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Mindfulness and Christian Spirituality: making space for God
Spiritual Growth, The Inner JourneyMay I be safe and protected. May I be at peace in mind and body. May I live with ease and kindness. (Kindness practice, p. 120)We can all engage with such longings - and wish these good things for the people we love. Mindfulness practice is hugely popular these days! But what, Tim Stead asks, does it have to offer Christianity? How might it help us to transform the way we manage stress and open up more completely to the promised 'life in all its fullness'? Key is the definition of mindfulness as being more fully aware of our own experience in the present moment in a non-judgmental way. The author finds that 'distractions', so often the bane of those trying to pray, can be taken note of without our being caught up in or taken over by them. A non-judgemental approach seems entirely consistent with talk of grace, and as Christians we know we can only ever experience God in the present moment. Tim reflects:'If I feel loved entirely without judgment, I will gradually dare to allow every aspect of myself to come into the light of God's gaze and so into relationship with the rest of myself - and this is how healing comes.'£9.99 -
See, Love, Be: mindfulness and the spiritual life
Spiritual Growth, The Inner JourneyMany have been hugely helped by mindfulness practice. But how do we move beyond our initial goal of functioning well to live a life marked by deep awareness, genuine compassion and ease of being? Tim Stead is an accredited mindfulness teacher who seeks to explore this very question. Offering new versions of familiar practices, he meditates on three key themes - see, love, be - that connect strongly with the concerns of many great spiritual traditions. A practical eight-week guide with audio MP3 CD£9.99 -
Things Hidden: scripture as spirituality
Influences & Suggested Reading, Scripture & Prayer, The Inner JourneyOnly when the two come together, inner and outer authority, do we have true spiritual wisdom. We have for too long insisted on outer authority alone, without any teaching of prayer, inner journey and maturing consciousness. The results for the world and for religion have been disastrous ...I offer these reflections to again unite what should never have been separated: sacred Scripture and Christian spirituality.' From the introduction In this exploration of central themes of Scripture, Richard Rohr transforms the written word, discovering in these ancient texts a new and vital meaning, relevant and essential for modern Christians. He uncovers what the Bible says about morality, power, wisdom and the generosity of God in a manner that demands a life-changing response from believers. Rohr offers his readers a Christian vision of abundance, grace and joy to counteract a world filled with scarcity, judgement and fear-a vision that can revolutionize how we relate to ourselves, others and the world.£12.99 -
Seasoned By Seasons: flourishing in life’s experiences
Seasons of Life, Spiritual GrowthLike the seasons themselves, our lives are variable and can change in a moment. In Seasoned by Seasons, Michael Mitton acknowledges this and offers Bible reflections for the variety of life's seasons: spring, the season of emerging new life; summer, the season of fruitfulness; autumn, the season of letting go; winter, the season of discovering light in the dark. What can we learn, and how can we be encouraged in each season of our lives? This book will empower you to discover for yourself the truths and messages of scripture, and might well change the way you view life's changes.£7.99 -
Speaking of Sin
Scripture & Prayer, Spiritual GrowthIn Speaking of Sin, Barbara Brown Taylor brings her fresh perspective to words that often cause us discomfort and have widely fallen into neglect: sin, damnation, repentance, penance, and salvation. Asking why we should speak of sin at all, she argues that abandoning words will not make sin go away, and that alienation, deformation, damnation and death will continue no matter what we call them. Abandoning the language will simply leave us speechless before them, and increase our denial of their presence in our lives. Ironically, it will also weaken the language of grace, since the full impact of forgiveness cannot be felt apart from the full impact of what has been forgiven. Contrary to the prevailing view, Taylor calls sin “a helpful, hopeful word.” Naming our sins, she contends, enables us to move from guilt to grace. In recovering this lost language of salvation in our worship and in the fabric of our individual lives, we have an opportunity to take part in the divine work of redemption.£10.99 -
The Gifts of Imperfection: let go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you are
The Inner JourneyEach day we face a barrage of images and messages from society and the media telling us who, what, and how we should be. We are led to believe that if we could only look perfect and lead perfect lives, we'd no longer feel inadequate. So most of us perform, please, and perfect, all the while thinking, “What if I can't keep all of these balls in the air? Why isn't everyone else working harder and living up to my expectations? What will people think if I fail or give up? When can I stop proving myself?” In The Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown offers 10 guideposts to engage our minds, hearts, and spirits as she explores how we can cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, “No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough." And to go to bed at night thinking, “Yes, I am sometimes afraid, but I am also brave”. And, “Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable, but that doesn't change the truth that I am worthy of love and belonging”. New tenth-anniversary edition.£15.99 -
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 -
Buying God: Consumerism and Theology
Culture & Mission, Everyday Life, Spiritual GrowthChristians are deeply concerned about consumerism, but lack the tools to be able to engage robustly in the debate about its future. Economists obfuscate, politicians polarise, and church leaders bluff. While desire to consume is a fundamentally human trait, consumerism offers only illusory satisfaction. Yet Christianity happens to be unusually well-equipped to lead the fight against Mammon's most alluring secular narratives. Consumerism is human action, so it can as easily be redemptive as it can be parasitical. We just need to consume for God instead. Drawing on the Church's rich traditions of Social Liturgy, Buying God calls on the Christian community to renew its confidence and strength in proclaiming this good news. Uniting theoretical work on theology, capitalism and consumerism with a scheme of detailed practical action, the book explores how we can wean ourselves off the material and on to the eternal through prayer, example and vibrant social action.£16.99 -
Repentance – Good News!
