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For Everything a Season

ISBN: 9781626980198 Orbis Books (Mar 1, 2013 PB US)
Author(s): Joan Chittister

BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Through the famous verses of Ecclesiastes, Joan Chittister reflects on timeless themes: the purpose and value of human life, the balance of joy and sorrow, work and rest, love and loss.

In meditating on the contrasting seasons of our lives, she shows how human fulfillment and true happiness come, not from getting and having more and more, but from knowing and valuing what we have. Friendship and laughter, patience and sorrow, humility and compassion, from birth through death all these are God s gifts to us, the precious moments of life itself.
 

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Aspects of the Heart: The Many Paths of a Good Life

ISBN: 9781585958719 (Twenty-Third Publications (Sep 10, 2012 US HC))
ISBN: 9781921946363 Garratt Publishing (Sep 10, 2012 AU PB)
Author(s): Joan Chittister OSB

BOOK DESCRIPTION:
FROM THE FOREWORD by Paula D'Arcy:
In these beautiful and spare reflections, Joan invites us to sit at the world's table and decide what our hearts will offer. She wisely reminds the reader that "there is no such thing as an isolated act." We are each responsible for "doing everything we can to make the world whole." Still, it's not necessary to do something heroic. In making a pilgrimage to the heart, we don't initially struggle with world issues and injustices; we wrestle first with the love struggling to break through our own unique circumstances. We notice how easily and reflexively the heart begins to close when we feel threatened in any way. We notice that bringing love when we confront hatred, as St. Francis prays, is not for the faint of heart. But the result of our effort to meet life fully is that we ourselves become the space through which love can move in the world. We only have to do one thing: Let the heart call us back to love. These pages will help you recognize many characteristics of the heart: A kind heart. A humble heart.

A non-judgmental heart. A celebrating heart. A trusting heart ... They will assure you that the storms of life are the very place to look for God. They will offer the wisdom that "real peace requires resistance to evil. But not in evil ways." They will show that you must "risk becoming new." They will help you acknowledge and value the treasury that is yours. Under Joan's expert and prophetic pen these powerful reflections are like an owner's manual for understanding the power of the heart and the force of love.
 

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The Radical Christian Life: A Year with Saint Benedict

ISBN: 9780814633656 (Liturgical Press)
ISBN: 9780814633656 (John Garratt Publishing)
Author(s): Joan Chittister OSB, Publisher: Liturgical Press

BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Very little in this world stays fresh and life-giving for 1,500 years. But when that happens we should ask ourselves why and what that had to do with us.

In this book, The Radical Christian Life: A Year with Saint Benedict, Joan Chittister encourages us to look at that question. In an introductory essay she examines how the insights and values of the sixth-century visionary Saint Benedict can illuminate today's search for a meaningful life. Then she leads us through the year, reflecting on twelve stories from Benedict's life, anecdotes that give us glimpses into his soul. More than that, she draws from these stories daily thoughts for the development of our own spiritual lives in this day and age.

Joan Chittister, OSB, is a Benedictine sister and international lecturer who has been a leading voice in spirituality for more than thirty years. She has authored over forty books, most recently Uncommon Gratitude and The Monastery of the Heart, part of a program she is helping to develop to enable lay groups to live Benedictine spirituality in a contemporary way.
 

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Songs of the Heart: Reflections on the Psalms

ISBN: 9781585958351 (23rd Publications); 9781921946110 (John Garratt)
Author(s): Joan Chittister OSB Publisher: 23rd Publications; John Garratt

BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Who but Sr Joan Chittister could break open the psalms in such fresh and piercingly tender ways! Her 'soul points' and 'wisdom stories' are unforgettable, both contemporary and timeless.

Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun, author and speaker, is a bold, clear voice who shows the way to God in all aspects of life, and particularly through prayer. She is author of The Breath of The Soul and the best-selling book, God's Tender Mercy.

In this simple and profound book, Sr Joan offers poignant and challenging reflections on twenty-five psalms, each offering a spiritual oasis away from the stresses of a world that demands more than the human soul can sometimes bear.

She believes that the psalms, all pieces of poetry and music, have rich meaning for people today. Her hope is that readers will find new meaning here and then make songs of their own.
 

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God's Tender Mercy

ISBN: 9781920682231
Author(s): Joan Chittister Publisher: John Garratt Publishing

BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Sister Joan Chittister is a bestselling author for a very good reason. She takes difficult and even mysterious concepts and 'breaks them open' for us. Here she tackles the virture of mercy and its connection to forgiveness. She challenges us to stop judging, accusing, and criticising those we label 'sinners' and to see ourselves in their number. She invites us to be realistic about our own actions before we 'throw that first stone' at another. This is spiritual reading at its very best.

