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As the Touch: A6 greetings card
Creativity, Spiritual GrowthWords: Embrace me Lord As the loving parent to a new born babe; As the gentle wave on a windswept shore; As the summer breeze lifts the soaring bird; As the fall of rain on the parched garden soil; As the pure note of song caresses an ear; As the touch on the face from a lover; As the clear starlight falling on a deep, still lake; As the warming sunlight on a butterfly wing; As the brushstroke on a painters canvas; As the soft hug of a much loved toy; As the familiar words of a memorised poem Embrace me O Lord Background: An encouragement to invite God to be intimate with every aspect of our life.£2.25 -
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s New Monasticism: A Central Influence
Core Teaching, Influences & Suggested Reading, Monasticism & New Monasticism, New Monasticism, Northumbria Community Resources & Teaching, Re-imagining ChurchThis booklet, by Trevor Miller, looks at the ways in which Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been an influence on our Community. A Lutheran Pastor in the Confessing Church in Germany in the 1930s, Bonhoeffer’s early exploration of Community and New Monasticism was cut short by the Nazi regime, but his writings have lived on. In this booklet Trevor helps us to make the connections between Bonhoeffer’s life and work and our own journey as a Community.£5.00 -
Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit
Influences & Suggested Reading, Spiritual Growth£12.99Spiritual formation, I have come to believe, is not about steps or stages on the way to perfection. It’s about the movements from the mind to the heart through prayer in its many forms that reunite us with God, each other, and our truest selves.
Henri Nouwen, from the Introduction
Henri Nouwen, beloved author, priest and spiritual guide, counseled many people during his lifetime, but his principles of spiritual formation were never written down. Now, Michael Christensen, one of Nouwen’s longtime students, and Rebecca Laird have taken the famous course in spiritual formation and supplemented it with his unpublished writings to reveal Nouwen’s sage advice on how to live out the five classic stages of spiritual development.
I always knew I was in the presence of a spiritual master when I was with Henri Nouwen. Here are some simple, wise words that will allow the master to continue to teach.
Richard Rohr, O.F.M., author of The Naked Now
One of the book’s many strengths is its integration of an area especially important to Nouwen, the contemplation of icons and other works of art – visio divina – in order ‘to behold the beauty of the Lord’.
Jim Forest, author of Praying with Icons and The Road to Emmaus
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Sacred Strangers: what the Bible’s outsiders can teach Christians
Culture & Mission, Everyday Life, Scripture & PrayerThe Bible is laced with stories in which strangers behave better than believers. What do these encounters with "others"--people from different cultures, religions, genders, economic and social classes--teach us about our own spiritual values, about the faith and God behind them? In Sacred Strangers, Nancy Haught leads readers through these stories, line by line, offering insight to open hearts to sacred strangers at a time when personal encounters can make us or break us--as people and citizens of the world.£10.99 -
Simplicity: The freedom of letting go
Spiritual Growth, The Inner JourneySimplicity – The Freedom of Letting Go by Richard Rohr St Francis’s ancient call to the simple life of freedom and happiness, as seen by America’s foremost Franciscan. Richard Rohr shows you how to: Recognize your radical dependence on others Understand why less is more Break through to contemplation Embrace a deeper spiritual freedom “Rohr’s kind of contemplation is an adventure in the wilderness, letting God call me by name and take me to a deeper place of peace that the world cannot give.” St. Anthony Messenger£16.99 -
From Wild Man to Wise Man: Reflections on male spirituality
Influences & Suggested Reading, Seasons of Life, The Inner JourneyFrom Wild Man to Wise Man: Reflections on Male Spirituality is a revised and updated edition of Richard Rohr's earlier best-seller, The Wild Man's Journey: Reflections on Male Spirituality. For this new work, Rohr added three chapters that discuss John the Baptist, Saint Paul and grief. An appendix provides a structure for a men's group, based on Rohr's work with M.A.L.E.S (Men as Learners and Elders), a program of the Center for Action and Contemplation, which Richard founded and now directs in Albuquerque, New Mexico.£14.50 -
Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer
