1 comments about Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series).

1. We are very fortunate to have available this compilation of Gandhi's word collected by the Jsuit Father John Dear in this excellent publication by the longstanding and highly qualified Catholic Publishing House Orbis Books, an organ of the MAryknoll MIssionary Society, for whom my uncle served as priest overseas forty yaers until a debilitating stroke struck him down five years ago.
   
   Father JOhn DEar is best known for not only his actions for peace, including as the head of Pax Christi and the Fellowship of REconciliation, but also for the many works he has written, including Disarming the Heart: Towards a Vow Of Non-Violence (which for a Christian shoudl be redundant anyways!). In this ADvent season we do well to contemplate his Mary of Nazareth: Prophet of Peace. And in the midst of all this activity he found time to compile the writings of Gandhi, in the year 2002 when surely he felt the call to more direct actions.
   
   What more lasting and direct action for peace and Christian love could he possibly take than this collection of Gandhi? Now at this discount how can we afford in this fallen day and age not to take it to heart?
   
   Please take advantage of the excellent amazon Search Inside feature to study at least the Table of Contents and you will find everything you have wanted to know. Not only does he provide an excellent summary of the life and impact of Gandhi, but then develops along the essential themes his thought and prayer. There is of course and obviously to many the parallels with the Sermon on the Mount which helps us CAtholics the more to understand our call as Catholics to peaceful action in this violent world.
   
   Especially important to us as Americans as our nation sinks under its exponentially increasing inequities brought on by the current administration is the pages devoted to "Steadfast Resistance", in particular the chapter entitled, "Obeying the Divine Law, Resisting Unjust Laws (pages 152 ff.)" which find echo sixty years later in the COnciliar document Gaudium et Spes, which describes why no Catholic can support our Iraqi involvement directly nor indirectly:
   
   Gaudium et spes gives the specific admonition:
   
   "Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and humanity, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation."
   
   Thus must we Catholics condemn absolutely our war against Iraq which goes back though the long war of attrition to papa Bush in 1990, which has caused over a million Iraqi deaths, women and children in their bloodied beds, and carpet bombing wiping out the ancient city of Fallujah, etc. all for profiteering privateering petroleum piracy.
   
   Further Gaudium et spes states unequivocally:
   "If civil authorities legislate or allow anything that is contrary to the will of God, neither the law made nor the authorization granted can be binding on the conscience of the citizens since God has more right to be obeyed than man."
   
   God commands: Thou shalt not kill.
   
   We cannot kill a million Iraqi citizens, women and children in their beds, for the sake of privateering petroleum piracy. We cannot be involved in this genocide in any way shape or form. We in fact are obligated to work and speak strongly against it. Pope John PAul II was first in condemning the aggressive invasion of Iraq.
   
   I cannot urge you enough to consider this substantial volume for your spiritual and Catholic library, as the Reverend Father John Dear so well and intelligently and spiritually interprets for us directly from the primary sources the life and philosophy, the love and non-violent action of this Great Soul. I can think of no finer book on Gandhi available today. I can think of no more crucial message for us today, who have grown deaf and blind by the brilliance of the Sermon on the Mount and need to see it through refractions from a similar source to find our own Faith and grace-filled Action.
   
   Do unto others what you want them to do to you.
   Sounds like something you never have to think about while it is all you need to think about.

5 comments about Martin Luther: A Life (Penguin Lives).

1. This title is a little short, but the content seems ok on the controversial figure of Martin Luther.



2. Martin E. Marty doesn't write like one of the most eminent, respected professors of our time. Instead, he introduces the reader to a man he knows well from his studies at the University of Chicago.
   
   Marty's prose is as clear and powerful as the bolt of lightning which terrified young Martin Luther and prompted him to devote his life to the Lord. This relatively short book does a superb job of introducing us to Martin Luther.
   
   We learn that he was a man of his time and that he didn't want people describing themselves as "Lutherans." As a Luthern myself, a lot of Professor Marty's book came as revelation.
   
   Luther shared a lot of the flaws of his age. He was a man of an imperfect time and place. Yet, imperfect as he was, he took his stand where he thought God wanted him to and therein lies his great achievement.
   
   This is a great book about an important man who lived during a critical period of Western History. If you're at all interested in shaking hands with Martin Luther, this is the book for you.
   
   It opens a window on the man and the time in which he lived and it's superbly written. You needn't be a scholar to understand it and it reads more like a good novel than an important biography.
   
   I like it and gave it five stars.



3. Not as comprehensive as Roland H. Bointon's "Here I Stand". But it will do the job if your time for Martin Luther is very limited. Marty Martin concentrates on providing the reader with an insight into Martin Luther's inner experience.



4. For a reader looking for a concise, relatively short, introduction to the life of one of Christianity's most important figures, "Martin Luther" by Martin Marty is an excellent choice. This book does a good job of surveying the life and teachings of this founder of the Reformation. Marty presents a balanced picture, neither attacking its subject nor ignoring his faults and shortcomings. He generally presents the facts and lets the reader draw his own conclusions. While not ignoring Luther's sensual appetites, Marty explains how they conform to his theological teaching. Luther's attractiveness to princes but his hostility to the empowerment of peasants is an example of an historical fact which limits the vision of Luther as a champion of "democracy" against the establishment.
   
   At times the book seems to focus on Luther's writings and preaching, but later gets into more personal details. I suspect that this reflects the scarcity of the historical record with respect to some parts of Luther's life. While not delving into an analysis of Luther's impact on the world, the mere recitation of his life's work enables the reader to appreciate the tremendous impact which Luther has had on history. The reader, whether Protestant, Catholic or non-religious, who is interested in either religious or secular history will find "Martin Luther" to an worthwhile read.



5. I've got to give the book 5 stars simply because Marty, a Lutheran, had me disliking the guy at the end :-). It's a much more balanced biography, for example, than Here I Stand, which I read many years ago. Marty is an excellent writer. He uses words well, chooses good words, and doesn't waste them. Marty's writing is one of the highlights of the book. The book moves quickly, which is unusual for a biography. More than that, I think Marty provides a plausible, unifying theme to Luther's life. He was clearly not a fun guy. He was intense, fiercely competitive, short-tempered, "over the top". Unlike many religious biographies, this one portrays a man who was deeply flawed, who arguably never developed a satisfying relationship with God. To Luther, you either saw things exactly his way, or you were his enemy. If people had to die to get his gospel preached (himself or others), oh well. As with some Christians today, he felt perfect confidence that his way was THE way, the ONLY way, and that everyone else, for better or worse, was going to hell.
   