Scripture & PrayerRepentance. From Jesus's own adoption of repentance at his baptism and the opening word of his preaching, the theme winds its way through his ministry and into our lives. We see Peter, the exemplar of repentance, and the unfortunate Judas, caught up in remorse. We look at sins both personal and collective, and at God forgiving and healing. Above all we see Jesus taking on the sin of the whole world and bringing the kingdom of God so very close, this kingdom of love which brings us to our knees in adoration. This book tellingly brings home the wonderful, humble love of God to be found in Jesus.£13.00 -
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.£13.00 -
Becoming a Disciple
Scripture & PrayerIn this little book Daniel Bourguet guides our meditations on three scriptural passages that lead the reader along the pathway ordained by Christ into the depths of his being. Successively, the disciple first follows behind Jesus along the way of perfect love (Mark 1:14-20); then experiences what it is to bear the yoke with Christ and there find rest (Matt 11:28-30); and finally enters the mystery of communion in which he is in Jesus and Jesus abides in him (John 15:1-17). It is a pathway passing from vocation to struggle and then to fellowship, but leading always to joy. In Becoming a Disciple, we see the fruit of Bourget's years of intercession, spiritual direction, and insightful exegesis--all of this at the feet of Christ. Here we see how the Gospels lead us into intimate encounters and authentic discipleship£16.00 -
The Tenderness of God
Scripture & Prayer, The Inner JourneyThe tenderness of God is not a theme that can be approached just to satisfy our intellectual curiosity, but is an unfathomable mystery that leads us deep into the heart of God. A deep thirst for tenderness means that many, both young and old, are prepared to do almost anything if only this thirst can be quenched. Many of us go far astray without knowing or even suspecting that the most extraordinary tenderness is that of God, and that indeed he is the source of all tenderness. This volume is the fruit of many years of prayer and thought. Throughout these meditations on lesser-known biblical texts, the reader will engage with the compassionate, merciful God, a God with all the tenderness of both mother and father. In this way, the reader will be opened up to new vistas onto the mystery of God's humble, delicate tenderness. Today the world suffers such a deep wound that only one remedy will suffice: the balm of God's tenderness. Daniel Bourguet, in the spirit of the Great Physician, applies the salve of three achingly beautiful OT texts--good news of God's infinite mercy and compassion--with a tone befitting the deep need of the hour.£17.00 -
Spiritual Maladies
Scripture & Prayer, The Inner JourneyTo love is to live and to live is to love; this is God's intention for humanity. However, humanity falls ill along the way; its love of God and neighbour becomes diseased, infected with other loves; the love of money, of pleasure. . . . To these malaises God becomes our physician; he draws alongside us to heal and to restore us to fullness of life. The author enables us to rediscover this obscured face of God, the face of God our physician, full of compassion and very attentive--a God before whom it is best to lay bare all our ills in order to be healed. In this important corrective, Daniel Bourguet reorients readers. Sin is not so much law-breaking behaviour that requires a punitive judge as it is a spiritual malady of the passions in need of the Great Physician. From Cain's sin to Christ's ministry, we see grace as God's medicine for our sick world. This book is gentle, therapeutic gift.£13.00 -
To Love as God Loves: conversations with the early church
Monasticism & New Monasticism, The Inner Journey'Being a Christian means learning to love with God's love. But God's love is not a warm feeling in the pit of the stomach. It has definite characteristics we learn in the course of our life, in the behaviour and teaching of the early monastics, as we ponder over what we can say about how God deals with us, and finally, as we model our own lives on what we have learned.'£9.50 -
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Glimpses of Eden: field notes from the edge of eternity
Everyday Life, Seasons of Life, The Inner Journey'The land has a long memory...it forgets nothing, waiting only for the opportunity to ease the heart.' Glimpses of Eden is a seasonally-arranged collection of the very best of novelist Jonathan Tulloch's acclaimed nature column, which ran in The Tablet for more than 10 years. In 96 evocative daily records of his exploration of the land, mostly within an hour's bike ride of his North Yorkshire home, Jonathan captures snapshots of the wonders of the natural world. Here are eternal stories of resilience and beauty, hope and death, survival and renewal, a tapestry of miraculous creation to enrich our souls and deepen our understanding of life. Each reading is followed by a new reflection written for this book.£14.99 -
Lectio Matters: before the burning bush
Spiritual Exercises, The Inner Journey, Traditional MonasticismIn Lectio Matters, respected spiritual guide Sr. Meg Funk accompanies the reader in explorong different levels of lectio divina as taught by the ancient church writers and by sharing her long experience. By means of this wisdom both old and new, lectio divina can become our burning bush, a real encounter with the living God, in which we take off our sandals and bow low to the ground.£11.95 -
Discernment Matters: listening with the ear of the heart
Desert Monasticism, Spiritual Exercises, The Inner JourneyDiscernment Matters is a resource for those who want to learn and practice discernment as taught by the early monastic tradition. it includes an accessible summary of teachings about discernment from monastic traditions of late antiquity, consideration of important tools for making decisions today and practical examples from the lives of St. Benedict and St. Patrick, as well as the experience of monastics today. With this fifth volume of the Matters Series, Sr Meg Funk completes one of the most comprehensive presentations of the spiritual life available today, demonstrating why this inner work is both necessary and such a joy.£14.50 -
The Sacred Way: spiritual practices for everyday life.
