Saturday, November 7, 2009

Finley Book of the Month for November 2009


From the Introduction to Whispers of God's Love: Touching the Lives of Loved Ones After Death (Liguori Publications) by Mitch Finley:

Experiences of the personal presence of deceased relatives and/or friends, are more common than one might think. In 1984, 1988, and 1989, in its General Social Survey, the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center (NORC) asked a representative sampling of the U. S. population: "How often have you felt as though you were really in touch with someone who died?" Affirmative responses came from 42% of those asked who were not widowed and 53% of those widowed. Among teenagers, 38% reported being in touch with someone who died. (See Religion as Poetry, by Andrew M. Greeley [Transaction Publishers, 1995], especially Chapter 12, "Religious Stories and Contact With the Dead.")

To learn more about this book, or to order a copy, click here: Whispers of God's Love.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Finley Book of the Month for October 2009


From the chapter on Story of a Soul by St. Thérèse of Lisieux, in Catholic Spiritual Classics by Mitch Finley (Sheed & Ward):

Thérèse's decision to think of herself as "a little flower" has been romanticized over the years to the point that her actual reason for choosing such an image is easily overlooked. Thérèse used the image of a "little flower" to convey the idea of strength in weakness, much as did St. Paul when he wrote, "I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:10). Thérèse had nothing sentimental, romantic, or foolish in mind when she called herself "a little flower."

The final words of Story of a Soul sum up Thérèse's life and message. Writing with great effort only days before her death, in a last incomplete sentence, Thérèse says that, "I go to Him with confidence and love. . ."

This is the spirituality of St. Thérèse of Lisieux in a nutshell: to live one's ordinary life to the fullest "with confidence and love," and to face death not with fear, but "with confidence and love."


To learn more about this book, or to order a copy, click here: Catholic Spiritual Classics

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Finley Book of the Month for September 2009


From Savoring God: Praying With All Our Senses, by Kathleen Finley (Ave Maria Press):

Usually when we pray we try to shut out the outside world and focus on the interior, the spiritual, the realm that we often think of as beyond or above us— the transcendent— in order to be able to be with God. Instead, this book invites you to be with God through the very tangible, specific objects of your everyday life, to take another look— as well as another listen, taste, touch and smell— at what is right before you and to see God there. God has given us our five senses as important ways to understand and appreciate the world around us; this is an opportunity to use them specifically for prayer.
The Hebrew and Christian scriptures remind us that in Jesus our God is a God-with-us, Emmanuel. Christians believe that Jesus was, and is, God incarnate or, as a wonderful young theologian-to-be put it, “God’s show-and-tell.” In Jesus all of human life and creation has become a sign of God’s presence, filled with sacraments with a small “S,” with ways to grow closer to God if we just look again — re-spect — what is right before us.


If you would like to learn more about this book, or purchase a copy, click here: Savoring God

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Finley Book of the Month for August 2009


From 101 Ways to Happiness (Liguori Publications), this is Number 89:

JOIN AN INSTITUTIONAL RELIGION

As far as the dominant popular culture is concerned, "institutional religion" is in bad taste. Only those unable to cope with reality take refuge in "institutional religion," people who need a spiritual crutch. "Spirituality" may be popular, but who would want to have anything to do with "institutional religion?" We would rather put together our own spiritual outlook on life and the world, something unique to fit our unique self.

There is something charmingly naive about this popular perspective. It's also charmingly American, an echo of that good old American individualism we all know so well. We will do it on our own, by damn, and everybody else better leave us alone.

In a book called Through a Glass Darkly: A Spiritual Psychology of Faith, author Mary Jo Meadow writes: "Religious institutions seem to be a ‘necessary evil' when it comes to faith. They help transmit spiritual truths, but often limit seekers' perspectives in ways that block spiritual growth and obscure spiritual truths . . . .
"Let the question become: of all the worthy paths that have brought people to God, which is or are the best for me at this time?"

How utterly broad-minded, wouldn't you say? For this perspective the subjective individual is an absolute. You should measure all of life and all the universe according to your own personal, subjective, private measure at this moment in time. Indeed, you are the measure of all truth, beauty and goodness. There are no objective truths, only what's meaningful for you.

This is a summary of the most popular perspective on spirituality and religions today. But it overlooks something. Granted that religious institutions have their faults and weaknesses; granted that religious institutions or those who represent them sometimes hurt people; granted that sometimes religious leaders are arrogant and self-serving. But the same is true of all human institutions. . .because they are all human and so, flawed. Does this mean that I--me, myself, and I--constitute an infallible authority? Is it not remotely possible that "institutional religions" exist because historically people found them necessary and, in the long run, more worthwhile than not, more expanding than limiting? Is it not possible that an institutional religion can help me to nourish my spirituality in ways I might never discover on my own, thrashing about to put together my own little eclectic spiritual mix?

