Talks about Benedictine spirituality and the role of spiritual directors within UK church communities. This book views the Rule and Benedictine notions of hospitality; defines what hospitality is; looks at hospitality and the Dynamism of Numinous Reciprocity; Christ's teaching on the subject, and how to become hospitable.
Spiritual sickness troubles American medicine. Through a death-denying culture, medicine has gained enormous power-an influence it maintains by distancing itself from religion, which too often reminds us of our mortality. As a result of this separation of medicine and religion, patients facing serious illness infrequently receive adequate spiritual care, despite the large body of empirical data demonstrating its importance to patient decision-making, quality of life, and medical utilization. This secular-sacred divide also unleashes depersonalizing, social forces through the market, technology, and legal-bureaucratic powers that reduce clinicians to tiny cogs in an unstoppable machine. Hostility to Hospitality is one of the first books of its kind to explore these hostilities threatening medicine and offer a path forward for the partnership of modern medicine and spirituality. Drawing from interdisciplinary scholarship including empirical studies, interviews, history and sociology, theology, and public policy, the authors argue for structural pluralism as the key to changing hostility to hospitality.
Henri Nouwen, who died in 1996, was one of the most significant writers on spirituality of the late twentieth century. Reaching Out combines two of his most popular books in one volume. With a foreword of personal appreciation by the ever popular Father Gerard Hughes, this special edition will be treasured by the many admirers of Henri Nouwen. The main part of the book is Reaching Out which answers the question 'What does it mean to live a life in the Spirit of Jesus Christ?' The second part is Glimpse Beyond the Mirror which is a very personal account of the author's spiritual life in the aftermath of a terrible accident.
"God is mystery," writes Norvene Vest in the Introduction to Tending the Holy, "and every form of religion is an effort to respond faithfully to the mystery of God by whatever name. The Divine breaks through into human experience in many ways, and humans respond variously to the awesome experience of God." And those various responses are what the contributors to Tending the Holy document. In this provocative and cutting-edge collection readers are given the opportunity to see what spiritual direction looks like--and what questions are asked--through a variety of lenses. From an examination of the spiritual direction relationship in the Evangelical Christian tradition, to Buddhism and Hindu ones, to the better-known ones of the Benedictines, Carmelites, and Ignatians, and finally, to the contemporary lenses of feminism, Generation X, the institutional perspective, and even one based on the natural world and the spirituality of St. Francis, this collection explores unexplored territory. Tending the Holy is an important resource for spiritual directors and pastoral counselors. Contributors include: Shaykha Fariha al-Jerrahi (New York); Ven. Tejadhammo Bhikku (Sangha Lodge Buddhist Monastery, Australia); Chrisopher Key Chapple (Loyola Marymount University); Rabbi Zari Weiss (Seattle, Washington); Sr. Marian Cowan, CSJ (Sisters of St Joseph of Carondelet, St. Louis, Missouri); Lisa Myers (La Canada, California); Dr. Michael Plattig (University of the Capuchins, Germany); Sister Katherine Howard, OSB (St. Benedict's Convent, St. Joseph, Minnesota); John H. Mostyn, CBC (Rome); The Rev. Dr. John Mabry ( San Francisco); Norvene Vest (Altadena, California), and The Rev. Dr. H. Paul Santmire (Watertown, Massachusetts). The Spiritual Directors International Series – This book is part of a special series produced by Morehouse Publishing in cooperation with Spiritual Directors International (SDI), a global network of some 6,000 spiritual directors and members.
Learn how this ancient spiritual practice can transform your relationship with yourself, with others and with God. “The practice of deep hospitality can help us step into a more vital, vibrant embrace of this great adventure we call life—which includes our relationship with God, however you might define God. . . . It is an invitation to walk through life with a liberating posture of receptivity, reverence, and generosity.” —from the Introduction We may think of hospitality as merely being polite to guests, but the ancients understood the profound potential hospitality holds for building and transforming lasting relationships—for binding families together, making strangers into friends, even turning enemies into neighbors. This practical book provides you with the tools you need to cultivate the spiritual power of invitation and welcome in your life. Guided by Rev. Nanette Sawyer, you will discover the qualities of hospitality—receptivity, reverence, and generosity—and how these qualities can significantly deepen your self-understanding as well as your relationships with others and with God. Drawing from sacred texts and spiritual practitioners from all faiths, this book also addresses the major stumbling blocks that prevent you from becoming truly hospitable.
Hospitality and the Holy Spirit shares stories and perspectives by hotelier Denise Maiatico about what the Bible tells us about taking good care of people. The book draws from Denise's 20-plus-year-career in the hospitality industry, offering anecdotes that are sometimes funny, other times sad, but always fascinating. During her career, Denise has seen some crazy, wonderful, disturbing, and inspirational things. As a Christian, Denise wanted to explore the Bible on a deeper level and through the lens of her experience. Stories and advice about being a good host abound in the Bible. To create this book, Denise researched these Bible stories and married them to her own experiences. During this process, the lessons of the Gospel became both relevant and obvious to her. This book will support your own journey and desire to live a life that reflects hospitality--and the Holy Spirit.
Have you ever felt that in your efforts to be hospitable, you’re bombarded by feelings of stress, inadequacy, or pride? When our hospitality starts to look that way, it may be time to refocus on true hospitality; the kind where we simply share what we have by serving in love, letting God multiply it and magnify it for his glory. Through this study of Scripture, find out more about the spiritual practice of hospitality, modeled by the One who first welcomed us to His table. Readers will work through four chapters that include articles for reflection, Scripture verses, and discussion questions for deeper thought. Also includes a Leader’s Guide.
This volume provides an anthology of about 40 primary source documents that describe the work of religious communities that took care of pilgrims and the sick in the late antique and early medieval world. The project identifies letters, diary accounts, instructions, sermons, travelogues, and community records and rules that give us a window into a world of early communities that saw it as their duty and their privilege to care for the sick, to safeguard the pilgrim, and to host the stranger. Each document is placed in historical, geographical, and social context as it contributes to an emerging picture of these communities. The volume addresses the motivations and practices of communities that risked extending hospitality. Why did these communities take great risks for the socially vulnerable? What stake did they have in pilgrims and the sick? What communal experiences supported and sustained both the communities and their audiences? How was hospitality cultivated?