Into the Garden: A Wedding Anthology: Poetry and Prose on Love and Marriage

Thomas Merton, William H. Shannon

The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation

7,Thomas Merton's groundbreaking last major work--a provocative and pivotal look into contemplation and the true meaning of spirituality"True contemplation is not a psychological trick but a theological grace."--Thomas MertonRevised directly before his untimely death and released in full for the first time ever, Merton's book on contemplation has captivated readers for decades. In it, Merton takes us down a different spiritual journey than his previous books, one that bridges eastern and western religions in his signature brilliant insightfulness.Thought-provoking and challenging, The Inner Experience delves into contemplation by exploring both Catholic monasticism and mysticism alongside Buddhism and the ancient traditions of meditation and spirituality.Merton was still tinkering with this book when he died; this was profoundly the book he struggled with most during his career as a writer. But now Merton's legacy lives on, through evergreen discussions on what a spiritual path can look like when you relinquish the need to be all-knowing, and how a lack of self-reflection and inner trust is actually the ultimate sin. Merton's last words are for anyone seeking faith in a higher ...

Julia Baird (Author)

Bright Shining: How Grace Changes Everything

5,'A powerful book from one of my favorite writers on something we all need more of...and could give more of.' -- Ryan Holiday, bestselling author of The Obstacle is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy"Luminous. . . . A work to both devour and savour, Baird has, once again, written a book the world needs now.'"-- GuardianFrom the bestselling author of Phosphorescence comes a beautiful and timely exploration of that most mysterious but necessary of human qualities: grace.Grace is hard to define. It can be found when we create ways to find meaning and dignity in connection with each other, building on our shared humanity, being kinder, bigger, better with each other. If, in its crudest interpretation, karma is getting what you deserve, then grace is the opposite: forgiving the unforgivable, favoring the undeserving, loving the unlovable.Sadly, we live in an era when grace is increasingly rare. Our growing distrust of the media, politicians, and each other has choked our ability to trust, to accept, to allow for mistakes, to forgive.What does grace look like in today's world, and how do we recognize it, nurture it in ourselves and express it, even in the darkest of times? In this luminously ...

Simon Jacobson

Toward a Meaningful Life, New Edition: The Wisdom of the Sages

With a new foreword and chapter that address the upheaval that followed the events of September 11, this revised edition of Toward a Meaningful Life traces the root causes of our fear and uncertainty and lucidly outlines strategies for recovery and redemption. Profound yet accessible to readers of all backgrounds and beliefs, Toward a Meaningful Life provides comfort and renewed hope, showing us how to find solace even as we endure overwhelming suffering and inexplicable loss. Toward a Meaningful Life is a spiritual road map for living based on the teachings of one of the foremost religious leaders of our time: Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Head of the Lubavitcher movement for forty-four years and recognized throughout the world simply as "the Rebbe," Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who passed away in June 1994, was a sage and visionary of the highest order. Although the Rebbe's teachings are firmly anchored in more than three thousand years of scholarship, the urgent relevance of these age-old truths to contemporary life has never been more manifest. The principles the Rebbe derived from the sages embody a distinctly universal message, calling for humankind at all times to lead ...