| Title:
O Blessed Night!
Authors: Francis Kelly Nemeck, OMI & Marie Theresa Coombs, Hermit ISBN: 0-8189-0587-5 Paperback: xx + 184 pp. Price: $11.95 + shipping To Order call: 1 800-343-ALBA (2522) Please have your Master, Visa or American Express card ready. To order online click here. |
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This book provides the "Theological Underpinnings for Recovery from Addiction, Co-dependency and Attachment" by embracing the cross they represent as opposed to trying to avoid pain at any cost. St. John of the Cross and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin both drank passionately from the chalice of suffering in their own lives, and then wrote insightfully on the providential and transforming effect of working through the dark night of suffering wherein -- through faith -- the Lord is encountered beyond the pain, not in spite of it. Recovery is a process of getting in touch with and accepting both one's human reality and the Reality of a Power greater than oneself. In that perspective pain can be faced peacefully and endured with joy. And the darkness can become for the one who suffers a truly Blessed Night! |
Francis Kelly Nemeck, OMI, received a doctorate in spirituality from
Les Facultes Catholiques de Lyons in France and is presently the Director of Lebh Shomea, a
contemplative eremitical House of Prayer in the desert region of South Texas.
Marie Theresa Coombs, Hermit received a Masters in Theological Studies from the Oblate
School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas. Contemplatives and spiritual directors, both have authored
or co-authored a dozen titles in the area of Christian spirituality.
Reviews"A penetrating and uplifting look at two men of the cloth (St. John of the Cross [1542-1591] and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin [1881-1955]) through their recovery from addiction, co-dependency and attachments. The authors examine human suffering and pain from the point of view of paradox: 'It is when we are weakest that we are stongest. There is a positive and constructive value inherent in evil.' John of the Cross died at age 49 of osteomyelitis and gangrene, but left behind writings which describe the love-purge powers which broke his addiction. Teilhard, on the other hand, borrowed from his healthy relationships with self, creation and God, and affirmed his conviction that every person is called to become a realist. A masterpiece of research, writing and understanding." --The Book Reader "This book is a valuable contribution to the material that recognized the links and commonality between a traditional contemplative spirituality and the 12-step program for addicts. Here is some help for those recovering from addiction, co-dependency and attachment (that includes us all) based on the insights of St. John of the Cross and Teilhard de Chardin." --Monos "This is a challenging book, because the great spiritual writers are challenging. For Nemeck and Coombs, addiction can be a grace -- a signal that our lives need changing, and that created things cannot satisfy our needs... [and] the misery we cause ourselves and others, the pain we undergo from both within and without -- in other words, all our human suffering -- can become the matrix not only of recovery and new life, but also of an entirely new creation and of transformation in God." --Cecelia McGowan in Spiritual Life "This book approaches the subject of pain and suffering as a necessary passage on the way to inner freedom. The image of the "Blessed Night" reminds us of the paradox that it is when we are weakest that we are the strongest. The first section of the book summarizes the concepts of addiction, co-dependency and attachment. The second section presents selected theology from St. John of the Cross. In the third section, the perspective of Teilhard de Chardin is presented. The flavor of the book is an unusual blend of the scholarly and the spiritual, which mirrors the unusual background of the authors. Recommended!" --Janet V. Addison of St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Church and Synagogue Libraries
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