Everyday Life, Spiritual Exercises, The Inner JourneyIn a world that thrives on fast food and facile political slogans, where feeling comfortable seems to be the American high ideal, The Sacred Way is an invitation to explore spiritual practices that will quicken and expand our everyday lives. Tony Jones is a patient and loyal companion and guide, one who anticipates our hesitations and doubts with good-humoured understanding. His informed style and personal conviction are compelling. His insights, rooted in solid research and reflection, are often inspiring.£7.99 -
Holy Silence: the gift of Quaker spirituality
The Inner JourneyHoly Silence is a contemporary classic on sacred silence. In this revised and expanded edition, Brent Bill presents the Quaker practice of silence and expectant listening to a wider Christian audience with warmth, wisdom and gentle humour.£13.99 -
The Art of Ageing: Inspiration for a positive and abundant later life
Everyday Life, Seasons of Life, Spiritual GrowthThis is a book which, whilst denying neither the frustrations and limitations of our mortality nor the terrible bittersweetness of our mortality, reveals the creativity, the passion, the adventures and the profound joy that can come when our elder years are fully lived and savoured. With his usual simplicity, John Lane at 80 shares his own experience and insights, offers useful advice and invites eleven other old men and women to tell their stories too. This is a delightful book; a source of practical and spritiual wisdom from a life well lived.£12.99 -
Silence: a user’s guide Volume 2 – Application
Spiritual Growth, The Inner JourneyMaggie Ross continues her exploration of silence in this second volume,on the transfiguration of the world and of human beings in it through 'beholding'. She studies Old and New testament ideas about silence, and presents a Eucharistic liturgh focused on silent meditation. These pages invite readers once again to look at their own minds, reflect on what is happening there, and to understand the essential role of silence for being human.£14.99 -
Solitude
Spiritual Growth, The Inner JourneySome long to find it, others long to escape it. Whether we welcome or dread it, solitude is something we all experience in different forms at different points in our lives. After enduring nearly five years of solitary confinement, in cruel and terrifying conditions, Terry discovered he was drawn to find out more about the power of solitude in the lives of other people. Here, he recalls encounters with people who have experienced differing ways of being solitary: among them the peaceful solitude of remote and beautiful places, the unsought solitude of lonely people living in busy cities, the deceptive solitude of those living in the twilight world of espionage, the enforced solitude of the prisoner, and finally, the inescapable solitude of those drawing near to death.£16.99 -
Word by Word: a daily spiritual practice.
Scripture & Prayer, Spiritual Exercises, Spiritual Growth, The Inner JourneyIn Word by Word Marilyn McEntyre invites you to dwell with and savour 15 specific words - listen, receive, enjoy and a dozen more - as she gives each word a week, reflecting on it for seven dasy from seven different angles. Drawing on the spiritual practices of lectio divina and centring prayer, Marilyn's evocative reflections open up rich new layers of meaning to nourish your heart, mind and soul.£14.00 -
When Words Fail: God and the World of Beauty
Creativity, Seasons of Life, Spiritual Growth, The Inner JourneyIs there a sharp divide between the 'sacred' and the 'secular'? this book explores how it is possible for human beings to know God, and not just in the more conventional and obvious ways of prayer and sacrament, scripture and theology. 'When words fail' - it is then that signs and symbols, images and sounds, pictures and dreams, have to take over. This book points the way to deeper knowlege of God through such other media, especially literature and music, art and architecture.£14.99
