the message.
Say the name Marshall McLuhan and you think of the great discover's explorations of the media. But throughout his life, McLuhan never stopped reflecting profoundly on the nature of God and worship, and on the traditions of the Church. Often other intellectuals and artists would ask him incredulously, Are you really a Catholic? He would answer, Yes, I am a Catholic, the worst kind -- a convert, leaving them more baffled than before. Here, like a golden thread lining his public utterances on the media, are McLuhan's brilliant probes into the nature of conversion, the church's understanding of media, the shape of tomorrow's church, religion and youth, and the God-making machines of the modern world. This fascinating collection, gathered from his many and scattered remarks, essays, and other writings, shows the deeply Christian side of a man widely considered the most important thinker of our time, a man whose insights into media and culture have revolutionized the field of media study and the way we see the world.
What is a lighthouse? What does it mean? What does it do? This book shows how exchanging knowledge across disciplinary boundaries can transform our thinking. Adopting an unconventional structure, this book involves the reader in a multivocal conversation between scholars, poets and artists. Seen through their individual perspectives, lighthouses appear as signals of safety, beacons of enlightenment, phallic territorial markers, and memorials of historical relationships with the sea. However, the interdisciplinary conversation also reveals underlying and sometimes unexpected connections. It elucidates the human and non-human evolutionary adaptations that use light for signalling and warning; the visual languages created by regularity and synchronicity in pulses of light; how lighthouses have generated a whole ‘family’ of related material objects and technologies; and the way that light flows between social and material worlds.
Grief Light is for anyone who is grieving. From her personal perspective on the light side of grief, the author illuminates many of the universal truths of grief through practical, spiritual illustrations and examples from ordinary life. Written in an informal, approachable style, each brief meditation offers grief insight through the rich imagery of stories and scenes from everyday experience, supported by Scripture and a prayer idea. Through these positive, uplifting reflections on life and love and death, you will discern how your faith can grow as a gift of grief through the steadfast love and faithfulness of God. When you read these almost devotionals, you may think, Oh yes, that happened to me or Now I understand more about what it is Im feeling or I thought I was the only one whod ever experienced that or Theres really some plain talk here about human nature. Grief Light also addresses some of the more contemporary, yet seldom fully acknowledged issues that surround grief, including collective/communal grief, incomplete grief, compound grief, and complicated grief. The hope is that the heart and spiritual truths of Grief Light will guide you toward a better understanding of your grief and direct you away from the darkness, toward the light of new life.
Were Thomas Jefferson alive to read this book, he would recognize every sentence, every elegant turn of phrase, every lofty, beautifully expressed idea. Indeed, every word in the book is his. In an astonishing feat of editing, Eric S. Petersen has culled the entirety of Thomas Jefferson’s published works to fashion thirty-four original essays on themes ranging from patriotism and liberty to hope, humility, and gratitude. The result is a lucid, inspiring distillation of the wisdom of one of America’s greatest political thinkers. From his personal motto—“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God”—to his resounding discourse on “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson defined the essential truth of the American spirit. In the essays that Petersen has crafted from letters, speeches, and public documents, Jefferson’s unique moral philosophy and vision shine through. Among the hundreds of magnificent sentences gathered in this volume, here are Jefferson’s pronouncements on Gratitude: “I have but one system of ethics for men and for nations— to be grateful, to be faithful to all engagements and under all circumstances, to be open and generous.” Religion: “A concern purely between our God and our consciences.” America’s national character: “It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate; to surmount every difficulty with resolution and contrivance.” Public debt: “We shall all consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts, and morally bound to pay them ourselves.” War: “I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.” In stately measured cadences, these thirty-four essays provide timeless guidance on leading a spiritually fulfilling life. Light and Liberty is a triumphant work of supreme eloquence, as uplifting today as when Jefferson first set these immortal sentences on paper.
For thousands of years, spiritual and religious practitioners in India, Tibet, and elsewhere have made special use of prayer bead garlands called "mala" in chanting the divine Name and other words of power. Even today, these sacred objects are believed to aid the seeker in establishing a rhythmic centering of consciousness, reconnecting him or her with the energies believed to sustain the natural world. In the spirit of this same meditative tradition, 108 original poetic insights form the body of this powerful and nuanced exploration of individual and cosmic identity, acceptance, and psychological freedom. With a thematic structure corresponding to the seven major "chakras" or energy centers of the human body, "A Light from the Shadows" guides the reader on a journey of personal revelation: from an introduction to personal mythology and its power to shape our life experience; to the role of suffering and love in the creation of identity; to the subjective nature of time, separateness, and linear causality. This unique and engaging collection of quotable wisdom is the perfect companion gift, not just for the spiritual seeker or adept, but for anyone interested in taking his or her first step towards a larger understanding of the universe and our place in it. For more information and accompanying images, readers are encouraged to visit the author's virtual gallery at www.theartofemergence.com
This is a very unique calendar featuring a quote each day from one of the Carmelite Saints or Blesseds, followed by a personal reflection on that quote. The nuns at that time wished to honor two significant dates; the first being the two hundredth anniversary of the arrival of four Carmelite Nuns who bravely set forth by ship from Belgium to found the first Carmel in America, in Port Tobacco, Maryland. The second date they were honoring was the 400th Anniversary of the holy death of St. John of the Cross in 1591, who accompanied and greatly helped St. Teresa of Avila in her foundations. These reflections are the fruit of prayer, spiritual reading and Lectio Divina of these Nuns, and are a wonderful way to become acquainted with the vitality and freshness of Carmelite spirituality. The Authors: the authors were the Nuns themselves of the Carmels that were members of the St. Teresa Association in 1990. At that time there were twelve Carmels, and each Carmel assumed responsibility for one month. Then the Nuns of that particular monastery would write up a quote from one of their Carmelite saints, and added their own personal reflection or meditation on that quote. So each day is entirely unique filled with the spirit and wisdom coming from those whose entire lives are suffused with the love of Carmelite spirituality.