   As an example of steadfastness and single-mindedness, he's awesome. You've got to admire someone who knew so thoroughly what he wanted to accomplish, and pursued it with a vengeance, come whatever may. But I can't help wondering if in his zeal, he missed the heart of God. Luther seems to have had a hatred for anyone who didn't "get it", anyone who stood in his (and therefore the gospel's) way, be they peasants or Jews. Luther was a positive for the world and Christianity, but clearly a very flawed human being.

No comments about No Small Snakes: A Journey Into Spiritual Warfare.

5 comments about Francis of Assisi: A Revolutionary Life.

1. I bought this book because I thought it would give me a more indepth look into this remarkable man's life. Instead, I found myself severly dissapointed. The book does give a good overview of the world around St. Assisi, but really didn't give me any new insight into the facts surrounding the man. Not only that, the author seems to be delving into an almost Jungian religious view. I would not have minded a Catholic view (because St. Assisi was obviously Catholic)or a secular view, but I found the author's choice of religious viewpoint to be completely without rational or support.



2. I checked out this book at the library a couple of years ago and was so impressed by it that I had to have a copy of it in order to reread it at my leisure. That's saying something, my friend.
   
   This biography is written for the non-religious and the pious alike. The author approaches Francis' life as he would anyone else's. This is refreshing to me because, especially if it is a religious figure, I want to see the subject of a biography in all his foibles. Why? Probably because I have many foibles also and I can relate to and consequently be more inspired by a real human being who, in spite of his or her foibles, was able to transcend them to do great things.
   
   The author does a fine job of putting the reader inside the time, place and family in which Francis grew. Though he doesn't go into as great a depth about it as I'm sure other biographies do, Francis spiritual growth is well-written. His prayer life must have been genuinely awesome. The author at one point cites a person who peeked in on one of Francis' hidden prayer session and was in awe of it all, stigmata and all.
   
   I think Francis has so much to say to us today. I really believe that any Christian who does study his life is the spiritually richer for it--and that probably goes double for any unbeliever as well.



3. The strongest parts of this biography are in House's relation of the changing feudal world around Assisi and Perugia to the papal-German battles in Italy and the rise of the mercantile class into which Francis was born. Also, the chapter that looks into the early spirituality of the first friars adds valuable understanding to what must have inspired many to take up the evangelical and mendicant challenge.
   
   The excursion into the Middle East, especially the siege of Damietta, remains helpful for an appreciation of the never-ending cruelty of warfare in this contentious region, but you do lose sight as a reader of the place of this episode within the immediate experience of Francis' diplomatic apostolate. In later stretches of the narrative, the debate over poverty receives important attention, but the machinations of the friars replacing the discipline of the Order's founder with a more pragmatic system needed further explanation, as did the claim by House that the refusal of the Third Order to bear arms for a lord undermined the whole feudal structure and helped advance the power of the middle class. Certainly, the latter theory deserves much more depth than House gives to it here.
   
   The few photos are excellent. One in particular, near to the life of the saint, shows his face hallowed out like an El Greco figure, if not as elongated, seemingly hunched over and suffering with an individuated expression as if drawn by one who knew him. It speaks eloquently for a man who, while praising nature, punished his Brother Ass of a body into an early death.
   Such a contradiction, House only can hint at, stands as his legacy.



4. Usually, a historical text such as this one bores me to death with its "educated" language and more detail than one could ever care about. But today, while searching for a birthday gift for a friend who, like me, has been touched by the piety of Francis, I sat and read for an hour, and was compelled. I usually am especially intrigued by the relationship between Frances and his young protegé, Clare. I was pleased to find a book that admitted that theirs was a love affair, albeit unconsummated, and pretty much in her mind, only; a situation I can relate to, unfortunately, only too well. Finally, here is a text that shows me what Francis was about, but doesn't seek to convert or evangelize. Detailed enough to clear up some things I may have read elsewhere without boring me with too much. When I got to the photographs in the center of the book, it was the photograph of the bones of Francis that brought home to me that this man did exist, and I found myself mourning his loss right there in the bookstore. When a book does that to me, I've got to have it.

   Did we need another biography on Francis of Assisi? In my opinion, yes, we did, and this is the best of all of them. This is a book that, once I was able to try it, I bought it. Not at the bookstore in which I auditioned it, but here, at Amazon.com, where it was cheaper.




5. This book focuses on the historical events of this saint's life without much embellishment on the spiritual nature. Of course, a biography of St. Francis can't ignore the spiritual side of this man entirely and I think the author gives his due respect to his accomplishments.

   From a well to do youth to a poverty stricken reformer, this life is one to be admired no matter what a person's background. The book sufficiently discusses the historical events as an outword expression of the transformation of the man, but not necessarily the transformation itself for the student trying to study the method.

   If you wan't to learn of the man and the development of his order, this book will do nicely. However, if you want to understand the meaning of the man, you will find this book lacking.

5 comments about Refined by Fire: a family's triumph of love and faith.

1. This is a very encouraging book about courage and faith in the face of a devastating terrorist incident. I was moved by LTC Bidwell and his wife's faith in God and each other as they fought their way back from the brink of death, after he was burned over more than 60% of his body on 9/11. One of my battle buddies was just badly burned by a bomb blast in Kabul, Afghanistan and is currently making this same recovery. Reading this book encouraged me about my friend's prospective future, after recovery.



2. This book is one of the most amazing faith filled stories I have read in a long time.
   What Mel and Brian Birdwell went through after the tragedy of 9/11 and how it made them grow in the Chrisitan faith never giving in to others negativity is a true testimony of how God does work miracles. Brian Birdwell is a walking miracle.
   This was the best of all the books I have read about people who have survived 9/11. This is one book once you read it, you will never forget it!



3. Brian is a friend of my son and his family and while visiting with my son, I was fortunate enough to meet Brian and his wife. They are a very loving sincere couple who have had their faith tested and have come out of this stronger than ever. I have recommended this book to others and am giving the books to friend and family because I think it tells a great story of love, devotion and faith.



4. This book is an amazing testimony of God's mercy, love and faithfulness to those who call upon His name. As Brian and Mel Birdwell share their experiences from the Pentagon attack and aftermath, the reader gets a vivid mental picture of much of what they went through. They share their pain and suffering, but they also share their hope and trust in the Lord which is ultimately what gets them through such an appalling tragedy. God is clearly glorified in this story!



5. Refined by Fire is an autobiography of a couple's experience of faith, endurance, and love of God. It evokes all human emotion.

