What Is Contemplation?

Download What Is Contemplation? PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Ravenio Books
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 45 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis What Is Contemplation? by : Thomas Merton

Download or read book What Is Contemplation? written by Thomas Merton and published by Ravenio Books. This book was released on 1978 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are so many Christians who do not appreciate the magnificent dignity of their vocation to sanctity, to the knowledge, love and service of God. There are so many Christians who do not realize what possibilities God has placed in the life of Christian perfection — what possibilities for joy in the knowledge and love of Him. There are so many Christians who have practically no idea of the immense love of God for them, and of the power of that Love to do them good, to bring them happiness. Why do we think of the gift of contemplation, infused contemplation, mystical prayer, as something essentially strange and esoteric reserved for a small class of almost unnatural beings and prohibited to everyone else? It is perhaps because we have forgotten that contemplation is the work of the Holy Ghost acting on our souls through His gifts of Wisdom and Understanding with special intensity to increase and perfect our love for Him. These gifts are part of the normal equipment of Christian sanctity. They are given to all in Baptism, and if they are given it is presumably because God wants them to be developed. Their development will always remain the free gift of God and it is true that His wise Providence sees fit to develop them less in some saints than in others. But it is also true that God often measures His gifts by our desire to receive them, and by our cooperation with His grace, and the Holy Spirit will not waste any of His gifts on people who have little or no interest in them.

Embracing Contemplation

Download Embracing Contemplation PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
ISBN 13 : 0830873686
Total Pages : 309 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (38 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Embracing Contemplation by : John H. Coe

Download or read book Embracing Contemplation written by John H. Coe and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does a Christian life lived "by the Spirit" look like? For many Christians throughout history, fulfilling Paul's command in Galatians 5:25 included a form of contemplation and prayer that leads to spiritual formation. But in large part, contemporary Christians—perhaps especially evangelicals—seem to have lost or forgotten about this treasure from their own tradition. Bringing together scholars and practitioners of spiritual formation from across the Protestant spectrum, this volume offers a distinctly evangelical consideration of the benefits of contemplation. The contributors draw on historical examples from the church—including John Calvin, Richard Baxter, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley—to consider how contemplative prayer can shape Christian living today. The result is a robust guide to embracing contemplation that will help Christians as they seek to keep in step with the Spirit.

Action Versus Contemplation

Download Action Versus Contemplation PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022603237X
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (26 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Action Versus Contemplation by : Jennifer Summit

Download or read book Action Versus Contemplation written by Jennifer Summit and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-03-22 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone,” Blaise Pascal wrote in 1654. But then there’s Walt Whitman, in 1856: “Whoever you are, come forth! Or man or woman come forth! / You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house.” It is truly an ancient debate: Is it better to be active or contemplative? To do or to think? To make an impact, or to understand the world more deeply? Aristotle argued for contemplation as the highest state of human flourishing. But it was through action that his student Alexander the Great conquered the known world. Which should we aim at? Centuries later, this argument underlies a surprising number of the questions we face in contemporary life. Should students study the humanities, or train for a job? Should adults work for money or for meaning? And in tumultuous times, should any of us sit on the sidelines, pondering great books, or throw ourselves into protests and petition drives? With Action versus Contemplation, Jennifer Summit and Blakey Vermeule address the question in a refreshingly unexpected way: by refusing to take sides. Rather, they argue for a rethinking of the very opposition. The active and the contemplative can—and should—be vibrantly alive in each of us, fused rather than sundered. Writing in a personable, accessible style, Summit and Vermeule guide readers through the long history of this debate from Plato to Pixar, drawing compelling connections to the questions and problems of today. Rather than playing one against the other, they argue, we can discover how the two can nourish, invigorate, and give meaning to each other, as they have for the many writers, artists, and thinkers, past and present, whose examples give the book its rich, lively texture of interplay and reference. This is not a self-help book. It won’t give you instructions on how to live your life. Instead, it will do something better: it will remind you of the richness of a life that embraces action and contemplation, company and solitude, living in the moment and planning for the future. Which is better? Readers of this book will discover the answer: both.

