In the summer of 1995 Mary Earle returned from a vacation feeling refreshed and restored from her time away. A few days later, all that changed, when she was rushed to the emergency room with a case of acute and life-threatening pancreatitis. Being ill, she discovered, forces you to learn to live in whole new ways, ones often marked by limitation and fragility. As a priest and spiritual director, Earle began to explore ways in which her own prayer life might help her build a different relationship with her illness. Using the Benedictine practice of lectio divina, or sacred reading, she began to "read" her own illness, and discovered a way of befriending and helping to heal--if not cure--her body and her life. In Broken Body, Healing Spirit, Earle introduces this strategy to others who are hungry to find ways of living more fully despite chronic or serious illness or pain. Her practical, step-by-step approach to "reading the text of our illnesses," and learning to listen to what our bodies are trying to tell us will be of help to those who are currently suffering with disease or limitations, as well as to those who are caregivers and counselors.

Broken Body, Healing Spirit: Lectio Divina and Living with Illness

Earle, Mary C.

Reference

Morehouse Publishing

In 1995 Mary Earle was hospitalized with acute pancreatitis. When she was able to return home, she still faced a long recovery. She had to stay in bed most of the time, and eating was difficult some days. The busy life she had always known was gone, and she had to begin again. Like others who suffer from serious or chronic conditions, Mary Earle found that living with illness can require major adjustments in life. Using St. Benedict's ancient Rule--his way of ordering the life and days of religious communities--Beginning Again teaches readers how to discern a rule of life that helps them with changes in resting and activity levels, with food restrictions, and requirements for medicine or medical treatment. The ancient Benedictine concepts of stability, obedience, and conversion can help anyone living with illness, even those who are dying. Beginning Again is a practical resource, written for those who know little about St. Benedict and his Rule of Life, with exercises to help readers discover how to live with God at the center of their lives and illnesses. It is useful for those living with illness, and for clergy, counselors, and spiritual directors who care for them.

Beginning Again: Benedictine Wisdom for Living with Illness (Explorefaith.Org)

Self-Help

Death & Grief

In the same format as Holy Companions and the forthcoming Praying with the Anglican Saints, this book includes summaries of the thoughts and spiritual approaches of the Desert Mothers, along with spiritual practices based on their writings. Although scholars have paid attention to the Desert Mothers, general lay audiences have only had access to writings by the Desert Fathers. Unlike most of the scholarly books on the market, this book popularizes the writings and the thinking of the Desert Mothers of the early Church, and applies them to contemporary life.

The Desert Mothers: Spiritual Practices from the Women of the Wilderness

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

"Each chapter in Marvelously Made focuses on a vital part of the body (the heart, the lungs, the brain, the joints); relates an anecdote from the author’s experience; provides reader-friendly(i.e., not overly technical) information about the wonders of the organ or body part, and offers a prayer and a set of “gratitude practices”―physical and spiritual meditation exercises to deepen the reader’s appreciation of the body. Excerpt: The heart works (as do all of our organs) every moment of our lives, whether we are aware of it or not. The heart is a muscle, an extraordinary muscle with exquisite timing, which, when disrupted, causes grave problems. Brian Doyle, a writer whose son’s heart had congenital malformation, writes, “It weighs eleven ounces. It feeds a vascular system that comprises sixty thousand miles of veins and arteries and capillaries. It beats a hundred-thousand times a day. It shoves two thousand gallons of blood through the body everyday. It begins when a fetus is three weeks old and a cluster of cells begins to pulse with the cadence of that particular person, a music and a rhythm and a pace that will endure a whole lifetime. No one knows why the cluster of cells begins to pulse at that time or with that beat.” (from The Wet Engine, by Brian Doyle)."

Marvelously Made: Gratefulness and the Body

Praying With the Celtic Saints: Companions for the Journey

History

Maddox, Sylvia

World

Word Among Us Pr

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