5 comments about One Holy Fire: Let the Spirit Ignite Your Soul.

1. 'In as much as you have done it unto the least of these, My brothers, You have done it unto Me." Nicky Cruz makes you realize that cleaning up the vomit from a heroin addict who needs your help brings one far closer to YHWH and His glory than sitting in a comfortable pew listening to a sermon. Nicky and many others have had LIVES that are sermons. In this book you see up close what Yahusha meant when He said the prostitutes and tax collectors were going into Heaven before the religious leaders. It was awesome to see how one person's life can be used by the Holy Spirit to dramatically revolutionize tens of thousands of other people's lives. There are a series of "one person's" seen here. We hear of David Wilkerson leading Nicky (and only Heaven knows how many others) out of sin and abject misery into love and joy and transformed lives. (I did not realize he was also instrumental in impacting the Minister of the famed Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir.) Then the Holy Fire leaps from Nicky to others who also pass it on. This is the real thing. A very convicting story.
   If you haven't read, or seen the movie of, The Cross and the Switchblade,
   chances are you will be greatly impacted by it.
   I used to agree with the saying, "You can catch sickness but you can't catch health." Well, now I believe that the healing of the soul from the Holy Spirit can indeed be passed on from one person to another, and in fact, we are to be willing instruments used for that purpose.



2. Before I make my comments:
   I want it to be known, I RECOMMEND this book. 4 1/2 stars
   
   I will start by saying if you have never heard of Nicky Cruz.
   Please read "The Cross and the Switchblade" by David Wilkerson, and then "Run Baby Run" by Nicky Cruz. Then you will have a better understanding of where Nicky Cruz came from.
   
   After having reading the other two books (I mentioned) I found this book interesting. At first I thought it sounded like a book "about Nicky" but as I continued reading on I believe it was Nicky telling his life experiences FOR THE GLORY OF GOD.
   
   Also, for the first half of the book I thought it should have been titled "The life and times of Nicky Cruz" I didn't quite get where they came up with this title "One Holy Fire..." As I read on it made more sense, though I still think the title was not the best match to the content of the book.
   
   That being said I really like the book especially knowing the past of Nicky Cruz. I felt like he was quite transparent in this book, and gave glory to God.
   
   This book, I felt, picked up excitement as you read it. The more I read it the more I enjoyed it, so don't put it down to quick.
   
   It's a remarkable story, and feel it would be good for anyone hungry for the REAL and LIVING Christ.
   
   Jim



3. I have to admit in over twenty-nine years of ministry, I have not read a Nicky Cruz book until now. Sure, back in the early 70s I saw the Cross and the Switch Blade, but not being a Christian at the time I was not too impressed. So when my youth minister laid this book on my desk, it sat there for almost two weeks until an overwhelming sense of guilt and obligation make me pick it up and begin to read.

   This is a wonderful book. As I read it, I could sense the integrity of Nicky Cruz. How refreshingly honest it is to read when Nicky tells us that he has not written a book in the past eight years because he had nothing to say. As an avid reader of Christian books, it become readily apparent that too many authors repackage sermons and stoop to write drivel just to publish another book to receive royalty checks. As soon as I read this confession, I was hooked. On the integrity issue, we see how Nicky had to come to grips with the cult of celebrity and his sense of being used to attract crowds so Christian entertainers could earn more money. I was shocked to see how his publisher failed to pay him any significant royalties on his book Run Baby Run, an international bestseller. I was awed by the grace with which Nicky accepted his plight and gave God the glory for it.

   Enough about the author lets look at the book. Cruz calls the church to stop doing church and to be the church- to abandon its fear of men and to follow without hesitation the leading of the Holy Spirit. It is, as the poet said, a road less traveled. Interlaced with personal stories, Cruz argues persuasively for a life of faith and trust in the sovereign moves of the Holy Spirit- that as Christians we could turn the world upside down if we would just get out of the way and let God be God.

   For us control freaks this is a word we need to hear. The Holy Spirits fire is something we cannot calculate or control. It the truth be told, too many us prefer predictability and security to the guidance of Gods Spirit. The results are predictable- stagnating or declining churches where the power of God is absent. We cannot have both- We must surrender the leading and power of the Holy Spirit and see lives transformed, or we can try to control the sovereign God and get only the results that we, ourselves, are capable of getting. I choose to follow God.




4. I strongly recommend this book to every Christian who is looking to serve God in any capacity. One Holy Fire is a solid reminder of what God is willing and able to do whenever He finds a believer that will yield completely to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
   In this book, Nicky Cruz narrates amazing accounts of God's power, deliverance and love towards the hurting and helpless. He also shares inspiring testimonies of how God has mentored, supported and refreshed him throughout his ministry. One Holy Fire is a refreshing, uplifting and anointed book. I believe it will greatly bless every person - clergy or laity - who reads it with an open heart.



5. Nicky Cruz author of 'Run Baby Run' and whose life was subject of the motion picture 'The Cross and the Switchblade' (from the title book by David Wilkerson) has a new book that will set your soul afire. 'One Holy Fire' is such a book with never-before-published stories from his ministry that will make your heart quake and explode your imagination. Cruz shares dramatic stories of physical, emotional and spiritual healing. Thousands have come to Christ as a result of the Spirit working his life. Cruz explores spiritual promises regarding the Holy Spirit's work and what it means to "Walk in the Spirit." 'One Holy Fire' will inspire you to live according to the Spirit's guidance. After reading and applying what purpose the Spirit has for you, you will experience new energy as the Spirit of God works in your life. This book has so much anointed power, that it's sure to change you how you live your life. If you've searching to be set on fire for the fulfillment of God's joy let 'One Holy Fire' ignite the flame of your deepest desire. I recommend this highly.

5 comments about The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals.

1. In Notebook 17, Merton writes "I am thrown into contradiction:/ to realize it is a mercy,/ to accept it is love,/ to help others do the same is compassion." (269) From a year or two before he died, this recognition shows what his journals, excerpted here from the seven complete volumes, chart. These take you beyond the more familiar writings that made Merton famous, and show by extension his more frail, doubting, and pensive side.
   
   These pages begin in 1939-41, as he wrestles with being rejected by the Franciscans, works with the poor, reads and thinks at Columbia and upstate New York, and decides to enter the Trappists. His fervor as a recent convert energizes his visit to Cuba. He is full of ideas and energy, but seeks and needs focus. Early on, he realizes the trouble with a journal. If it's written for publication, "then you can tear pages out of it, emend it, correct it, write with art. If it is a personal document, every emendation amounts to a crisis of conscience and a confession, not an artistic correction."(12/4/1940; p. 21) He decides to keep his diary for posterity, for others to read.
   
