Bøger af Sean D Sammon Fms

Marcellin Champagnat had a practical mind. This trait was evident throughout his life. He also had a strong will; it made him a determined and persistent leader. These qualities were great gifts. No doubt, at times, they could likewise be maddening. Like all of us, the future saint had those areas in his life where he fell short of the ideal. He is a saint not by his own merit, but rather because he allowed God's grace into his heart, where it took root and flourished. Marcellin Champagnat took seriously the Good News of Jesus Christ. He was a holy man because he lived his ordinary life exceptionally well, and did ordinary things with extraordinary love. Having discovered the joy of the gospel and letting it transform him, he wanted to share with other, particularly the young, all that he had seen and heard. "To love God," Marcellin often said, "to love God and to labor to make God known and loved--this is what a brother's life should be." With these few words, the future saint painted his own portrait and recounted his own story. His was a heart that knew no bounds.

Autumn is a bittersweet time. Marked by signs of death as well as the fullness of life, it is the season that I most associate with midlife. For both autumn and the middle years include a time of harvest, of plenitude; the two are also marked by evident changes and a test of faith. Regardless of our chosen way of life, more often than not, midlife is a time for second thoughts, for facing limited in ourselves and others, for embracing the consequences of choices made earlier in life. Likewise, it is also a time for giving thanks, for living a life enriched by experience, for appreciating the gift of deeper self-understanding and the rewards that come with self-transcendence. These years provide you and me with an opportunity to attend to those parts of ourselves that were neglected or inhibited during the earlier years of life. An perhaps, for the first time, some of us have a chance to begin to make that change of heart about which we have spoken so often and for which so many of us continue to say that we long. Never equate the middle years with the word "decline." For if we live them well, many years hence we will be able to look back on this time in life and realize that it might have been the moment when you and I were at our best: creative, productive and coming to know ourselves and our God as if for the very first time.

Approximately 76 million Americans have been exposed to some form of alcoholism within their family; of that number, as many as 27 million are children. While most children of alcoholics (CoAs) remain invisible, a disproportionate number also enter the criminal justice system, courts, prisons, mental health facilities, Employee Assistance Programs, and are referred to school authorities. Alcoholism is a family affair. Every member suffers its effects. In time, all become as sick as the addicted person. CoAs adapt to the chaos and inconsistency in their families by denying their feelings. Many also develop these characteristics: an inability to trust, an overdeveloped sense of responsibility, an addiction to excitement, and fears of abandonment, conflict, loss of control. Priests and men and women religious who grew up with chemically dependent parents also can remember their family's pain. In later years many realize that entering the seminary or formation center gave them some distance from the problems at home. Similar to their fellow ACoAs, they often suffer from feelings of isolation, depression, shame, and experience low self-esteem as well as difficulty maintaining satisfying relationships.This book, written for adult children of alcoholics (ACoAs) and those who know and care about them, is a fully revised and updated text of an earlier edition of Alcoholism's Children: ACoAs in Priesthood and Religious Life. It provides a simple and straightforward explanation of the difficulties ACoAs face and what they must do to recover. Like its predecessor, the book begins by offering an overview of the disease of alcoholism and its progression. The text then moves on to explore the impact that this disease has on each member of the family and the family as a whole. Finally, the process of intervention and the journey of recovery are discussed. The book does not exhaust conversation about alcoholism or its children; rather, it tells briefly the story of a potentially fatal disease that affects millions of Americans and their families. The text also points out that recovery from alcoholism and its legacy is possible, today perhaps more so than ever before. If you are a child from an alcoholic family, reading this book may help convince you of the wisdom of this paradox: the disease that you once thought might take your life can be the very thing that makes it worth living.

From the perspective of developmental psychology, this book examines human sexuality and celibate chastity over the course of a lifetime. Issues such as identity, intimacy, relationships, genital, gender, and sex role identity, and sexual orientation are explored as well as the spiritual foundation upon which celibate chastity must rest. The author aims to help men and women who have embraced a life of celibate chastity to understand better this way of being a sexual person. The book, though, has a much wider audience than Catholic priests and men and women religious. People of all faiths, living the single life, may feel called to just such a lifestyle. The ideas presented in this book will enrich their reflection about this important dimension of their life and add a significant new contribution to today's ongoing conversation about the topic.