A collection of sixteen images to colour, some are outlines of pieces already created for the Lindisfarne Scriptorium and some are completely new. The aim of the book is to help you relax, to inspire, to allow God to speak to you as you focus and meditate on the images.
Life and the gospel contain a good deal of paradox, but a survey has showed that evangelists often ignore it. Here Jim Currin wants to stir a discussion to make evangelism more effective, in the belief that acknowledging paradox makes the gospel more exciting, relevant, and attractive to today's spiritual seeker.
We hear a lot, these days, about 'spirituality', yet the meaning of that word can be hard to pin down. Often it is use in a vague way to refer to the relationship between our 'spirit' and God, resulting in the belief that we can only relate to God with our 'inner' being and not with any other part of ourselves.
Within Christianity, this view is commonly based on the assumption that the Bible contrasts the body and all this is physical with the 'spirit' which is good. But is that really what the Bible says? To answer that question, Paula Gooder explores the evidence, dispelling popular misconceptions, and leading us to a deeper understanding of the value of our bodies in the eyes of God.
Thomas Merton's classic study of monastic prayer and contemplation brings a tradition of spirituality alive for the present day. But, as A M Allchin points out in his Introduction to this new edition, Contemplative Prayer also shows us the present day in a new perspective, because we see it in the light of a long and living tradition.
Merton stresses that in meditation we should not look for a 'method' or 'system' but cultivate an 'attitude' or 'outlook': faith, openness, attention, reverence, expectation, trust, joy. God is found in the desert of surrender, in giving up any expectation of a particular message and 'waiting on the Word of God in silence'.
Merton insists on the humility of faith, which he argues 'will do far more to launch us into the full current of historical reality than the pompous rationalisation of politicians who think they are somehow the directors and manipulators of history'.
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