   The second chapter, although dated 1941-1952, begins five years after his entrance to the Order, at the end of 1946. He has written his soon to be bestselling memoir, and prepares for the fame that he desires but recoils from. His ordination in 1949 enlivens his spirits, and monastery at this point has not wearied him. Even then, the wish for solitude begins to take hold, to be apart from what will be, in the wake of "The Seven Storey Mountain," a rush of aspirants for Gethsemani Abbey. Ironically or justifiably, he will be appointed Master of Novices and later of Scholastics, the students attracted by his very writings. Surprisingly, he writes little of the daily conferences and dealings with his fellow monks in this journal, perhaps out of respect for their confidings, but also, one suspects, out of a disenchantment with the noise, the cheese factory, the tractors and the press of new faces into what had been for him the place where he sought to be alone with God.
   
   This contradiction drives him towards a hermitage on the property, a compromise he battles out. He is famous, and he seeks anonymity. He wants a public to speak to, and welcomes visits. He learns that his freedom allows him to go out on the town with his friends, and temptations will arise as his freedom increases, and his vocation is crucially tested.
   
   1951 sparks a burst of mystical longing. His journals become more contemplative, as his time alone increases and his duties to the Abbey lessen somewhat. By the mid-1950s, he is living full-time at the hermitage. He thrives on study and contemplation. "Perhaps the Book of Life, in the end, is the book of what one has lived, and, if one has lived nothing, he is not in the Book of Life."(7/17/1956) He reads wisdom from the Eastern Christian and Asian traditions.
   
   Musings on Boris Pasternak, Marxism and Latin American struggles begin to enter his journal, followed by Civil Rights and antiwar activist reports. He wishes to be drawn into the world he once thought he would and could leave behind. His advice is sought out by many, and the retreat becomes instead a visitor's center. This is partially by choice, and partially by fame.
   
   The reforms of Vatican II appear to have come slowly to the Order and not altogether smoothly. He laments the end of Latin prayers and Gregorian chant; he records Dan Berrigan saying a non-canonical Mass circa `66 that presages the daring poses of relevance that unsettle Merton, who eschews violence and grandstanding by his more radical, media-hungry, confreres.
   
   But, he knows that he can no longer remain within the walls of the monastery in this time of change and tumult. He wrestles with loyalties. On the fourteenth anniversary of his ordination, he feels defeated. Untraditional, unable to conform, he agonizes. "Perhaps that is good. I am not a J.F. Powers character. But the frustration is the same." Although neither Greene's whiskey priest nor a despairing curate as in Bernanos, his sincerity seems a charade. He acts a lie. Depressions grow as he nears fifty. "People think I am happy." He does seek solace in the Mass. "I suppose that in the end what I have done is that I have resisted the superimposition of a complete priestly form, a complete monastic pattern. I have stubbornly saved myself from becoming absorbed in the priesthood, and I do not know if this was cowardice or integrity. There seems to be no real way for me to tell." (5/26/1963; pp. 206-7) The next few years of revolt and reaction outside the monastery and travel within and beyond its no longer totally enclosed walls will test his indecision severely and unexpectedly.
   
   He falls in love and- although not explicitly stated in these excerpts- consummates a relationship with a nurse who seems about half his age, who cares for him in a Louisville hospital in the spring of 1966. These are the most human and gripping entries of the volume. We witness in the first-person- if at an oblique angle that increases the perspective of realism-- an intelligent, tender, and righteous man break his vows, and then his promises to renew his commitment at great personal and psychic and physical sacrifice. He learns to treat "M" with dignity and does the right thing by her and himself, and reconciles his failing with the immediate joy he has foolishly if understandably embraced briefly.
   
   In his fifth decade, Merton grows up. "Vocation is more than just a matter of being in a certain place and wearing a certain type of costume. There are too many people in the world who rely on the fact that I am serious about deepening an inner dimension of experience that they desire and is closed to them. It is not closed to me: this is a gift that has been given me not for myself but for everyone, even including M." Tempted again to sneak into the city to see her, he realizes: "In the end I would ruin her along with myself."(6/22/1966; p. 295) Here, Merton's saintliness shows itself most movingly to me. I recognize my own faults in his, and now realize his own integrity. If you have only read "Seven Storey Mountain," you only know the honeymoon period. The journals show the whole committment, the lifetime after the infatuation wears off.
   
   In November 1968, a month and a day before his death, he records during his visit to the Dalai Lama in exile the three types of "bodhicitta." Kingly ones save one's self and then others. Boatmen ferry themselves with others into salvation. Shepherds guide others first and enter salvation last. I think of Merton, so near unawares his own sudden "liberation," as one who by his writings and example led many into spiritual heights.
   
   These pages record how he labored, lonely among hundreds of other monks. How many, I wonder, who resented his popularity, worshipped his celebrity, or benefitted from his writing and the nights of loneliness that flowed into his pages? He lived as a flawed monk among others no less so, and this obvious but gradual admission comes to bring him and his community and so many other millions of readers the past fifty years the grace to accept the need for guides wiser than us to help lead us into nirvana.
   



2. Rather than review the book _The Intimate Merton_, I have chosen to review the persona who presents himself within these pages. For it is this persona that has attracted readers to his works, and through his works, to his life. If we are to profit at all from a man's personal journals, we must be certain that first he intends to be truthful and forthright about the time's of his life. And we are not to be dissappointed here by the subject of this work, as he assiduously presents his story with his most intimate thoughts.
   
   We see, as the title of this review reflects, a man who has become entranced by his own idea of himself and his vocation, at once both a passionate writer and a solitary monk, bound to live the same day over and over again until he got it right. We see this reflected in the editor's introduction when they say: "He got up and fell down, he got up and fell down, he got up over and over again." He was as much a product of his times and the events that molded and influenced him as he was a simple human being longing for release. Only toward the end of his life, though, did he begin to travel down the road toward learning about who he really was, as opposed to the persona he carried around with him the majority of his life. His journals, condensed here from the seven that were ultimately published, are a testiment to how not to lead the spiritual life, and for that honesty of truthfulness with which these entries are presented, we are in debt to the man himself.
   