Scripture & PrayerIn Everything Belongs, Richard Rohr offers a personal retreat for those who hunger for a deeper spiritual life but don't know what contemplation is. Fr Rohr helps us understand that intimacy with God cannot be achieved in the rational mind. By practising contemplation, we learn not to reason better but to see everything – including ourselves and other people – differently. As our perspective becomes wider, we discover that everything belongs. This edition includes a reading guide for individual and group reflection.£15.99 -
Sabbath Time: A hermitage journey of retreat, return, communion
Seasons of Life, The Inner Journey'A serious health breakdown in my thirties, where I spent over six months in recovery, made me aware of the need for greater balance in my life. Yet since then, I have continued to do too much, say “yes” instead of “no” too often, and I have struggled to set aside time for rest, prayer and reflection. But finally, after a year of thought and planning, I decided to take a whole six months off...' From the Author Preface Description Being left alone to embark on a reflective journey is a great gift – particularly in our age, where remaining connected is such a driving expectation. Charles decided to take a whole six months off and to spend much of this time in a hermitage on friends’ property. To enter a space of disconnection is both a scary and an exhilarating experience. And to 'down' tools and be still without an agenda of expectations is wonderfully open and freeing. It is also walking into mystery. Who knows what might happen? About the Author Charles Ringma has taught in universities, colleges and seminaries in Asia, Australia and N. America. And he has worked in urban and overseas mission for several decades. He is Emeritus Professor of Regent College, Vancouver, is a Franciscan Tertiary (tssf) and companion of Northumbria Community, Brisbane. Besides working for justice, he plants rain forest trees, grows vegetables and pens books on Christian spirituality.£7.99 -
Followers of the Way: Ancient discipleship for modern Christians
Celtic Studies, Celtic Studies & Spirituality, Desert Monasticism, New MonasticismOne of the most pressing issues in today's church is encouraging people to become true and effective disciples of Jesus Christ. If, in simple terms, discipleship is about connecting more deeply with God and connecting God with the whole of life, Simon Reed argues, we're looking at a life-long process for which we require long-term skills rather than short-term courses. The Celtic and Desert Christians, drawing on Old and New Testament practices, taught and modelled how to do this through the practice of living by a Way of Life. By drawing together today's need for disciples and Celtic Christianity, Followers of the Way inspires authentic Christian discipleship for the contemporary world.£9.99 -
A Silent Action: engagements with Thomas Merton
Spiritual GrowthThomas Merton's life, especially once he had become a writer, was to a great extent one of dialogue with people who were distant, both geographically and historically. In these probing and perceptive studies, Rowan Williams looks closely at the key intellectual and spiritual relationships that emerge in Merton's writings, exploring the impact on him of thinkers as diverse as Hannah Arendt, Karl Barth, William Blake, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Olivier Clement, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Paul Evdokimov, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Vladimir Lossky, John Henry Newman, Boris Pasternak and St John of the Cross.£11.99 -
The Cost of Discipleship
Influences & Suggested ReadingWhat can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the labourer, or the aristocrat? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is His will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between 'cheap grace' and 'costly grace'. 'Cheap grace', Bonhoeffer wrote, 'is the grace we bestow on ourselves...grace without discipleship...Costly grace is the Gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know...It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it give the man the only true life.' The Cost of Discipleshipis a compelling statement of the demands of sacrifice and ethical consistency from a man whose life and thought were exemplary articulations of a new type of leadership inspired by the Gospel, and imbued with the spirit of Christian humanism and a creative sense of civic duty.£21.99 -
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An Altar in the World