Sr Joan taps into the contemporary global mood in which minorities are being condemned, harassed and persecuted. Instead of leading the cause of love and respect for all, many conservative Christian churches are failing to demonstrate love, understanding and compassion.

In her discussion of guilt and conscience, she commends both as healthy aspects of human responsibility. She also writes about the power of forgiveness to free us from the burden of anger: 'What I refuse to forgive continues to harm me. It consumes my heart, poisons my mind, drains my energies and cements my soul.' Forgiveness does not tolerate revenge and that is a lesson that is slowly becoming appreciated.
 

Listen to an interview Sr Joan gave about her new book

In the closing chapter of this profoundly prophetic book, Chittister calls us to the spiritual practices of weeping and healing. Of the first, she comments, 'Weeping is a very life-giving thing. It wizens the soul of the individual and it sounds alarms in society. The Book of Ecclesiastes may be nowhere more correct than here. There is definitely a time for weeping. If we do not weep on the personal level, we shall never understand other human beings.'

The spiritual practice of weeping softens our hearts and opens us to the suffering of others and it blesses us with a keen sense that we are all flawed creatures in the same world. Chittister concludes that we cannot heal ourselves by clinging to our wounds. And neither can we contribute to the repairing of the world without practicing forgiveness again and again.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sr Joan Chittister, is a Benedictine nun and author of numerous books, including The Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer, and other books that have a profound influence on the contemporary religious world.


REVIEWS:
"Joan's is a prophet's voice telling us that when love breaks through in even one person, the effect for the world is immense. Weep and heal, she writes, willing us to to find, through courageous self reflection and forgiveness, the fullness of our humanity and in that, the kind of love that will lift this world." ...Paula D'Arcy, author of Waking Up to This Day

"I'm sure Sister Joan is tired of being called a prophet. Identifying her message as prophetic leaves the rest of us off the hook as just ordinary souls with considerably limited vision and ambition. This plain-speaking little book on forgiveness will not give the reader that satisfaction, however. She challenged me to reconsider the brazenness of God's mercy, the necessity of my guilt, and the value of continuing to cry — until none of us has anything left to cry about." ...Alice Camille, co-author of The Forgiveness Book with Paul Boudreau
 

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Uncommon Gratitude

ISBN: 9781920682132
Author(s): Joan Chittister & Rowan Williams, Publisher: John Garratt

BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams often says that, no matter what, the proper stance of the Christian in the world is one of gratitude. In this book, Sister Joan Chittister OSB, and Archbishop Rowan Williams offer us a sweeping set of things and circumstances to be grateful for—things for which we can sing "alleluia," "praise and thanks be to God."

Some are things we naturally feel grateful for: God, peace, wealth, life, faith, and unity. But when these are set alongside other things we would never think to sing alleluia about—death, divisions, sufferings, and even sinners—we begin to see, as Joan Chittister says in her introduction, that "Life itself is an exercise in learning to sing 'alleluia' here in order to recognize the face of God hidden in the recesses of time. To deal with the meaning of 'alleluia' in life means to deal with moments that do not feel like 'alleluia moments' at all."

In this series of reflections it becomes clear that singing "alleluia" is not a way to escape reality but receptivity to another kind of reality beyond the immediate and the delusional, of helping us understand what is now and what is to come.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Joan Chittister OSB, is a Benedictine nun and international lecturer who has been a leading voice in spirituality for more than thirty years. She has authored forty books, including her most recent, The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life, published by Thomas Nelson.

Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, is acknowledged internationally as an outstanding theological writer, scholar, and teacher. He has been involved in many theological, ecumenical, and educational commissions and has written extensively across a wide range of fields of professional study — philosophy, theology, spirituality, and religious aesthetics. He has also written on moral, ethical, and social topics and, since becoming archbishop, has focused more intently on contemporary cultural and interfaith issues.
 

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The Rule of Benedict: Insights for the Ages

ISBN: 0824525035
Author(s): Sr Joan Chittister OSB, Publisher: Crossroads Publishing Company

BOOK DESCRIPTION
Benedict of Nursia and his famous "Rule" remain the guiding principles for many religious communities today. Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister contends the spirituality of the twenty-first century because it deals with issues facing us now stewardship, relationships, and spiritual and psychological development.

