Book picks similar to
When the Trees Say Nothing: Writings on Nature by Thomas Merton
spirituality
nature
non-fiction
nonfiction
Absolute Surrender
Andrew Murray - 2005
The result of Murray's passionate exploration of the issue of surrender: why it's seemingly impossible and yet completely necessary.
The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture
Haley Stewart - 2018
Do you ever feel caught in an endless cycle of working harder and longer to get more while enjoying life less? The Stewart family did—and they decided to make a radical change. Popular Catholic blogger and podcaster Haley Stewart explains how a year-long internship on a sustainable farm changed her family’s life for the better, allowing them to live gospel values more intentionally.When Haley Stewart married her bee-keeping sweetheart, Daniel, they dreamed of a life centered on home and family. But as the children arrived and Daniel was forced to work longer hours at a job he liked less and less, they dared to break free from the unending cycle of getting more yet feeling unfufilled. They sold their Florida home and retreated to Texas to live on a farm with a compost toilet and 650 square feet of space for a family of five. Surprisingly, they found that they had never been happier.In The Grace of Enough, Stewart shares essential elements of intentional Christian living that her family discovered during that extraordinary year on the farm and that they continue to practice today. You, too, will be inspired to:live simplyoffer hospitalityrevive food culture and the family tablereconnect with the landnurture communityprioritize beautydevelop a sense of wonderbe intentional about technologyseek authentic intimacycenter life around home, family, and relationshipsDrawing from Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’, Stewart identifies elements of Catholic social teaching that will enhance your life and create a ripple effect of grace to help you overcome the effects of today’s “throwaway” culture and experience a deeper satisfaction and stronger faith.
Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World
Richard J. Foster - 1981
A revised and updated edition of the manifesto that shows how simplicity is not merely having less stress and more leisure but an essential spiritual discipline for the health of our soul.
Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love, and Equality
John Shelby Spong - 2001
The legendary Episcopal Bishop tells of his lifelong struggle to champion an authentic christianity based on love, not hatred.
Creating a Life with God: The Call of Ancient Prayer Practices
Daniel Wolpert - 2003
Some of the prayer practices include creativity, journaling, the general practice of solitude and silence, and the Jesus prayer. The first chapter focuses on the Desert Mothers and Fathers to describe the general practices of solitude and silence. The second chapter describes the practice of Lectio Divina (or praying the scripture). The next five chapters describe prayer practices that focus on the use of the mind to come to know God. Chapters 8 and 9 move beyond the mind to use our bodies in prayer. The last three chapters move readers beyond themselves to show their prayerful interaction with the world. Along with these prayer practices are historical figures. Some of these are Julian of Norwich, The Pilgrim (who described the Jesus Prayer), and Ignatius of Loyola. Wolpert offers an appendix with step-by-step instructions for individuals and small groups to practice each from of prayer.
Journeys of Simplicity: Traveling Light with Thomas Merton, Basho, Edward Abbey, Annie Dillard & Others
Philip Harnden - 2002
With arresting clarity, Journeys of Simplicity offers vignettes of forty travelers and the few, ordinary things they carried with them-from place to place, from day to day, from birth to death.
Evolutionary Enlightenment: A New Path to Spiritual Awakening
Andrew Cohen - 2011
Based on 25 years of groundbreaking work as a spiritual teacher and the editor-in-chief of the award-winning EnlightenNext magazine, Cohen has synthesized an original path, practice, and philosophy focused entirely on aligning yourself with what he calls * the evolutionary impulse.* His message is simple, yet profound: Life is evolution, and enlightenment is about waking up to this fundamentally creative impulse as your own deepest, most authentic self* so that you can play an active role in creating the future. EMBRACING CHANGE AS YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE Change is a constant in today* 's world. Technology is accelerating, globalization is making the world more and more complex, and the pace of life seems to be speeding up every day. While many popular forms of contemporary spirituality offer ways to feel better in the face of overwhelming change* to discover greater equanimity, detachment, or compassion* Andrew Cohen says that change is not something to be avoided, or merely tolerated, but an essential aspect of reality that needs to be consciously embraced. Through his five fundamental tenets for living an enlightened life, Cohen empowers you to wholeheartedly participate in the process of change as your own spiritual practice. In doing so, he not only makes deep sense of life today; he shows you how to play an active role in shaping the world of tomorrow.
