ministry of words

Beautiful, honest, glorious, profane, searingly honest, and extraordinary confession of faith.

An uncategorisable book that explores the grinding and purifying relationship between the harshness of the natural world and the monastic temperament, all interwoven with the slow dying of the author's mother. Unmissable.

A beautiful, generous and compassionate exploration of the revelation of God to a pre-Christian time, expounded with great warmth and humility by a big-hearted and broad-minded Orthodox monk. A gospel interpretation is set side-by-side with a lucid translation of the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu. Unique, in my view.

"The oldest of our develoment metaphors is the 'journey.' Soulcraft is a challenging invitation to the journey - full of wisdom, syncretic insights, and openings to the greater consciousness. As Nietzsche observed, before one takes the journey one must first find the lantern. Soulcraft is a lantern. "  James Hollis PhD.

"I never met anyone who could tell a better story. Listening to Joseph Campbell talk of primal societies, I was transported to the wide plains under the great dome of the open sky, or to the forest dense, beneath a canopy of trees, and I began to understand how the voices of the gods spoke from the wind and the thunder, and the spirit of God flowed in every mountain stream, and the whole earth bloomed as a sacred place - the realm of mythic imagination."  Bill Moyers

"A rare synthesis of philosophy, poetry and spirituality...a powerful and life-transforming experience for those who read it."  Deepak Chopra

Simple, though not easy, this practice is a remarkable thing to begin, and an essential part of a spiritual practice based in compassion. It helps to develop an awareness centred in love, and expands the heart way beyond any slef-imposed or cultural conditioning.

Margaret Guenther expands on the three elements she considers essential to the role of a spiritual director: hospitality, teaching and midwifery. It is immensely practical and grounded, wise and compassionate.

Karen Armstrong is a genius, interpreting the various accounts of the story of God with forensic clarity but with a warmth that is inescapable. Read anything at all by her - really!

More and more of us are drawn to the Celtic flavour of spirituality, and Christianity in particular, with its sense of the sacred existing in all things and creatures. Newell is a lovel, gently writer, and brings a new insight and impetus to the role of Christianity for a new generation of people who recognise the need for harmony between man and creation.

Henri Nouwen was both a thinker and a practitioner of the compassion heart of his faith. Here he presents a vision of ministry that eschews the pomposity of platforms and preaching, and gets down into the brokenness of real people, including himself, where true compassion starts to emerge.

Thomas Moore, former monk and now a career psychotherapist in private practice, writes lucidly and profundly about how to find meaning from within the challenges that life presents to us.

Now's the time for a Kindle. Great gift, too!

My gift to my daughter for her 14th birthday.