Free Lemonade Stand: See my reading in the column to the left

Monday, November 22, 2010

See my reading in the column to the left

It started with Krista Tippett's "On Being" weekly program on NPR. John O'Donohue's voice drew me in. Then I discovered Karen Armstrong's book. And I found in their writing what I wanted to offer you. So instead of writing these days, I'm soaking, making notes, so that when I'm moved to write again, it will be worth the extra words. Please consider this reading, as well as browsing Tippett's programs for inspiring audio and video - http://being.publicradio.org/programs/

PEACE

john

1 comment:

Books for Walls Project (The Four of Us)November 22, 2010 at 8:45 PM
Love the new format! I am looking forward to listening to The Case for God, thank you for sharing! And thanks for putting on the sharing tools... all the simpler to share the Free Lemonade ;)

And just came across the Three Faiths Exhibition @ New York Public Library, I am enjoying the online information and look forward to spending more time with it in the quiet of the winter.
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While I'm not Posting, I'm Reading...

Find it in your library online through WorldCat (Thanks for this tip go to our Amy at The Books For Walls Project

Advent of the Heart by Alfred Delp, S.J. is a stunning discovery of a very readable (and prayable) book of writings from Nazi prison by a young Jesuit writing about certainty and light in uncertain and dark times. He was hung. But he lives on in this powerful book. Meet him. Met Him!

True Love by Thich Nhat Hahn, thanks to Jerry L for sending this to me, is a book of simple and sparingly used words that draw us beyond words into silence, in which we hear that quiet but insistent call to love.

Finding Our Fathers by Samuel Osherson helps us identify and appreciate the parts of us that continue the struggles of and with our fathers.

Addiction and Grace by Gerald May helps us consider our addictions, whatever they are, and see the need and function of grace is finding our true selves.

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle is, as the subtitle says, a guide to spiritual enlightenment. It is not an escape from religion, nor an alternative to faith. It is a call within, to rediscover what precious awaits us there.

Dreamers of the Day by Maria Doria Russell Like three books, perhaps. First it is the young woman who climbs out of her mother's shadow; second it is a view of post-WWI history through her liberated eyes; finally it is her reflection on her life. Patchy, I'd say, but worthwhile.

Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI shows the pope to be a theologian who speaks from heart to heart as well as mind to mind. If like I you have a bias against old Cardinal Ratzinger, try this one.

The Battle for God by Karen Armstrong looks at the relationship between interior religion and exterior control in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.

Man's search for the Ultimate Meaning by Victor Frankl is his insightful relating of religion with logotherapy. Consciousness is awareness of what is; conscience is awareness of what transcends what is, draws us toward the unreachable but beckoning.

The Mermaid's Chair, by Sue Monk Kidd, invites the reader into the return of an empty-nest woman to "the twisted sheets of love and loathing" on the bed of her relationships with her mother, her husband, her faith, and herself. What may on the surface be seen merely as a dalliance between a ditz and a monk is, when entered, our own story of self-recognition.

The Case for God, by Karen Armstrong is literally a stunner. for the first time in my adult life, I am delighting in the "Catholic Church Dogmas" like the virgin birth, the resurrection from the dead, and the Trinity. Armstrong shares a history of god from the first writing to the present. In doing so she presents an easy to read (or listen to, as I am doing as I walk in the morning) explanation of theology - mankind's grappling with the existence and nature of God. Read what she describes as "mystery", her distinction between mythos and logos. This book may open your mind to parts of your own religion that have remained closed to you, too!

Anam Cara by John O'Donohue is like a cool, safe, dark place with windows, each providing you with the view into a different mystery and delight, each one familiar to you but unexplored. This is one to buy and keep, to sit with and soak in, one elegant essay at a sitting.