   What the reader learns of Thomas Merton the man and the Trappist monk is that he was as sincere about what he wanted to accomplish with his life as he was in leaving us with a candid accounting of that life. His sincere wish can be summed up in an entry made in December of 1946 in which he states: "Meanwhile, for myself I have only one desire, and that is the desire for solitude -- to disappear into God, to be submerged in His peace, to be lost in the secret of His Face." What we learn about the truth of this sentiment is that Merton spent the majority of his twenty-seven years as a monk searching for that silence of peace into which to merge himself, but that he only on rare occasions found it. For the most part, his days were taken up with endless rounds of duties and projects which kept him busy and estranged from the solitude which he sought, and yet it was only in the final years of his life that he was finally able to begin to realize that solitude through having separated himself from the monastic community at Gethsemani and living at a private hermitage on the property.
   
   We are shown this through such passages as the following, in which a forty-eight year old Merton laments the anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood: "Today is the fourteenth anniversary of my Ordination to the priesthood. . . . I have certainly not fitted into the conventional -- or even traditional -- mold. Perhaps that is good. I am not a J. F. Powers character. Yet the frustration is the same. (I do not know if I am a George Bernanos character. I am not a Graham Greene character.) But this business of defeat is there and I see it is perhaps in some way permanent. As if in a way my priestly life has been sad and fruitless -- the defeat and failure of my monastic life. (Perhaps. For after all how do I know?) I have a very real sense that it has all been some kind of a lie, a charade. With all my blundering attempts at sincerity, I have actually done nothing to change this."
   
   Repeatedly, we are shown instances of this kind of self-admonishment throughout the latter sections of the book, and after a while, we begin to wonder "will he ever learn?" In that same journal entry we find the following, perhaps unparalleled in its honesty and self-disgust in the annals of autobiographical works: "Probably the chief weakness has been lack of real courage to bear up under the attention of monastic and priestly life. Anyway, I am worn down. I am easily discouraged. The depressions are deeper, more frequent. I am near fifty. People think I am happy." This was Merton as he appeared to himself on his worst days. Fortunately for him, these moments were as fleeting and impermanent as the very thoughts that went into expressing them. And yet his genius is that he shows us his struggle, time and again, to bear up under the task he has outlined for himself.
   
   He is aware that his life is artificial in many ways and that the circumstances under which he has agreed to live have contributed to this artificialness. "I am convinced that the tensions of our community life are delusions and obsessions because of the unreality of our activities -- the basic unreality of our relationships. Unreal because much too artificial and contrived." Yet we see by these many observations that he is honestly seeking to evaluate his life in the manner of a genuine contemplative.
   
   On occasion, he shows us some glimmer of hope as in the following entry from June of 1963: "Identity. I can see now where the work is to be done. I have been coming here into solitude to find myself, and now I must also lose myself: not simply rest in the calm, the peace, the identity that is made up of my experienced relationship with nature in solitude. This is healthier than my 'identity' as a writer or a monk, but it is still a false identity, though it has a temporary meaning and validity. It is the cocoon that masks the transition stage between what crawls and what flies." It was during this next period of his life, the last five years, that he began coming upon some of the ideas that helped him to begin putting the pieces of his life's puzzle together.
   
   As it is always darkest before the dawn, at the turn of the year to 1964 we find the forty-nine year old Merton once again lamenting his situation: ". . . twenty-two years of relative confusion, often coming close to doubt and infidelity, agonized aspirations for 'something better,' criticism of what I have, inexplicable inner suffering that is largely my own fault, insufficient efforts to overcome myself, inability to find my way, perhaps culpably straying off into things that do not concern me." Yet even here he is on the brink of a discovery, for just a few short weeks later his contemplations begin to yield some much needed light. The darkness begins to lift ever so slightly as he makes the realization that his "real self" was nothing other than "the self that one is. . . . However, the emperical self is not to be taken as fully 'real' either. Here is where the illusion begins." It is during this time period that he begins to explore the religious traditions of China, Tibet, Japan, and ancient India, and the light that he has been seeking is about to dawn for him.
   
   Yet for all his spiritual wandering during the next few years, for all his reading and digesting of new concepts and writing books on Taoism and Zen Buddhism, the hold and lure of Christian imagery and conceptual iconography keeps calling him back over and over again. When all else fails comprehension, he returns to the familiar. Even so, his subconscious mind is working on all he is learning, churning it over, integrating certain ideas, seeking for common ground with the already familiar.
   
   For perhaps the first time in his monastic career, he was beginning to realize what his real work in this contemplative tradition was all about: "It would do no good to anyone if I just went around talking -- no matter how articulately -- in this condition. There is still so much to learn, so much deepening to be done, so much to surrender. . . . The best thing I can give to others is to liberate myself from the common delusions and be, for myself and for them, free. Then grace can work in and through me for everyone." He added the preceding journal entry in late June of 1968, just a little over five months before his untimely passing. And what is sad is that he was never to realize this accomplishment in his lifetime. And yet in the same breath, what was hopeful is that he realized this -- what he needed to accomplish -- before his passing, as he wrote in July of that same year: "I have to go my own way in terms of needs that to me are fundamental: need to live a life of prayer, need to liberate myself from my own 'cares' and 'unique' need for authentic monastic solitude (not mere privacy), and need for a real understanding and use of Asian insights in religion."
   
   He arrived in the Orient in October of 1968, where he was to spent the better part of two months meeting with various Eastern religious, including an unprecedented three audiences with the Dalai Lama. His experience in the Orient was a much needed education for Merton as he began to reassess his own possibilities for his continuation in the contemplative life back home. Far from being indisputably drawn to the East, his roots were calling him back to the West. But it would not be the same there as it had been. There would of necessity need to be changes made in order to suit his new understanding of what he needed to accomplished. Ironically, he was never to return to Kentucky and the monastery at Gethsemani, but rather to end his days in Bangkok, accidentally electrocuted on December 10th, 1968. On that day he found peace from this life.



3. Last May I visited Gethsemane Abbey where Thomas Merton lived his life as a monk. I wanted the opportunity to see Thomas Merton's hermitage, where he wrote some of his greatest writings. I guess the image of the writer in me decided that I would be inspired by visiting the beloved private space of one of the twentieth century's most famous and influential spiritual writers. I'd be inspired to finish my novel, write a spiritual treatise or two, and it would all be due to my visit to Merton's hermitage. Far fetched? Perhaps, but you'd be surprised at the ideas that come to mind after driving from Boston to Bardstown, Kentucky, alone. Sixteen hours of driving spread over two days can produce all sorts of grand ideas. Well, the hermitage was in use and I wouldn't be able to visit it and since I was at the abbey for a retreat, the hermitage would probably have been a distraction. Anyone who has ever read Merton knows what he thought of distractions, so it was probably in keeping with the spirit of Merton's life and message that I didn't visit the hermitage, but something interesting did happen when I was visiting. I went for a walk and passed through the cemetery where the monks are buried. I wasn't paying all that much attention but I did look down and saw a simple white cross with the name Fr. Louis and the year 1968 on it. I was standing where Thomas Merton was buried. Suddenly a man I admired as a priest, writer, and person seemed more real and human which is what I believe gives Merton such an appeal to so many. He knew what the human heart was searching for, which is the appeal of his writings, yet he was not some sort of remote guru. He was human like everyone else and had his triumphs, but also his struggles.
   