Buddhism for Beginners: A Complete Course on the Heart of the Buddha's Teachings
Jack Kornfield - 2001
Now, with Buddhism for Beginners, celebrated teacher and author Jack Kornfield invites you to experience for yourself the gifts of this vast spiritual tradition.Created specifically to address the questions and needs of first-time students, this full-length retreat on audio offers an ideal way to learn Buddhism's essential principles and insights. Join this gifted speaker, as he guides you through:Buddhism's cornerstone teachings, including the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path to inner freedom, the meaning and varieties of karma, the Ten Perfections for opening the heart, the inner tools of samadhi and prajna (concentration and insight), the Four Great Immeasurables, the Buddha's last great teaching, and many other topics- The principles of meditation practice, covering such fundamentals as clarifying awareness and focusing your mind; overcoming distractions and other inner obstacles; using heart-centered practices to sprout the seeds of compassion and loving-kindness, and more- Wisdom stories, poetry, teaching parables, and inspiring true accounts distilled from Buddhism's many historical branches, plus invaluable advice gleaned from Kornfield's own years of experience as a student and a teacherThe ancient Buddhist scripture The Path to Purification poses this riddle: The world is entangled in a knot. Who can untangle the tangle? According to the Buddha, the answer is: you can, by learning to see things clearly and simply, as they actually are.Now, with Jack Kornfield's Buddhism for Beginners, you will find the tools and teachings you need to begin this great inner adventure of self-discovery and freedom.
Live Fearless: A Call to Power, Passion, and Purpose
Sadie Robertson - 2018
In Live Fearless, Sadie takes you on a thrilling personal journey toward power, passion, and purpose as you live at the center of who God created you to be!Dear friends,I don't know about you, but I'm pretty tired of the struggle. You know which one I mean--fear, loneliness, not knowing who I am or what I'm meant to do. . . . Sound familiar?I struggled with insecurity, comparison, and isolation for too many years, from thigh gaps to eyebrows to the lifestyles I felt I had to live up to. I was so afraid of being "found out," that everyone in my life would somehow figure out that I was fearful and small and that I struggled to make my faith a reality and to be secure in who I am. It took a major perspective shift from staring at comments on a screen to really digging into the pages of my Bible to see what God actually says about overcoming fear.Setting aside the fear, anxiety, and comparison to become the joy-filled person God created you to be is exactly what God is inviting you into. To really be seen and known. To be an agent of change by choosing compassion, connection, and acceptance for everyone you come in contact with. Inside this book are ways to find your power, passion, and purpose--and reach for your dreams. Plus, there are places to jot down notes, fun lists, practical ways to make changes, and thoughts on how living fearless can change everything.Are you tired of the awful comparison game? Are you exhausted from trying to keep up, from feeling small and afraid that people will find the real you and be disappointed? There is so much more for you. No matter who you are, where you come from, or what your fears are, freedom is available to you. It's just a matter of saying yes. You in?Hope you'll join me on this wild adventure as we learn to Live Fearless together.Love,Sadie
The American Transcendentalists: Essential Writings
Lawrence BuellHenry David Thoreau - 2006
history, championing the inherent divinity of each individual, as well as the value of collective social action. In the mid-nineteenth century, the movement took off, changing how Americans thought about religion, literature, the natural world, class distinctions, the role of women, and the existence of slavery.Edited by the eminent scholar Lawrence Buell, this comprehensive anthology contains the essential writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and their fellow visionaries. There are also reflections on the movement by Charles Dickens, Henry James, Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. This remarkable volume introduces the radical innovations of a brilliant group of thinkers whose impact on religious thought, social reform, philosophy, and literature continues to reverberate in the twenty-first century.
