The Spirituality Of Community Life

Find out how communities can help people transcend their individual needs to live richer, fuller lives The Spirituality of Community Life is a deeply personal analysis of community life and its importance in helping people develop to their full potential. Dr. Ron McDonald, a pastoral counselor, examines the dynamics of community life from the perspective of the participant in a variety of settings, including the classroom, sports teams, church groups, recreational groups, and the workplace. This unique book presents alternatives to a culture that creates competition, separation, and insecurity, focusing instead on communities that encourage civility, understanding, compromise, and altruism. The Spirituality of Community Life analyzes the need for community life and the obstacles to it found in American culture, where money and power rule and people conform to stay out of trouble. The book presents insights into the importance and manner of building communities instead of efficient organizations that are fueled by crisis. Topics examined include growth and size as mistaken ideals, early Christian community life, the “What Would Jesus Do?” phenomenon, the spiritual disease caused by fighting enemies, the place of art and dance in community life, and leadership. The Spirituality of Community Life looks at a variety of communities, including: hikers on the Appalachian Trail a college track and country team a seminary course on the Gospel of Mark a church health center a traditional Quaker meeting an open education elementary school a championship basketball team an annual meeting of pastoral counselors and much more The Spirituality of Community Life also examines the deeply spiritual nature of community life, including insights into early Christian community history and how community life was crucial in the lives of our greatest spiritual leaders. The book is essential for anyone seeking to be the kind of leader who can build and nurture communities.

Do we have a positive theology of the city so that an urban spirituality can emerge from this place? We have for too long focused on quick fixes, pop up churches, and strategic solutions which have left us malnourished and emaciated, yet bloated from our over-consumption of these unsatisfying approaches. Spiritual formation is something that we need to pay closer attention to today. How do we live this kind of holy life in the city?

In the Greater Community of Worlds the idea of God is presented differently than it is in this world. In the Greater Community, the idea of God must be translatable from one society to another where the customs and the rituals, the ideas and the areas of specific application will be unique to each world’s spiritual awareness and devotional practices. All that can be translated is the pure experience of Knowledge—the experience of Universal Mind, profound awareness and total relationship. This is the experience which will be presented in this book—an experience of translatable spirituality that is shared between intelligent life everywhere. Its application is universal. Its experience is universal. Its communication is universal. The direction that it establishes for sentient beings everywhere is universal. Greater Community Spirituality encompasses a larger panorama of life and includes all that has been created here and beyond, in all dimensions, in all frameworks. So complete is it that you cannot fathom its Mystery, exhaust its Wisdom or penetrate its Knowledge. But you can be the recipient of these things, and you can translate them into your own experience and apply them here at great benefit to yourself and to others. The world is now emerging into a Greater Community of Worlds. Therefore, it is necessary for Greater Community Spirituality to be presented here to enable humanity to prepare mentally, emotionally and spiritually for the great change that is coming and the great opportunities that this change represents. To learn about the Greater Community, you must learn of its reality. This, then, is a blessing: that you may receive a Greater reality, a Greater religion and a Greater God.

What's the secret to living a spiritual life? So much is happening in our world that we often get distracted and listen to voices other than the voice of God. "If we want to be disciples of Jesus, we have to live a disciplined life," Nouwen asserts. In the spiritual life, discipline requires conscious effort to keep every area in life from being filled up. It means creating space in our life for God to act and speak. Nouwen identifies 3 essential disciplines for maintaining a life of discipleship: solitude, community, and ministry. In solitude we learn to listen to God through prayer. We realize that we are beloved sons and daughters of God. In community we learn to celebrate, as well as to practice vulnerability and forgiveness. After we have experienced solitude and community, we feel God's call to minister to a hurting world. God empowers us to do amazing things. This encouraging, insightful book will inspire you to practice solitude, community, and ministry. The result, Nouwen promises, is a fruitful, Spirit-filled life.

Logos Book Award Do you long for a deep, fundamental change in your life with God? Do you desire a greater intimacy with God? Do you wonder how you might truly live your life as God created you to live it? Spiritual disciplines are activities that open us to God's transforming love and the changes that only God can bring about in our lives. Picking up on the monastic tradition of creating a "rule of life" that allows for regular space for the practice of the spiritual disciplines, this book takes you more deeply into understanding seven key disciplines along with practical ideas for weaving them into everyday life. Each chapter includes exercises to help you begin the practices--individually and in a group context. The final chapter puts it all together in a way that will help you arrange your life for spiritual transformation. The choice to establish your own sacred rhythm is the most important choice you can make with your life.

"Essays and talks on the theme of community by Henri Nouwen, the popular writer and spiritual teacher"--

"Ignatian Humanism puts into perspective our contemporary search for a spirituality that responds both to our search for meaning and desire for God." -John W. Padberg, S.J., director, Institute of Jesuit Sources "Modras integrates fascinating history, contemporary theology, and inspiring spirituality with consistent focus on central issues for our day." -Joann Wolski Conn, associate professor of religious studies, Neumann College "A stunning book! Modras has profiled a number of Jesuit thinkers and activists as role models for our time-revitalizing humanism as a model for moderns." -Leonard Swidler, professor of Catholic thought and inter-religious dialogue, Temple University Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, is one of a mere handful of individuals who has permanently changed the way we understand God. In this vividly written and meticulously researched book, Ronald Modras shows how Ignatian spirituality retains extraordinary vigor and relevance nearly five centuries after Loyola's death. At its heart, Ignatian spirituality is a humanism that defends human rights, prizes learning from other cultures, seeks common ground between science and religion, struggles for justice, and honors a God who is actively at work in creation. The towering achievements of the Jesuits are made tangible by Modras's vivid portraits of Ignatius and five of his successors: Matteo Ricci, the first Westerner at the court of the Chinese emperor; Friederich Spee, who defended women accused of witchcraft; Karl Rahner, the greatest Catholic theologian of the twentieth century; Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the scientist-mystic; and Pedro Arrupe, the charismatic leader of the Jesuits in the years following Vatican II.

Analyzes the spiritual formation of young children and calls for renewed attention to scripture and the involvement of families in the process.