   Thomas Merton's diaries are essential for understanding Merton. He kept journals throughout his lifetime, and many of his entries have been published. The earlier entries are somewhat pious and sanitized, due to his initial monastic fervor and the fact that his superiors were his final editors. Sometimes the superiors are accused of censoring, and Merton himself believes this from time to time, but it really wasn't censoring as we think of it, at least in the United States. He was allowed to write for the good of the Trappist order and the Abbey of Gethsemane, not for his own fulfillment, so those who asked him to write for this purpose did have the right to say what would and would not be for the good of the order. Yes they were too restrictive, and no doubt they deleted essential information that is now lost, but that was the reality of religious life at the time. As the rules became more relaxed, Merton's writings expressed more of his struggles, foibles, and the challenges he faced in life. The later journal entries are hardly the sanitized entries that make up THE SIGN OF JONAS. Brother Patrick Hart and Jonathan Montaldo have edited what remains of Merton's journals and the result is a seven volume set of Merton's most personal writings. THE INTIMATE MERTON contains excerpts from the seven volumes that give the reader a general idea of Merton's life from his point of view and give the readers a glimpse behind the great writer and spiritual figure.
   
   This particular volume arranges the materials chronologically and presents the material in the order in which it was written rather than piecing the entries together to form a biography. Some of the entries are mini-masterpieces, others are almost fragments, but anyone who has kept a journal knows that this is part of journaling.
   
   I do have one suggestion for readers who purchase this book. Make sure you have a basic outline of Merton's life available when reading this volume. The editors have decided to let Merton's writings stand on their own, but for people not familiar with Merton's life and writings, it's easy to get lost. There is very little biographical information in the book which can make the information a bit overwhelming. If the book contained a few paragraphs of commentary at the beginning of each section to situate the reader, it would be helpful, but even without the commentary, it's a great introduction to the journals of Thomas Merton.



4. The book `The Intimate Merton', edited by Brother Patrick Hart and Jonathan Montaldo, is a great encapsulation of the journals which Thomas Merton, monk, writer, activist and spiritual guide (I believe he would eschew the word leader, kept from the time he began considering a vocation (both as a monk and as a writer) to the time of his death nearly thirty years later.

   The book is broken into sections reflective of Merton's monastic life. Each section is composed of selections, representative and/or significant, from his regular daily journals. Merton actually kept voluminous journals (published in seven thick volumes), much of which served as a basis and self-reflective sounding board for his other writings. This book is a user-friendly spiritual autobiography, distilled from the wisdom gained over twenty-nine years of teaching, prayer, reflection, prayer, writing, prayer, activity, and yet more prayer.

   Merton was not (and still is not) universally loved, even by the church and monastic hierarchies who claim him as a shining example of one of their own. Merton's life is a quest for meaning, and quest for unity before God of all peoples, and a quest for love. These were not always in keeping with the practices of the church, which found itself more often than Merton cared for embroiled in political action in support of the state, or at least the status quo.

   Merton was a Trappist monk. The Trappists derive their name from la Trappe, the sole survivor of a reformed Cistercian order in France about the time of the Revolution. This order of Cistercians (white-robed monks) had fairly strict observances which included the usual monastic trappings of vows of chastity, stability, obedience, poverty -- and a regime of prayer and psalm recitals coupled with daily work and study that is not at all for the faint-hearted (or faint-spirited). It was to this order that Merton pledged himself, in his beginning search for meaning and fulfillment.

   `The great work of sunrise again today.
   The awful solemnity of it. The sacredness. Unbearable without prayer and worship. I mean unbearable if you really put everything aside and see what is happening! Many, no doubt, are vaguely aware that it is dawn, but they are protected from the solemnity of it by the neutralising worship of their own society, their own world, in which the sun no longer rises and sets.'

   Poetry in prose -- this passage, from the section on The Pivotal Years, reflects a searching nearing a conclusion, but still far from grasping, and far from complete. It also reflects the need for sharing, the drive toward caring, the simplest of things in the world, available to all, free of charge -- and most will never take possession.

   God is calling in the sunrise. Merton recognises the call. He wants to deliver this sunrise in a package to the world. But he cannot. This is Merton's endless frustration, and the drive to do more, while yet being, as he would say himself, selfish in wanting to grasp it for himself, too. His time in the Hermitage, a time during which he was removed even from the company of fellow monks -- reflects this duality of vocation in Merton. He recognises that in some ways, it is an escape, but other ways, a fulfillment.

   Even late in his life, after he was called away from his solitude at the Hermitage, because the world needed him, he was still humble and seeking. After nearly three decades of monastic practice and reflection on the level that Merton had done, one would expect a certain 'expertise' to have permeated his thinking. And yet, he would write:

   `I have to change the superficial ideas and judgments I have made about the contemplative religious life, the contemplative orders. They were silly and arbitrary and without faith.'

   This, on the basis of one retreat in December of 1967, with laypersons and clerics and monastics outside his Trappist order -- this is his conclusion, his resolute determination to not be boxed in, even by his own thinking. The true search can lead anywhere, even to the conclusion that one has been wrong all along.

   And yet, Merton was not wrong. There was value in each of his spiritual discoveries as he discovered them. They still resonate for all of us today.

   `Since Hayden Carruth's reprimand I have had more esteem for the crows around here, and I find, in fact, that we seem to get on much more peacefully. Two sat high in an oak beyond my gate as I walked on the brow of the hill at sunrise saying the Little Hours. They listened without protest to my singing of the antiphons. We are part of a menage, a liturgy, a fellowship of sorts.'

   Near the end of his life, Merton was becoming more and more one with all around him, with all of God's creation, with nature, with people, with friends and strangers. And yet, he missed his privacy, his time for personal reflection and solitude.

   `Everyone now knows where the hermitage is, and in May I am going to the convent of the Redwoods in California. Once I start traveling around, what hope will there be?'

   Merton had premonitions that 1968 was a year `that things are finally and inexorably spelling themselves out', prophetic indeed, for in the same year the world lost Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and Brother Thomas Merton. He never was able to reclaim the solitude, pouring himself out for his friends ('what greater love hath anyone...'), who he counted as the entire world.