The Varieties of Religious Experience
William James - 1901
Psychology is the only branch of learning in which I am particularly versed. To the psychologist the religious propensities of man must be at least as interesting as any other of the facts pertaining to his mental constitution. It would seem, therefore, as a psychologist, the natural thing for me would be to invite you to a descriptive survey of those religious propensities." When William James went to the University of Edinburgh in 1901 to deliver a series of lectures on "natural religion," he defined religion as "the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine." Considering religion, then, not as it is defined by--or takes place in--the churches, but as it is felt in everyday life, he undertook a project that, upon completion, stands not only as one of the most important texts on psychology ever written, not only as a vitally serious contemplation of spirituality, but for many critics one of the best works of nonfiction written in the 20th century. Reading The Varieties of Religious Experience, it is easy to see why. Applying his analytic clarity to religious accounts from a variety of sources, James elaborates a pluralistic framework in which "the divine can mean no single quality, it must mean a group of qualities, by being champions of which in alternation, different men may all find worthy missions." It's an intellectual call for serious religious tolerance--indeed, respect--the vitality of which has not diminished through the subsequent decades.
Chicken Soup for the Soul
Jack Canfield - 1993
Canfield and Hansen bring you wit and wisdom, hope and empowerment to buoy you through life's dark moments.
Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue (Classics of Western Spirituality)
Catherine of Siena
This is a comprehensive attempt to make the spiritual tradition of large areas of mankind more generally accessible to the ordinary interested reader. A. M. Allchin in Church Times Catherine of Siena-The Dialogue translation and introduction by Suzanne Noffke, O.P., preface by Giuliana Cavallini If you have received my love sincerely without self-interest, you will drink your neighbor's love sincerely. It is just like a vessel that you fill at the fountain. If you take it out of the fountain to drink, the vessel is soon empty. But if you hold your vessel in the fountain while you drink, it will not get empty: indeed, it will always be full. Catherine of Siena, 1347-1380 This is the crowning spiritual work of the only woman other than Teresa of Avila to be granted the title of Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church. This volume was simply called my book by the fourteenth-century Italian saint. The aim of her book (one of the first books to see print in Spain, Germany, Italy, and England), says Dr. Noffke in her Foreword, was the instruction and encouragement of all those whose spiritual welfare was her concern. Catherine was a mystic whose plunge into God plunged her deep into the affairs of society, Church and the souls who came under her influence. Professor Noffke goes on to call The Dialogue a great tapestry to which Catherine adds stitch upon stitch until she is satisfied that she has communicated all she can of what she has learned of the way of God. In this, the sixth centenary of the great Dominican's death, we live in a time so badly in need of her sense of institutional reform as flowing from Divine truth, love and charity. Dr. Noffke says: In the opening pages of The Dialogue Catherine presents a series of questions or petitions to God the Father each of which receives a response and amplification. There is the magnificent symbolic portrayal of Christ as the bridge. There are specific discussions of discernment, tears (true and false spiritual emotion), truth, the sacramental heart ('mystic body') of the Church, divine providence, obedience.... It is not so much a treatise to be read as it is a conversation to be entered into with earnest leisure and leisurely earnest.
Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life
Dennis Linn - 1995
The Linns' simplification of the Ignatian examination of conscience is a way to find daily direction, experience emotional and spiritual growth and grow closer to both God and one's inner self.
Walden
Henry David Thoreau - 1854
Thoreau lived alone in a secluded cabin at Walden Pond. It is one of the most influential and compelling books in American literature. This new paperback edition-introduced by noted American writer John Updike-celebrates the 150th anniversary of this classic work. Much of Walden's material is derived from Thoreau's journals and contains such engaging pieces as "Reading" and "The Pond in the Winter" Other famous sections involve Thoreau's visits with a Canadian woodcutter and with an Irish family, a trip to Concord, and a description of his bean field. This is the complete and authoritative text of Walden-as close to Thoreau's original intention as all available evidence allows. For the student and for the general reader, this is the ideal presentation of Thoreau's great document of social criticism and dissent.