The Signature of Jesus

Download The Signature of Jesus PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Multnomah
ISBN 13 : 1590523504
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (95 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Signature of Jesus by : Brennan Manning

Download or read book The Signature of Jesus written by Brennan Manning and published by Multnomah. This book was released on 2004-07-06 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Signature of Jesus challenges the gospel of "cheap grace" and calls the church to radical discipleship. With passion and boldness, author Brennan Manning invites readers to risk living life as Jesus lived—committed to simplicity, purity of heart, and obedience to the gospel. As a radical alternative this book is offered to Christians who want to live by faith and not by mere “religion,” for those who recognize that many of the burning theological issues in the church today are neither burning nor theological; who see Christianity neither as a moral code or a belief system but as a love affair; who have not forgotten that they are followers of a crucified Christ; who know that following him means living dangerously; who want to live the gospel without compromise; who have no greater desire than to have his signature written on the pages of their lives. “Behold,” Jesus proclaims, “I stand at the door and knock.” You may have already met him at the door…but do you truly know him? Have you been transformed by His furious, passionate, unexplainable love? Join Brennan Manning, the bestselling author of The Ragamuffin Gospel, on a personal journey to experience Christ’s love and live with His passion.

Flee, Be Silent, Pray

Download Flee, Be Silent, Pray PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : MennoMedia, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1513804367
Total Pages : 144 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (138 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Flee, Be Silent, Pray by : Ed Cyzewski

Download or read book Flee, Be Silent, Pray written by Ed Cyzewski and published by MennoMedia, Inc.. This book was released on 2019-02-12 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if prayer could be simple rather than strenuous? Anxious, results-driven Christians can never pray enough, serve enough, or study enough. But what if God is calling us not to frenzied activity but to a simple spiritual encounter? What if we must merely receive what God has already given us? In Flee, Be Silent, Pray, writer and contemplative retreat leader Ed Cyzewski guides readers out of the anxiety factory of contemporary Christianity and toward a God whose love astounds those quiet long enough to receive it. With helpful guidance into solitude, contemplative prayer, and practices such as lectio divina and the Examen, Cyzewski guides readers toward the Christ whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light. Ready to shed the fear of the false self and the exhaustion of a duty-driven faith? Flee. Be silent. Pray.

An Ocean of Light

Download An Ocean of Light PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199379947
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis An Ocean of Light by : Martin Laird

Download or read book An Ocean of Light written by Martin Laird and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2018-12-03 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For people drawn to a life of contemplation, the dawning of luminous awareness in a mind full of clutter is deeply liberating. In the third of his best-selling books on Christian contemplative life, Martin Laird turns his attention to those who are well settled in their contemplative practice. An Ocean of Light speaks both to those just entering the contemplative path and to those with a maturing practice of contemplation. Gradually, the practice of contemplation lifts the soul, freeing it from the blockages that introduce confusion into our identity and thus confusion about the mystery we call God. In the course of a lifetime of inner silencing, the flower of awareness emerges: a living realization that we have never been separate from God or from the rest of humanity while we each fully become what each of us is created to be. In contemplation we become so silent before God that the "before" drops away. Those whose lives have led them deeply into the silent land realize this, but not in the way that we realize that the square root of 144 is 12. Laird draws from a wide and diverse range of writers--from St. Augustine, Evagrius Ponticus, and St. Teresa of Avila to David Foster Wallace, Flannery O'Connor, Virginia Woolf, and Franz Wright--to ground his insight in an ancient practice and give it a voice in contemporary language. With his characteristic lyricism and gentleness, Laird guides readers through new challenges of contemplative life, such as making ourselves the focus of our own contemplative project; dealing with old pain; transforming the isolation of loneliness and depression into a liberating solidarity with all who suffer; and the danger of using a spiritual practice as a strategy to acquire and control.