   May Brother Thomas' journey enlighten your own.




5. One may wonder why another book on Thomas Merton, one of the most self-chronicled lives of the twentieth century, is needed, but The Intimate Merton serves a valuable purpose. Only academics and fanatical devotees of the famous writer and monk will have the time and interest to read all seven volumes of his personal journals. And yet, as this selection of entries from them demonstrates, Merton's journals are a treasury of autobiographical revelation, psychological honesty, and spiritual insight.
   
   Just a few of the more memorable entries justify the book. These include an hilarious account of Merton the non-driver taking a jeep for a spin, a beautiful description of a night watch as a dark night of the soul, and Merton's sober yet grateful meditations on his 50th birthday.
   
   Nevertheless, it is the sweep of years, the chronicle of a soul, that make these meditations most interesting. The Intimate Merton wisely focuses on the journal entries from the 1960s, material not covered by The Seven Storey Mountain and other earlier works. Thus we see a self-portrait of the older Merton wrestling with his need to be an individual versus his need to love and be loved, fitfully learning to accept his failures and to appreciate the gifts of others, and searching for his home in this world and beyond.
   
   Thomas Merton was a complicated, Thoreauvian figure who considered himself to be, among other things, an "amateur theologian." Yet an amateur is essentially a lover, and Merton, for all his faults and doubts, was certainly a lover of God. Other lovers of God will enjoy tracing his spiritual journey through these pages.

5 comments about John Wesley: A Biography.

1. This is an insightful, informative and consise Biography of a true man of God. John Wesley's life was one of hardship, suffering, and abstenance in his quest for perfection in God's eyes. Whether or not you agree with any or all of the fundamentals of Methodism, this book is well worth reading. The author gives equal attention to Wesley's Methodist cause, and the personal side of this oft times unsure and doubting soul.



2. Wesley as presented seemed two dimensional. I had a hard time 'getting traction' with this work, even though the volume is short and re-reading some or all of it would take little time.



3. I real eye opener to his personal development and relationships. A person heavy on character! Even for people familiar with the Methodist faith, there are surprises in store in the way he led his life.



4. If you need to learn about John Wesley but only have a little time to spare, then this is the biography to read! It is accurate and full of pleasant insights into this great and unforgettable Christian leader. I was only sorry that it wasn't a little longer because the author writes so beautifully!



5. This is not the type of Christian biography I generally care for. The facts are all there (I hope), but the author's psycho-analytical comments on Wesley's relationships with women and subtle (and often not-so-subtle) mocking of John Wesley's characteristics, beliefs, choices and friends served to undermine the historical narrative rather than to support it. I hesitated in giving this book a 3-star rating, because it is (sadly) the best biography currently available on John Wesley. To that end, if you are primarily interested in his life and the origins of the Methodist church, then you could consider this a 4 1/2-star book instead. However, if you are interested in Christian biography for the sake of strengthening both your understanding and your spiritual fervor, this may not be the book for you. I'd like to comment briefly on the distinctive areas that comprise (in my opinion) a good Christian biography.
   
   1) Historical Accuracy: As far as I can tell, the book sticks to the facts fairly well. If you have read Dallimore's biography of George Whitefield, you will notice that Tomkins' treatment of figures other than Wesley himself is somewhat lacking, but it is not the facts that cause the lack in this book. History-buffs will find what they are looking for here as long as they can distinguish between 21st century commentary and the true historical account. If anything, no one could accuse this biographer of candy-coating Wesley's life.
   
   2) Spiritual Character Development: Do we get to see into Wesley's heart and glimpse the passion for God that drove him forward? At times you almost feel like the writer has accomplished this, but he quickly follows it up with discouraging, mildly-sarcastic statements that tear that feeling away from you. This is particularly true in his insistence on contrasting Wesley's characteristics in early, mid and late life.
   The most disturbing point for me was in the discussion of Wesley's later life. A rather depressive segment from a letter written to his brother Charles is quoted and taken as formative for Wesley's outlook through his entire life. Any student of Christian history knows that most (but not all) great evangelists suffer from some form of depression. Luther, Spurgeon, Lloyd-Jones, etc.--all of these men suffered at times from depressed spirits as a result of the great labor they put forth in declaring the word of God. At this point the author makes you feel as though everything he's reported about Wesley's great evangelistic success and powerful preaching has been a fraud. Overall a very disappointing portion of the book.
   
   3) Theology: The author brings out Wesley's theology and its development with some degree of accuracy. I get the distinct feeling, however, that the lack of flow between Wesley's earlier convictions and later convictions was due to the authors own lack of theological understanding (or perhaps conviction is a better word). He perpetually seems to be condemning Wesley's doctrine of Christian Perfection and at one point agrees with the conclusion that salvation is by faith AND works while deriding Wesley's views on the matter.
   
   4) The Author: I guess, when it comes down to it, this is really where the book falls short. Tomkins doesn't seem to have a firm grasp on Christian theology, much less Wesley's theology. He takes great delight in applying Freudian psycho-analysis to Wesley's varied female relationships, seems overly skeptical of Wesley's conversion, comments sarcastically on many of Wesley's decisions and repeatedly suggests (according to human wisdom and modern psychology) how Wesley might have better managed his life and doctrine.
   
   Only in the chapter on his death and heritage is Wesley given much credit at all. I would recommend this book to history-minded persons, but could not in good conscience recommend it to sincere evangelicals (particularly those of the Calvinist persuasion). John Wesley is more muddled in my mind after reading this book than he was before. I only hope the truth lies other than where Tomkins would allow it to rest.

3 comments about The Spiritual Secret of Hudson Taylor.

1. This book was powerful. It was well-written and captured the pioneering spirit of Hudson Taylor. I also appreciated how this autobiography captured firsthand the impressions that Dr. Taylor made on others. This book was truly inspiring - especially the sections where it chronicles Taylor's inner struggles of finding his joy and sufficiency in Christ, the many instances when God answered his prayers during times of his greatest need, and his devotion to his family.



2. I read this book and found it inspiring and helpful. I particularly found the secret that Hudson Taylor speaks of relevant to transforming and deepening immensely my own walk with God. Not only I, but years ago my father's life was dramatically changed as he was inspired to have faith in the God who took care of Hudson Taylor as a missionary in China. After reading this book my father was able to put confidence in the Lord to take care of him as he stepped out into full time Christian service. (Hudson Taylor relied on God to provide for all of his needs and would not tell others what his financial needs were. God was faithful to meet all of Taylor's needs as well as the missionary society he founded. But there is far more in this book than that).

