This is a new, comprehensive and encouraging guide to Catholic pastoral care. With its deep and overt foundations in the ministry and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth and on a Catholic tradition of caring that has marked its identity since the earliest days of Christian community, the book deeply reflects on the meaning of care. It also confronts a challenging question for our time: Why have we lost the ability to care? Thus, the author’s insistence that Catholic pastoral care begins not with those who need our caring, but with our relationship with God revealed in Christ because in Christ we have already experienced and known love and hope, compassion and mercy. Assuming that relationship, the book offers reflections and informed commentary on various models of caring, the reality and meaning of suffering, the qualities of carers, and the need for acceptance (and love!) of oneself as a forerunner to caring for others. Then follows extensive, detailed information and practical guidance on pastoral occasions where care is required in response to the real needs of our fellow humans: times of crisis, serious illness, death and grieving. Behind the text is the assumption that people matter; that current Western society’s emphasis on the material as the primary criterion for valuing individuals is contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. In such a society that measures worth on the criteria of success, wealth and popularity, Catholic pastoral care is counter cultural, whether its focus is young people growing up, discovering what matters in life or older people experiencing the consequences of our ‘throw away’ society that no longer values them. The book is about caregiving that involving physical effort, practical assistance, spiritual wisdom, relationship development, faith nurturing, justice seeking; about growing together and, in the light of the Jesus tradition, making the world we live in a more welcoming, forgiving and caring place.

The Miracle of Love

Religion & Spirituality

Ghosn, Margaret

Christian Books & Bibles

Coventry Press

Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us? (Luke 24:32)The response of the disciples on the road to Emmaus has become a model for all Christians who long to have their eyes opened to the meaning of the Jesus event and its significance for their lives. And over the centuries, people have found a variety of ways of exploring the Bible to understand its message.Hearts Burning Within Us is a program for prayer in this tradition. It offers fifty separate units, based on readings used in parishes and selected from the major seasons and festivals of the church's year, as well as some general themes.The process involved is simple and detailed. It includes informed and practical background to the chosen texts; and advice for individuals and groups to deepen their understanding of the selected passages.Lectio divina is the recommended way of approaching the texts. It is a method that comes to us from the Benedictine tradition, whereby groups and individuals spend time with particular verses to deepen their awareness of its meaning and application to daily life.Included in the resource are detailed and practical suggestions for how to use Lectio Divina, making it a useful and effective way of accessing the biblical texts. Yet the program is sufficiently flexible to be used in other ways.It was the dream of the Second Vatican Council that Catholic Christians would grow in their knowledge and understanding of Scripture. Hearts Burning Within Us is a serious response towards the fulfilment of that dream, serving as a simple, accessible and structured program of formation for individuals, parish groups or anyone who wants to encounter the risen Christ in their lives.Peter Malone is a Missionary of the Sacred Heart who has taught Old Testament Studies and Theology at the Yarra Theological Union, Melbourne. He also headed the Catholic Film Offices of the Pacific and Film Offices at world level. He was president of SIGNIS (World Catholic Association for Communication), 2001-2005. He has written a number of books of religion and film, especially Screen Jesus. He has been reviewing films since 1968.

Hearts Burning Within Us: Scripture in the Parish, for Small Prayer Groups and for Private Prayer

Malone Msc, Peter

There is general agreement that Christianity in the West is facing a major crisis, with research confirming that there is a rapid decline in church membership, especially among young people.Why is this happening? And does the crisis present opportunities for the church in its evangelising mission? Why has the life and teachings of Jesus – the way of Jesus - become so complicated?Based on a key New Testament text that the Spirit ‘blows where it wills’, the author argues that part of the problem is that so much of Church doctrine, structure and life is based on a world view that no longer makes sense. In faith, he reflects on how the Jesus tradition can be presented to a world where scientific discovery makes us aware of our planet within a vast universe and the interconnectedness of every living thing in the cosmos.He asks what are the implications of this new cosmic awareness for the Christian story in the third millennium? He well understands the experience of those many people who have abandoned traditional church communities yet express deep longings for spiritual sustenance and support to lead a good life; and to find meaning in their Christian heritage or recover something of a lost faith heritage.He calls for serious and sustained renewal in the church, attentive to the Spirit, learning to trust, listen, study, celebrate, act and above all, discern the most authentic paths to experience the presence of a living God in our ever-evolving world.This call includes a series of ‘what if’ questions to stimulate thought, reflection, discussion and planning. It includes spiritual renewal and meditation, the recovery of lectio divina, the strengthening of prayer and meditation, a renewed appreciation of the arts and music, an attitude of wonder and thanks for the beauty and complexity of our cosmos.

The Wind Blows Where it Chooses

Treston, Kevin

On 10th April 2014 the community of the Pontifical Gregorian University was received by the Holy Father Francis in the Paul Vl Hall. 0n that occasion the Pope summarised with a few words the task of theology and the features of a true theologian. According to theology, one should create a true "evangelical" movement which goes from the centre to the peripheries and back (according to the logic of a God who reaches the centre from the peripheries in order to return to the peripheries). 
From this image of theology, which is always moving from the centre to peripheries and back, a new figure of a theologian emerges, one who will be more fruitful and effective, the more fully he is animated by his love for Christ and for the Church, and the more the relationship between study and prayer is strengthened and made harmonious.
Centre and peripheries. Study and prayer.
Here are Nine theologians and their essays have come together to try to answer a fundamental question: Which theology does the Church need?