Contemplation:

Download Contemplation: PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT)
ISBN 13 : 1642052329
Total Pages : 173 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (42 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Contemplation: by : Malik Badri

Download or read book Contemplation: written by Malik Badri and published by International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). This book was released on 2018-09-15 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The human race is in crisis and very few of us – if any – are able to understand what is wrong with our lives and the world at large. How did this happen and how did humans become so ‘disconnected’ with humanity? Why are psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, fear, and suicide on the increase, and why are conventional Western therapies unable to stem the tide? To approach this we must first look inside ourselves – to explore our own purpose in life and extend that principle to the rest of humanity. Despite the advances of modern Western psychology and the development of therapies that do help many, one area that is largely unexplored is that of the ‘human spirit’ and spirituality since it is more convenient to consider the human mind as ‘machine’ that responds to external stimuli. In this powerful exploration into the human mind and its relationship with the human spirit, Malik Badri invites the reader to open the door to self-discovery, purpose and spirituality through the practice of contemplation, reflection and meditation – understanding the true meaning and experience of spirituality as well as one’s own place in Creation. Whilst central to worship in Islam, this will also be of great interest to, and help any reader wishing to explore the notion of spirituality whether as part of worship or simply as part of self development and inner healing.

A Sunlit Absence

Download A Sunlit Absence PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : OUP USA
ISBN 13 : 0195378725
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (953 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Sunlit Absence by : Martin Laird

Download or read book A Sunlit Absence written by Martin Laird and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2011-07-28 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his sequel to the best-selling Into the Silent Land, Martin Laird guides the reader more deeply into the sanctuary of Christian meditation. He focuses here on negotiating key moments of difficulty on the contemplative path, showing how the struggles we resist become vehicles of the healing silence we seek. With clarity and grace Laird shows how we can move away from identifying with our turbulent, ever-changing thoughts and emotions to the cultivation of a "sunlit absence"--the luminous awareness in which God's presence can most profoundly be felt.

The Inner Experience

Download The Inner Experience PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062245082
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (622 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Inner Experience by : Thomas Merton

Download or read book The Inner Experience written by Thomas Merton and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-09-11 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in paperback, revised and redesigned: This is Thomas Merton's last book, in which he draws on both Eastern and Western traditions to explore the hot topic of contemplation/meditation in depth and to show how we can practice true contemplation in everyday life. Never before published except as a series of articles (one per chapter) in an academic journal, this book on contemplation was revised by Merton shortly before his untimely death. The material bridges Merton's early work on Catholic monasticism, mysticism, and contemplation with his later writing on Eastern, especially Buddhist, traditions of meditation and spirituality. This book thus provides a comprehensive understanding of contemplation that draws on the best of Western and Eastern traditions. Merton was still tinkering with this book when he died; it was the book he struggled with most during his career as a writer. But now the Merton Legacy Trust and experts have determined that the book makes such a valuable contribution as his major comprehensive presentation of contemplation that they have allowed its publication.

Contemplation in a World of Action

Download Contemplation in a World of Action PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Image
ISBN 13 : 9780385025508
Total Pages : 396 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (255 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Contemplation in a World of Action by : Thomas Merton

Download or read book Contemplation in a World of Action written by Thomas Merton and published by Image. This book was released on 1973 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American trappist monk outlines means of reorganizing monastic life to meet the needs of contemporary man

Staging Contemplation

Download Staging Contemplation PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022657217X
Total Pages : 263 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (265 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Staging Contemplation by : Eleanor Johnson