   If you are looking for a deeper, intimate walk with God then read this book. Or if you struggle with living faithfully, joyfully and consistently for the Lord then read this book. The spiritual transformation that occured to Hudson Taylor took place after years of service on the mission field. Many Christians, like Hudson Taylor did, will benefit to find the secret of that transformation. I did.




3. A book for missionaries, which indeed we all are for Christ. This is a thrilling true story of one man's relationship to our Lord and what his life becomes in service to Him. All those who have dedicated their lives to Christ can learn a lot about living out the faith and what God can do when you put your entire being into His loving hands. What this man, Hudson Taylor, does in China, we have assurance that God also wants to do in our lives even right where we are. A blessing for the indivual reader, and subsequently for those around, affected by the ministry inspired.

5 comments about A Grief Unveiled: One Father's Journey Through the Loss of a Child.

1. I am a Catholic priest, and I stumbled across this book on Amazon while searching for bereavement resources for a family that had just lost a child. In it, a devout Catholic father graphically walks you through his family's experience of suddenly losing his seven year old son. It is heart wrenching, deeply moving, and beautifully inspirational. It's a relatively short book, and easy enough to read, but the average reader may be shocked by the extraordinary faith of the author and his family. It is loaded with solid orthodox Catholic teachings, without minimizing or taking away any of the real pain that they suffered. It is definitely one of the greatest pastoral resources I have ever encountered. Highly recommended for clergy, bereaved individuals and families, and support groups.



2. We just lost our 13 year old daughter suddenly almost eight weeks ago today. Still awaiting to hear from the medical examiner what caused her untimely death. She collapsed after a snow shoe trek at Environmental Camp in the White Mountains of NH.
   
   I have bought a number of books during these painful weeks, and this book was the only book that I felt I could have written - at least the first few chapters. It was like what we experienced was written down and black and white. He describes everything perfectly.
   
   I loved the book because it gave me great comfort that we WILL feel joy one day ... we don't know, nor can we even begin to think we will ever feel joy again.
   
   One of my favorite lines in the book was ...
   
   Our friends brought us God's presence and love. They did not solve our problems, as if grief we a problem to be solved. They did not dispense pious phrases. Our friends allowed us to be in as much pain as we were in and did not trivialize it by trying to move us beyond it ....
   
   Our friends, family, community, were a blessing from God during the darkest days of our lives and they continue to be. This book is such a comfort to anyone who has lost anyone ... or even more importantly for people who want to know how to help people like us who belong to this `club' ... it is a win/win for anyone reading it. I read it in two days!!!



3. The specific circumstances of our son's death and his age were different than Mr. Floyd's child. The feelings and the pain were not. These events test you and your relationship with God as Mr. Floyd writes and he is on the mark.
   I have bought this book for others, who have lost a child or loved one.



4. This book brought healing to me that I could not imagine would ever come. I pray blessings over Mr. Lloyd and his family for being so honest and open about his son's death. I lost my 11 month old son to a very rare infection in July 1999. This was a very sudden death, as we found him dead in his crib. I highlighted and still read over this book and each time, I am healed even more. THANK YOU, THANK YOU Mr. Lloyd for teaching me that it's o.k. to be brutally honest before God- you showed me that that is when the healing truly comes. Everyone should read this book.



5. This book is the attempt of one father to come to terms with the anguish, the heart-break, the devastation, and the questions that arise when tragedy strikes. Others books have attempted the same. The great English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote a book entitled The Problem of Pain, exploring these difficult questions. It is interesting to compare it with a book he wrote later, after his wife died of cancer. His A Grief Observed does not so much refute what he wrote earlier, but in many ways goes far beyond it.

   A theoretical and theological reflection of suffering is one thing. A first-hand personal account is another. A Grief Unveiled is of the second type. Not that theological and biblical reflection is absent. But this is the very personal and very moving account of how one father copes with the worst pain imaginable, moments after the event, hours after, days after, months after, and years after. What does the journey of grief look like from the inside? This volume is an unforgettable account of one long and painful trip through grief.

   For anyone who has experienced any comparable tragedy, the book will echo similar thoughts and emotions, and will bring forth many tears. The book does not over-sentimentalize, but neither does it over-spiritualize. It is brutally honest and totally real.

   Anyone who suffers will resonate with these moving chapters. Yet it is not just a book about sorrow, grief and pain. It is also a book about hope, joy and victory. It is the story of a radiant faith; a faith that takes a terrible hammering, but a faith the survives and grows and triumphs. But it is triumphant faith because it has as its object a triumphant God. Indeed, God is the real subject of this book in many ways. It is only because of the great love, grace and mercy of God that the Floyds can make it through the valley of the shadow of death.

   The opening chapters are the most painful. Descriptions of the accident. Cradling a dying boy. The nervous wait at the hospital. The bad news from the doctor. Watching a lifeless boy in a casket, bandages over the eyes, because the organs were donated. The burial. The days immediately thereafter.

   The grief seems unbearable. But with time comes some relief. The hole in the soul is always there. It will never disappear. But the intense pain and grief slowly, and surely, begin to subside. And through it all, one believer's relationship with his God is sorely tested, but in the end, vindicated. And with it comes the spiritual understanding that comes with the suffering, the realization that the God we serve is a suffering God.

   God the Father knows all about suffering. He too lost a son in tragic circumstances. And Mary, the mother of Jesus, also knows the heartbreak of losing a beloved son. But as Floyd makes quite clear, Good Friday is followed by Easter Sunday. John-Paul is not dead, but alive, waiting for the glorious reunion that will one day take place. The promise of the resurrection is the believer's hope. And the resurrection of Jesus is the guarantee that we too will one day be raised.

   But it works both ways, There can be no Easter without Calvary. Suffering is the path chosen by Christ, and it is the path his followers must also accept. The hard questions may never fully be answered. But the ultimate answer to the problem of suffering and evil is not a proposition but a person. Jesus, who is acquainted with grief and familiar with sorrow, is the only one who can offer comfort and hope to those who suffer.

   If God can take the most horrible and painful event in human history, the cross, and turn it into the most glorious and blessed of events, then there is hope for us as well. Suffering can be redeemed. It can make us more like the one who knows all about suffering.

   This book is a testament to the way the death of one man two thousand years ago becomes the basis of hope for everyone today. This powerful story will help those who are suffering to make it through. And it will help all of us to get our priorities a little more straight, and help us refocus our attention on what is truly important and of value in life.