Tools Matter for Practicing the Spiritual Life - Softcover

Funk, Mary Margaret

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826416551 ISBN 13: 9780826416551

Publisher: Continuum, 2004

Synopsis

Funk turns to the wisdom of the desert fathers for the means of removing obstacles to spiritual growth, which include thoughts of food, sex, possessions, anger, dejection, and pride, among other preoccupations. Redirecting thought away from such weeds in the garden of the spirit can lead to a greater awareness of God. This somewhat Zen-like method to mental discipline may seem impossible at first, Funk admits, but those who succeed at it are rewarded with a liberating experience as they come to observe and control individual thought processes. Drawing on the writings of the fifth-century monk John Cassian, Funk goes on to explore deeply using such tools as memory, imagination, and rational thinking—tools right out of early Christianity—to work on inner healing. She also explains how other positive tools, such as ceaseless prayer, manual labor, and isolation, may lead to uncluttering the mind and purifying the heart.

About this title

About the Author:

Mary Margaret Funk is a Benedictine nun of Our Lady of Grace Monastery, Beech Grove, Indiana, USA. From 1994 through 2004, she served as executive director of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, which fosters dialogue among monastics of the world's religions. In addition to her books Thoughts Matter, Tools Matter, Humility Matters, Islam Is, and Into the Depths, chapters by her have appeared in The Gethsemani Encounter, Benedict's Dharma, Purity of Heart, and Transforming Suffering. Currently she maintains her web page, megfunk.com, to provide further support for her readers.

Review:

"Worthy guidance for contemplative spiritual seekers."—Booklist "an excellent place for one to begin spiritual renewal"—Catholic News Service "In [Tools Matter, Mary Margaret Funk] discusses the tools needed to advance in the Christian Life.... Her Negative tools come from the monastic tradition: guarding the heart, watchfulness of thoughts, fasting, dreams, adn repentance. Her positive tools: ceaseless prayer, manual labor, the cell, vigils, manifestation of thoughts. There are, in addition, social tools: humility, ministry, and the common table....Funk shows how a person might borrow one form of spirituality in order to enrish another....This is a rich work. Funk, like the householder of the Gosepl, is able to draw out both old things and new."—Commonweal

About this edition

• Publisher: Continuum
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0826416551
• ISBN 13: 9780826416551
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176