Download or read book Staging Contemplation written by Eleanor Johnson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-08-17 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to contemplate? In the Middle Ages, more than merely thinking with intensity, it was a religious practice entailing utter receptiveness to the divine presence. Contemplation is widely considered by scholars today to have been the highest form of devotional prayer, a rarified means of experiencing God practiced only by the most devout of monks, nuns, and mystics. Yet, in this groundbreaking new book, Eleanor Johnson argues instead for the pervasiveness and accessibility of contemplative works to medieval audiences. By drawing together ostensibly diverse literary genres—devotional prose, allegorical poetry, cycle dramas, and morality plays—Staging Contemplation paints late Middle English contemplative writing as a broad genre that operated collectively and experientially as much as through radical individual disengagement from the world. Johnson further argues that the contemplative genre played a crucial role in the exploration of the English vernacular as a literary and theological language in the fifteenth century, tracing how these works engaged modes of disfluency—from strained syntax and aberrant grammar, to puns, slang, code-switching, and laughter—to explore the limits, norms, and potential of English as a devotional language. Full of virtuoso close readings, this book demonstrates a sustained interest in how poetic language can foster a participatory experience of likeness to God among lay and devotional audiences alike.

New Seeds of Contemplation

Download New Seeds of Contemplation PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
ISBN 13 : 1590300491
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (93 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis New Seeds of Contemplation by : Thomas Merton

Download or read book New Seeds of Contemplation written by Thomas Merton and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2003 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of thirty-nine short essays in which Thomas Merton examines what true contemplation is and how it can impact one's spirituality.

The Books of Contemplation

Download The Books of Contemplation PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 1438422881
Total Pages : 283 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (384 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Books of Contemplation by : Mark Verman

Download or read book The Books of Contemplation written by Mark Verman and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The earliest medieval Jewish mystical writings, or kabbalah, date from the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. This is the first book to focus on the most prodigious group active at that time—the 'Circle of Contemplation'. The 'Circle of Contemplation' generated a mystical theology that differs radically from mainstream kabbalistic theosophy. Two of this group's penetrating speculations on God and the origins of the universe are The Book of Contemplation and The Fountain of Wisdom. A meticulous and systematic study of these writings forms the core of this book. Verman discovered that the 'Circle of Contemplation' produced a series of distinct treatises, each entitled The Book of Contemplation and attributed to the same fictitious author. These treatises, embodying one of the most intriguing puzzles of medieval literature, are included here. The author concludes that these writings were a product of thirteenth-century Spain, not France, as claimed by Gershom Scholem. His conclusion engendered a critical evaluation of the premises of Scholem's historiography of early medieval Jewish mysticism.

Happiness and Contemplation

Download Happiness and Contemplation PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 136 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Happiness and Contemplation by : Josef Pieper

Download or read book Happiness and Contemplation written by Josef Pieper and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The ultimate of human happiness is to be found in contemplation". In offering this proposition of Thomas Aquinas to our thought, Josef Pieper uses traditional wisdom in order to throw light on present-day reality and present-day psychological problems. What, in fact, does one pursue in pursuing happiness? What, in the consensus of the wisdom of the early Greeks, of Plato and Aristotle, of the New Testament, of Augustine and Aquinas, is that condition of perfect bliss toward which all life and effort tend by nature? In this profound and illuminating inquiry, Pieper considers the nature of contemplation, and the meaning and goal of life.

Contemplation in Action

Download Contemplation in Action PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Crossroad
ISBN 13 : 9780824523886
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (238 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Contemplation in Action by : Richard Rohr

Download or read book Contemplation in Action written by Richard Rohr and published by Crossroad. This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, designed for bedside devotion, offers the best of Richard Rohr's "Radical Grace" newsletter.

Crisis Contemplation

Download Crisis Contemplation PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781623050559
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (55 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Crisis Contemplation by : Barbara Holmes

Download or read book Crisis Contemplation written by Barbara Holmes and published by . This book was released on 2021-07 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

How to Sit with God

Download How to Sit with God PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781847308382
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (83 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis How to Sit with God by : Jean-Marie Gueullette

Download or read book How to Sit with God written by Jean-Marie Gueullette and published by . This book was released on 2019-06-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Silence and interiority are not merely the preserve of Eastern religions and philosophies; Christianity too offers a very simple way of praying in silence, a tradition this book invites readers to join.