From The Nail to The Key: The Fundamental Theology of Pope Francis

The meditations brought together in the current volume lead us to the heart of the New Testament message. Cardinal Martini reflects on the account of the Passion in various retreats he based on the canonical Gospels. The fact that they have once more been brought together in a single volume allows our reader to access the lively, humble and at the same time, authoritative prose of a preacher who approaches the subject of his preaching in fear and trembling, thus displaying his sincere empathy with all his listeners. It matters little that there is no clear connection between all the mediations (in fact the material has been drawn from different contexts): a believer among believers, Martini confesses the consternation which overcomes the mind preparing to reflect on the mystery of the Passion, clearly highlighting the seriousness, the dramatic nature of this kind of meditation which, when it occurs truthfully, that is, by seeing the consequences for our life, seems rather like a snare that snatches us and sweeps us up.

The Accounts of the Passion: Meditations (Biblical Meditations)

Martini, Carlo María

The Theme of this volume is the Our Father, which Cardinal Martini tackles at a retreat he gave to priests. The Archbishop of Milan offers a series of reflections to his retreatants on the Prayer which Jesus taught, seeing it, along with Tertullian, as the "summary of the whole Gospel." Though it is true we are talking about a prayer everyone knows by heart, it should not escape notice that the Our Father is "ever new, mysterious, all-purpose". It is indicative of a richness that only Christ could communicate since there we find "a correspondence, a perfect correlation between the Our Father, the teaching of the Gospel, the life of Jesus the Son of God who died and rose for us." The pages are packed with thoughts intended to accompany the reader on a journey. Step by step he reintroduces this journey to us so we can discover the inexhaustible treasures of the believers' best known prayer: the Our Father.

The Our Father: Do Not Heap Up Empty Phrases (Biblical Meditations)

The subject Cardinal Martini develops in this book is that of apostolic consciousness. It is the result of a retreat he preached to seminarians. Following the examples of the Apostles Peter and Paul, every Christian should be aware of being 'sent' by someone else to carry out a work that is not theirs. Christians are not people who roll up their sleeves thinking they have to undertake heaven knows what, organise strategies or believe that everything depends on their ability and efficiency. We are not about pursuing our own pet project. Rather, Christians should experience the excitement of responding to a God who loves them and calls them, and in calling them, sends them into the world, thus having them share in the 'mandate' Christ receives from the Father.
In our time, as Pope Francis has also often insisted, especially in Evangelii Gaudium, it is urgent that our faith matures toward a consciousness of mission which is totally connected with that of the Son. In this sense, Martini's book can be said to anticipate Pope Francis' view of the Church.

The Apostles: Men of Peace and Reconciliation (Biblical Meditations)

Abraham, notes Cardinal Martini in this book dedicated to the figure of the great patriarch, is the father of faith on the move, a symbol of all those who seek God. He is our father 'not only in life as it is lived, in faith considered objectively' but also 'for his radical attitude of faith' which makes him 'the exemplary model of the human being in an attitude of acceptance and availability.' 
His setting out on the journey reminds us, of course, of the need to free ourselves from the ambiguity of a certain 'traditional belief'. In fact, Abraham would learn the heard way how unpredictable God is in his incredible irruption into history. He would learn this by going through fear and temptation, discovering how God's ways are capable of surprising and disturbing us. In the name of the promise he had received from God, Abraham would be capable of making great and free choices, moved by a social justice bearing the mark of availability, magnanimity and gift. his journey, like that of every human being, is not a straight one, but it does lead to the discovery of the true God.

Abraham: Our Father in Faith (Biblical Meditations)

This volume brings together in a single text meditations given by Cardinal Martini during two separate retreats based on the Second Letter to Timothy. We are shown the figure of Timothy, Paul’s young and very faithful disciple who is carrying out his service as bishop in the Church at Ephesus in a community that is no longer as joyful and conquering as it was at the beginning. It is weary and caught up in a difficult and confused situation.\nMartini believes that this is the best choice for reflecting on what it means to evangelise today. He offers a continuous reading of one of the most important of Paul’s Pastoral Letters. Cardinal Martini draws out fundamental teachings for today’s Church and society from the Apostle’s life experience and message: the Christian horizon of meaning, the need to preserve the ‘deposit of faith’, to proclaim the gospel of the primacy of grace over law, of the essential over the relative, of the mystery of the cross and the Eucharist, the relationship between the Pastoral Letters and ‘pastoral work’ in our times.

Timothy: Timothy's Way (Biblical Meditations)

Cardinal Martini approaches the figure of Stephen, the first martyr, by beginning with what is described in Chapters 6-8 of the Acts of the Apostles, 'an impressive document of a man's retrospective view in the face of death, of himself, the history of salvation, of what Christ has meant for him and the future to which he has been called.' Reflection on the figure of Stephen is important for the entire community of believers; in fact with Stephen 'the Church feels the seriousness of being both witness and servant: It understands that abandoning oneself to God does not save one from death, but it does allow one to pass through death, contemplating the glory of God; it recognises what it is that God saves us and does not save us from and what he prepares us for.'The richness of these meditations lies in this summary of things. It lies in the experience of a man who is approaching the revelation of the proximity of a transcendent and immanent God and at the same time arrives 'at the culmination of his mission as servant witness,' experiencing the mystery that he proclaims, contemplates and adores, in his very own body.

Stephen: Servant and Witness (Biblical Meditations)

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