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A New Day
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by:
ISBN:
0-7414-6272-9
©2011
Price:
$13.95
Book Size:
5.5'' x 8.5''
, 222 pages
Category/Subject:
RELIGION / General
Spirituality and Jungian depth psychology combine to show what it means to cooperate with grace, to start fresh in each moment leading, finally, to permanent union with God on The Last Day.
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Abstract:
A New Day combines spirituality and depth psychology to provide a better understanding of what it means to cooperate with grace, to start fresh each moment knowing “the former things have passed away” leading, finally, to permanent union with God on The Last Day. By willingly cooperating with grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit man harnesses the energies of love for God, maximizing human potential for good. By converting evil into good, man increasingly experiences the fruits of the Holy Spirit, lives the Beatitudes, progresses in the natural virtues, grows in wholeness and maturity, and learns to discern God’s will.
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Customer Reviews
A New Day, an important read
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05/03/2011
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Reviewer:
Rebecca S
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Over the years, I have been interested in spiritual and psychological books. Father Chester Michael’s work has been the pinnacle of my personal and spiritual life. By reading "A New Day" I learned much.
God wants every day to be a good day; however, institutional evil (possessions, pleasure, power, P…….) infiltrates American society and affects each of our days. Obsessive preoccupation with pride, conceit, vanity, addiction, greed, gluttony, lust, sloth, envy, and evil are barriers to God’s love and grace. If overcome, these can be turned into a powerful force of love. We cannot attain wholeness without a loving personal relationship with God.
Remedies to evil include: prayer, fasting, and alms-giving. While striving to become more Christ-like and progressing toward the kingdom of God, eventually we will be separated forever from all evil. God’s promise to make ‘all things new’ will surely be fulfilled. Unselfish love can be achieved by placing God and others ahead of one’s own desires; however, we must confront evil wherever it is found in a non-violent way which may result in hatred and opposition. While choosing and doing the will of God, expect open conflict with the enemy. “The world has hated them/Christians because they are not of this world even as I am not of the world. “ (J. 17:14).
If we are recipients of true unselfish love we have a duty to share it with those not so blessed, such as the neglected and hardened. Even if those hostile to God cause us much suffering, we must continue to love, pray, and help them transform their energy from hate to love. Courage and love can overcome fear and lead to a loving, secure, peaceful society absent of violence.
By letting go of things, we suffer through many deaths and enjoy many resurrections until maturity and sanctity is reached. Faith means the acceptance of God and His will as the guiding light of our life. God wishes all men to be saved and to know the truth. Hope brings joy, peace, confidence, and courage as we struggle with day to day problems. God promises to take care of us through these conflicts and to give us the grace we need to reach the kingdom on the Last Day.
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A Book of Hope
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05/09/2011
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Reviewer:
Elaine Guidry
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A New Day/Msgr. Chester Michael
Review by Elaine Guidry
A New Day draws the connection between Jungian psychology and faith-filled Christian life. The foundational truth in the book is the new day of Grace given us every day since the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. If one appropriated this grace he or she can let go of personal failures and those of others and live a new and joyful life. This is a book of hope.
Msgr. Michael shows us God’s nature as powerful, tender, just and merciful, encompassing, transcending and ultimately completing all feminine and masculine attributes, a God who is so much greater than we can totally grasp!
Msgr. Michael stresses the importance of openness to the Holy Spirit and his gifts. In each chapter the reader is encouraged to discern God’s activity in his or her life and grow in the realization that God has provided everything for us in His grace. We learn that living a balanced and fruitful life is the result of responding to God’s personal call to build the Kingdom of God on earth in joyful anticipation of the Return of the Lord Jesus in Glory at the end of this age
Thinking in terms of a first, second and third eon helps us to realize the New Day of Grace in our lives, the urgency of taking hold of the life God has given us in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, in order to arise in God’s grace for his purposes - joyfully, hopefully, humbly and gratefully, together with all the saints who have gone before us and the saints on earth.
This book is refreshing to mind and spirit. A book to read and re-read.
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We are called to love
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06/23/2011
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Reviewer:
Susan Hagen
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This book offers a view of God’s plans for the world and our role in those plans. In this time in history, in the world as it is now, we are called to love. We are called to bring more of God’s love and grace into the world. All of this is to be done while looking forward to the world that is to come, the third aeon, the time of God’s completion of his plan for the world. There are many obstacles to our growing in love and grace. The book describes many of the helps available to us, both through the sacraments and the working of the Holy Spirit, as we seek to do God’s will and grow in his service.
The book describes various kinds of love, both human and divine, love for ourselves, our friends and neighbors, humankind as a whole and love for God himself. It discusses the kind of experiences that help us to grow in these kinds of love and the kinds of experiences that can derail our growth in love. It discusses the tasks a person must master to attain maturity in terms described by C. G. Jung. The tasks are authenticity, or self-knowledge and honesty; significance, or destiny and purpose; transparency, or openness to other people; solidarity, or our sense of oneness with others.
This kind of maturity is essential to developing our ability to love. Our faith can only grow in proportion to our increase in maturity.
The pitfalls to the process are described in terms of the traditional ‘deadly sins’ and the inordinate love of possessions, pleasure and power. The traditional remedies of prayer, fasting and almsgiving are prescribed and discussed. Fr. Michael encourages us to reflect upon and practice the traditional natural virtues.
I like very much the discussion of the liturgy and the liturgical year. I like the vision of how the liturgy makes the whole of salvation history available to us now. I also found the suggestions about meditating on Jesus, his nature, his life and actions, his relationships, very helpful. This chapter discusses how this kind of meditation will help us grow in our love and longing for union with God. I also like the idea of using the listed ‘fruits of the Holy Spirit’ as a checklist to measure our spiritual growth. An increase in one or more of these can serve as an indication that we are progressing in our path.
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