Church & Leadership, Everyday Life, Influences & Suggested Reading, The Inner JourneyIn this highly acclaimed and lyrical book, the best-selling author Barbara Brown Taylor reveals the countless ways we can discover divine depths in the small things we do and see every day. People go to extraordinary lenghts, she writes, to discover this treasure. 'They will spend hours launching prayers into the heavens. They will travel half way around the world to visit a monastery in India...The last place most people will look is right under their feet, in the everyday activities, accidents and encounters of their lives...the reason so many of us cannot see the red X marks the spot is because we're standing on it.' An Altar in the the World shows us how heaven and earth meet in such ordinary occurrences as hanging out the wahing, doing the supermarket shop, feeding an animal, losing our way. It will transfrom our understanding of ourselves and the word we live in and renew our sense of wonder at the extraordinary gift of life.£12.99 -
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Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture
Culture & Mission, Influences & Suggested ReadingThis book is for exiles: Christians who find themselves caught in that dangerous wilderness between contemporary secular Western culture and and old-fashioned church culture of respectability and conservatism. Frost presents a plea for such Christians to embrace a dynamic, life-affirming, robust Christian faith that can be lived confidently in a world that no longer values such a faith.£15.99 -
From Darkness to Light
Lent & Easter, Scripture & PrayerFrom Darkness to Light is a masterpiece of contemplative exegesis of the Bible. Daniel Bourguet takes the reader on a challenging, three-chapter pilgrimage exploring the mystery of three conversions: in the darkness at Jesus's death, in the cries of descent into the grave, and in the light at his garden resurrection. Bourguet interprets with precision and passion the story of the one thief's conversion on the cross as he witnesses Jesus's suffering love. His treatment of Heman's cry from the depths in Psalm 88 plumbs the depths of a biblical theology of the cross. His final chapter on Mary Magdalene's transformative encounter with Jesus in the garden is brilliant, inspiring more careful study, contemplative prayer, and adoration.£17.00 -
Show Me: A4 signed print
Creativity, Spiritual GrowthWords: Lord Jesus show me Your way Background: Artist Mary Fleeson comments...'This piece was inspired by the lighthouse beam I see each night. It cuts through the darkness like a sword, like the word of God. It is a guide, a warning, a comfort and a reassurance.' Printing and Sizing: This item is 210mm x 297mm and is printed on 300gsm card stock£14.50 -
Heart: A6 greetings card
Creativity, Spiritual GrowthWords: Do not be afraid Do not let your heart be troubled Background: A variation on John 14:27, incorporating the rainbow, symbol of God's covenant with man and the dove as the Holy Spirit and the image of peace. Printing and Sizing: This item is 105mm x 148mm and is printed on 300gsm gloss card stock. Each card is blank inside, has its title and copyright details on the back and is individually wrapped in cellophane with an envelope.£2.25 -
Glory: A6 greetings card
Creativity, Spiritual GrowthWords: Glory to God in the highest, And peace to his people on earth. Background: Mary tells us that this is ...'A Christmas image which expresses God’s desire for us to enjoy peace in this world and reminding us that offering to God our unconditional worship, restoring the wonder, majesty and glory of the Godhead, is part of achieving that goal of peace. The colours and lines of the background are reminiscent of the Aurora Borealis which we saw a few years ago over the Island, the colours were vivid reds & greens with golds, yellows and blues flickering against an inky black sky. We wondered if the record in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which says, “… immense flashes of lightening, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air...” referred to a rare but brilliant display of the Aurora in the North East of England. We were amazed at the drama of the fiery sky and could easily imagine a less informed society being attributing its source to dragons!' Printing and Sizing: This item is 105mmX148mm and is printed on 300gsm gloss card stock. Each card is blank inside, has its title and copyright details on the back and is individually wrapped in cellophane with an envelope.£1.95 -
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
