Contemplation and Midlife Crisis: Examples from Classical and Contemporary Spirituality - Softcover

Carfagna, Rosemarie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0809144980 ISBN 13: 9780809144983

Publisher: Paulist Pr, 2008

Synopsis

The experience of crisis, especially midlife crisis, is universal. In this inspirational book Rosemarie Cafagna takes a new approach to crisis by exploring it from the human perspective, in particular, its connection to contemplative prayer. She explores the experience of contemplation using descriptions from the field of spirituality and from classical spiritual literature. In particular she shows the correlation between the two experiences by highlighting critical moments in the lives of historical figures such as Augustine, Ignatius, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, as well as contemporary figures such as Henri Nouwen, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Kathleen Norris, C.S. Lewis, Sue Monk Kidd, and Gerald May.

The book is especially encouraging to those who are in midlife crisis and who fear that God is absent by showing comparisons between the critical moment and the contemplative moment, and by offering an affirmative way of responding to the multiple crises that beset the middle years of life. It works toward alleviating anxiety, and gives ground for hope to faithful people who are in midlife crisis by providing a spiritual context in which to understand their experience. In recognizing the universality of crisis, and the possibility of its positive resolution, readers will see the hand of the loving God who sustains us through absolutely everything.

About this title

About the Author

Rosemarie Carfagna, OSU, is an Ursuline sister from Cleveland, Ohio. She teaches at Ursuline College and John Carroll University. She has taught courses in Spirituality for the Christian Spirituality Program at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and for St. Mary Seminary in Cleveland. She supervises interns in the Ignatian Spirituality Institute at John Carroll University and is involved in spiritual direction and retreat work.

Edition details

• Publisher: Paulist Pr
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809144980
• ISBN 13: 9780809144983
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 179