REVIEW:
"By offering informed commentary that links St. Benedict's Rule with contemporary questions (stewardship, relationships, authority, community, balance, work, simplicity, prayer, and spiritual and psychological development), Sr. Joan succeeds in her task of making an ancient document accessible to a modern reading public." ...New Oxford Review
 

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Called to Question: A Spiritual Memoir

ISBN: 9781580511438
Author(s): Joan Chittister, Publisher: Oxford: Sheed and Ward, 2004

REVIEW [from www.journeywithjesus.net]
In this her most recent book, Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun and author of twenty-five books, continues to think out loud about just what it means to know, love, and follow Jesus in our crazy, contemporary world. This is the third book by her that I have read, and I have come to appreciate her spirit and gift to do what good writers do, which is to connect with the every day experiences and aspirations of her readers. Using her own spiritual journal entries from across a four year period, she pushes, pokes and prods at the various dimensions of Christian living. In particular, I appreciated three themes from this book that also recur in her other works.

Chittister writes from very much "inside the box," the box that is the Roman Catholic Church. But no one likes to be boxed in, much less a feminist like her, and so one theme from this book is what I would call institutional frustration with the church. Our Christian institutions and churches often purvey a sort of "god of the system" that asks us at some level to sublimate our deeply personal identities to the group identity. But then we risk forfeiting conscience and becoming what she describes as "institutional robots." So, we try, often with very limited success, to change the institution for the better. Others just want to leave the church out of frustration. In the end, Chittister pictures herself as a "loyal member of a dysfunctional family" (p. 135).

A keen scholar like Chittister is also full of provocative questions about important issues like women's ordination, the place of gays in the church, global justice, and, as a member of a Benedictine community, obedience to the institutional church. But critical questions are just what the church often suppresses, obscures, or responds to with superficial and ideological answers. We can acquiesce to this, too, out of fear of being wrong or even punished. But Chittister does not want to live the Christian life asking other people's questions or accepting their answers, so she keeps asking, seeking, and knocking: how does the Christian relate questions of personal conscience and intellectual integrity to churchly fidelity?

Personal failure and struggle are also prominent themes for Chittister. The problem, it would seem, is to foolishly accept perfection as our standard or goal. But that goal is an oppressive one, and a set up for failure, for no Christian this side of heaven will ever reach it: "The problem, of course, is that we fail. We know ourselves to be weak. We stumble along, being less than we can be, never living up to our own standards, let alone anyone else's. We eat too much between meals, we work too little to get ahead, we drink more than we should at the office party. We're all addicted to something. Those addictions not only cripple us, they convince us that we are worthless and incapable of being worthwhile. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy of the worst order because it traps us inside our own sense of inadequacy, of futility, of failure" (p. 195). Instead, we ought to view failure as "among the best friends of the soul" (p. 91). Rather than subscribe to the unattainable, we should come to appropriate the "sanctifying nature of mistakes and calculations" (p. ix).

Chittister begins her book with a well known story of the seeker who asked the monk just what they did in the monastery: "Oh, we fall and we get up, and we fall and we get up, and we fall and we get up again." Beyond the institutional frustrations, the stymied but important questions, and the realization of but limited progress, she encourages us to hear God's voice to keep going, to "find the me in me" (p. 111), and to cultivate a sense of being at home with yourself because of the extravagant love and grace of God.

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The Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer

ISBN: 9781920682057
Author(s): Joan Chittister Publisher: John Garratt Publishing

BOOK DESCRIPTION
This simple little book from a great spiritual giant attends to what we human beings are most inclined to forget; preparing for and engaging in prayer. It is an examination of what we ourselves must bring to the discipline of prayer — whatever form it takes — in order to make prayer authentic and real, a deep and profound part of our lives.

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The Story of Ruth : Twelve Moments in Every Woman's Life (Hardcover)

ISBN: 0802847420
Author(s): Chittister, Joan D., Swanson, John August, Publisher: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co

Through twelve texts and complementary pictures, Chittister and Swanson explore a series of defining moments in every woman's life — moments of loss, change, transformation, ageing, respect, independence, recognition, insight, invisibility and fulfilment.

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Welcome to the Wisdom of the World and Its Meaning For You

ISBN: 9780802828941
Author(s): Chittister, Joan, Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Certain questions are common to all of us as human beings. Why was I born? How do I know the right thing to do? What's wrong with me – why can't I change? Such questions are so deeply human that they transcend time and place, religions and cultures. Chittister presents the insights of different cultures to these same questions, from all major religious traditions – Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. Chittister shows how each spiritual tradition brings a special gift to the art of living a meaningful, spiritually aware life.