Influences & Suggested Reading, Seasons of Life, The Inner JourneyIn the first half of life, we are naturally and rightly preoccupied with establishing our identities – climbing, achieving, and performing. But those concerns will not serve us as we grow older and begin to embark on a further journey, one that involves challenges, mistakes, loss of control, broader horizons, and necessary suffering that shocks us out of our comfort zones. Eventually, we need to see ourselves in a different and more life-living way. This message of 'falling down' – that is in fact moving upward – is the most resisted and counterintuitive of messages in the world's religions, including and most especially Christianity. In Falling Upward, Father Richard Rohr offers a new paradigm for understanding one of the most profound of life's mysteries: how our failing can be the foundation for our ongoing spiritual growth. Drawing on the wisdom from time-honoured myths, heroic poems, great thinkers, and sacred religious texts, the author explores the two halves of life to show that those who have fallen, failed, or 'gone down' are the only ones who understand 'up'. We grow spiritually more by doing it wrong than by doing it right. With rare insight, Rohr takes us on a journey to give us an understanding of how the heartbreaks, disappointments and first loves of life are actually stepping stones to the spiritual joys that the second half of life has in store for us.£12.99 -
Finding Your Hidden Treasure: The Way of Silent Prayer
Scripture & Prayer, The Inner JourneyThe most important journey in life is the journey inwards, to the depths of our own being. It is a journey we are all invited to make. It takes us beyond words and images into silence. The silence allows the restless mind to become still and in the stillness we enter a new world. We return to our hearts. Here we find our true selves. We discover an ancient way of finding God that has almost become lost. Slowly, we realize that we are in union with the source of life and love itself. Our whole life changes. Our goal now is to take God’s love to others in our everyday lives.£11.99 -
Life Together
Influences & Suggested Reading, New Monasticism, Re-imagining ChurchDietrich Bonhoeffer, the now famous theologian who was martyred by the Nazis in 1945, wrote this book on the eve of World War II. It resulted from his experience as head of a semiary of the German 'Confessing Church' at Finkenwalde near Stettin. Here many of the pastors who witnessed against Hitler received their inspiration. It was, as Professor John D. Godsey points out in his study of The Theology of Deitrich Bonhoeffer, 'a kind of theological education that was startlingly new in Germany: a communal life in which Jesus Christ's call to discipleship was taken seriously.' Professor Godsey calls Life Together 'simply written, powerfully convincing and unusually quotable...It is an attempt to give practical guidance to those who want to take their lives as Christians seriously.'£14.99 -
Learning to Walk in the Dark
Influences & Suggested Reading, The Inner JourneyNew from best-selling author Barbara Brown Taylor, perhaps best known for An Altar in the World, comes Learning to Walk in the Dark. In this hardback book she writes with wisdom, grace and beauty as she seeks to rehabilitate what we have learned to fear - the dark. Here she reflects on how our lives do not only work when everything is brightly lit; twilight and deep darkness have treasures of their own waiting to be discovered. Babara Brown Taylor writes: 'Darkness is shorthand for anything that scares me - either because I am sure that I do not have the resources to survive ti or because I do not want to have to find out. If I had my way, I would eliminate everything from chronic back pain ti the fear of the devil from my life ad the lives of those I love. At least I think I would. The problem is this: when, despite all my best efforts, the lights have gone off in my life, plunging me into the kind of darkness that turns my knees to water, I have not died. The monsters have not dragged me out of bed and taken me back to their lair. Instead, I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light. Learning to Walk in the Dark is a wise spiritual companion and guide for those times in life when we don't have all the answers. Recognising our tendency to associate all that is good with light, and all that is evil and dangerous with darkness, Barbara Brown Taylor asks whether God doesn't work at night too? With her characteristic grace and generosity, she invites us to put aside our fears and anxieties and to discover all that the darkness has to teach us. She takes us to underground caverns, subterranean chapels, basement night clubs and unlit cabins in the woods on moonless nights. Through darkness, we begin to see the world and sense God's presence around us in new ways, guiding us through things seen an unseen, and teaching us to find out footing in times of uncertainty. Like seeds buried in the ground, we will find how darkness is essential for our own growth and flourishing.£12.99