Shhh The Sound Of Sheer Silence

The title of this book, Shhh! The Sound of Sheer Silence: A Biblical Spirituality that Transforms, comes from the biblical narrative about the prophet Elijah experiencing God on a mountain in a sound of sheer silence. Many people seek a way of life that involves silence because it nourishes the individual spirit connected to Spirit. Developing a spirituality of silence enables the individual spirit to connect to the divine Spirit. The transformation that occurs through silence here and now is an experience of what awaits after the last transfiguring experience of our lives: death. The goal of this book is to foster a spirituality of silence as it flows from the Bible. Through the sounds of sheer silence, the reader develops a biblical spirituality that transforms him or her into a raised awareness of, a deeper knowledge of, and a closer relationship with the divine.

The title of this book, Shhh! The Sound of Sheer Silence: A Biblical Spirituality that Transforms, comes from the biblical narrative about the prophet Elijah experiencing God on a mountain in a sound of sheer silence. Many people seek a way of life that involves silence because it nourishes the individual spirit connected to Spirit. Developing a spirituality of silence enables the individual spirit to connect to the divine Spirit. The transformation that occurs through silence here and now is an experience of what awaits after the last transfiguring experience of our lives: death. The goal of this book is to foster a spirituality of silence as it flows from the Bible. Through the sounds of sheer silence, the reader develops a biblical spirituality that transforms him or her into a raised awareness of, a deeper knowledge of, and a closer relationship with the divine.

This is a book about spirituality for the solitary, those people who live alone. In the past they were known as hermits, eremites, and anchorites; today they are known as pioneers, mountain men and women, widows, widowers, and people who choose to live alone in the country or in the city. They spend their days like other ordinary people taking care of daily chores, but also spending some time in prayer and meditation. The solitary life is alive and well, and it appears in all world religions. The solitary seeks solitude for prayer, meditation, self-awareness, and personal development. Living alone in a house or apartment begins to transform one’s life; a person sets off on the path of purpose, the path of integrity, the path of transcendence that lifts his or her heart, mind, and spirit to the divine presence, God, who transforms more and more as the solitary dives deeper and deeper. This book provides an in-depth exploration of spirituality for the solitary along with eight-part exercises designed to further enhance solitary spirituality. Included are prayers, psalms in contemporary English, and celebrations using natural things, such as water, oil, and fire.

In My Life of Ministry, Writing, Teaching, and Traveling: The Autobiography of an Old Mines Missionary, I present my life as a child growing up in a French village about sixty miles south of St. Louis in the middle of the twentieth century. After eighteen years of life in Old Mines, the oldest settlement in the state of Missouri, I moved to St. Louis for four years and then to St. Meinrad, Indiana, for four years where education opened my eyes to a world very much larger than my village of origin. Life continued for me after ordination as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church in Springfield and Joplin, Missouri. Because my life is the thread stitching together this book, I have made it manageable by dividing it into four categories: ministry, writing, teaching, and travel. These categories contain the stories of others whose life threads of seventy years are woven into my lifetime tapestry. This is my autobiography--one of a missionary from Old Mines to the thirty-nine counties forming the southern third of the state of Missouri--composed during my seventieth year of life.

What is Born of the Spirit is Spirit provides reflections on Scripture texts associated with (Holy) Spirit and (human) spirit. Various aspects of Spirit and spirit are explored in one-hundred-five entries. The subtitle, A Biblical Spirituality of Spirit, indicates the ways biblical authors are inspired to present imaginatively what cannot be pictured: Spirit and spirit. This book attempts to recover the spirituality of biblical stories that narrate how the Spirit connects to spirit and the results of such connectivity. By exploring the use of biblical metaphors and similes we develop a spirituality of Spirit, the way human spirit is in the presence of the divine Spirit. Spirituality is Spirit connecting to spirit. It is Spirit giving birth to spirit (John 3:6).

This is a book about spirituality, more specifically, the spiritual journey. Before beginning any journey or trip--spiritual or otherwise--we experience a state of order. Then comes the call to journey, to travel, to take a trip, to walk, to pilgrimage, to hit the road, etc. The call to begin a journey may come from an urge within us; it may be an invitation from a spouse or a friend to fly somewhere; it may be as simple as taking the dog for a walk in the neighborhood, even taking different streets! The call disrupts our ordered lives. We prepare for our excursion. We enter into the stage of chaos when we take the journey; also, we enter into the process of transformation. By the time we get home, we will be transformed. These are the steps of the spiritual journey into God: order, hearing the call to journey, answering the call with preparation, entering the chaos of the journey, and being and coming home transformed. Ninety-seven reflections are presented in this book in seven chapters devoted to journey; road; path; route, highway, gateway; walk; way; and more.

This book presents forty-two reflections on biblical names for God in an abecedarian (A through Z) format. The names, terms by which God is known, are not biblically exhaustive. These entries present spiritual reflections, grounded in Scripture, with Psalm responses, questions for meditation and/or journaling, and prayers designed to nourish spirituality at any time. Beginning with Abba, Alpha, and Ancient One, individual entries continue through the alphabet to Yahweh and Zion. By reflecting on forty-two biblical names for God, the reader comes to know better the Holy One, and, in so doing, is transformed.

This is a book about four Roman Catholic pioneers—explorers and developers—whose lives crossed each other’s paths in Old Mines, Missouri, in the middle of the 1800s. Two of them were priests, and one of them was a bishop, then an archbishop. One was a laywoman, who was very generous with her riches. Three of them were not only of Irish descent but came from Ireland. The laywoman was French, and she came from Ste. Genevieve. The Great Potato Famine in Ireland in the 1840s brought all of them together in the oldest village in the state of Missouri: Old Mines. The potato famine brought many Irish to Missouri in the nineteenth century to farm, to build railroads, and to construct churches for worship. This is the story of pioneers Marie-Louise (Bolduc) Lamarque, Peter Richard Kenrick, James Fox, and John Joseph Hogan. Their lives crossed each other’s paths in Old Mines, Missouri, a lead-mining village about sixty miles south of St. Louis (before St. Louis existed) and about forty miles east of Ste. Genevieve (before Ste. Genevieve existed).