To refuse allegiance to any single institutional religion is to hold oneself aloof from full membership in and commitment to any human religious community at all. It is to make a career of standing on the sidelines.
Nourish your happiness. Join an institutional religion. There you will find fulfillment, meaning, and spiritual truth. You will also find frustration, narrow-mindedness, and conflict. Welcome to the human condition.


If you would like to learn more about this book, or purchase a copy, click here: 101 Ways to Happiness

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Finley Book of the Month for June 2009


From You Are My Beloved: Meditations On God's Steadfast Love (Resurrection Press):

For as the loincloth clings to one's loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD. . . (Jeremiah 13:11)

Who says God does not smile?
Who says the Bible has no sense of humor?
Translate "loincloth" into modern terms,
and you get underpants.
Hilarity in the extreme.
You want to know how close I am to you? says the LORD.
I am as close to you as your underpants.
Ha! Knock yourself out laughing,
laughing with joy and relief.
God's loving presence is
as close as your Fruit of the Looms,
as close as your b.v.d.'s,
as close as your panties,
as close as your skivvies,
as close as your undies.
Laugh out loud,
tears streaming down your cheeks,
it is soooo funny!
God's love
is as close to you
as your underpants.
Fall down on the floor
laughing
with joy and gratitude,
that God would love you so,
so much that right there in the Bible
Jeremiah declares that God's love
clings to you like your unmentionables.
Think about that when you
get dressed in the morning.


If you would like to learn more about this book, or purchase a copy, click here: You Are My Beloved.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Finley Book of the Month for May 2009


From Surprising Mary by Mitch Finley (Resurrection Press):

We turn to you for protection, holy Mother of God. Listen to our prayers and help us in our needs. Save us from every danger, glorious and blessed Virgin. - The Oldest Known Prayer to Mary

Now look. This ancient prayer is not a private prayer, it does not begin with "I," it begins with "we." This is a prayer prayed together by a faith community, probably in a liturgical context. The feast of Mary we observe on January 1 brings her before the whole church, the whole people of God, and we recall that she is what the early church called her, in Greek Theotokos, which literally means something like "Birth-Giver of God," or "God-bearer," or "Bringer-forth-of-God."

If you would like to learn more about this book, or purchase a copy, click here: Surprising Mary

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Dying and Rising


From The Liturgy of Motherhood: Moments of Grace (Sheed & Ward) by Kathleen Finley:

The days of the Easter Triduum -- Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday -- put us at the heart of the paschal mystery, the dying and rising of Jesus -- and the dying and rising to which we are all called, every day. The Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner called this experience "dying in installments."

As mothers we are called to die and rise in so many ways; to set aside most of our expectations for our children, to love them even while not liking their choices -- or even our children themselves, at times -- to serve in many ways that may never be noticed or appreciated, and to let go in countless ways. Mothers experience plenty of dying, and hopefully, also see the rising of new possibilities in themselves and in their children -- even in the very dying to which they are called.


If you would like to learn more about this book, or purchase a copy, click here: The Liturgy of Motherhood

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Lively Prayers for Married Couples


From Prayers for the Newly Married (ACTA Publications):

(In the prayer "For a Faithful Love," after a brief reflection and scripture passage, there is the following prayer:)

God of all love,
you have given us a gift beyond all measure
in our love for each other,
a love that goes on caring year after year.

We ask your presence and help in our love for each other,
that it will continue to be the delight of our lives
and that, as other demands for our attention arise
we will continue to give each other the first place in our hearts.

Help our love for each other to keep growing
as we continue to choose each other, day after day, year after year,
grounded in your faithful love for each of us,
which never gives up on us.

Amen.


If you would like to learn more about this book, or purchase a copy, click here: Prayers For the Newly Narried.

Friday, January 2, 2009

A Delightful Collection of Brief Daily Reflections


From 101 Ways to Happiness: Nourishing Body, Mind & Soul by Mitch Finley (Liguori Publications):

The Emptiness Only God and Others Can Fill

The truth is that humans come into this world with an emptiness that only the God who is Love can fill, a thirst or hunger that only the God who is Love can satisfy. The insight that Christianity contributes is that our relationship with God cannot be separated from our relationships with one another. So. . .happiness depends upon cultivating a healthy relationship with our Creator, who is Love, and with our fellow human beings, especially our families and those with whom we live and work most closely on a day-to-day basis. To carry the Christian insight yet another step, our relationships with one another cannot be separated from our relationship with the earth itself. So any happiness we experience depends upon cultivating loving intimacy with God, with our fellow humans, and with the earth.

If you would like to learn more about this book, or purchase a copy, click here: 101 Ways to Happiness