Read Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging Online
Authors: Brennan Manning
Tags: #Christian Life, #Spiritual Growth, #Christianity, #God, #Grace, #Love
Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging (20 page)
7: The Recovery of Passion
[1]
Thomas Moore,
Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life
(San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 1992), 200.
[2]
Joachim Jeremias,
The Parables of Jesus
(New York: Scribner, 1970), 84.
[3]
Associated Press, “Powerball Winner Hiding Out, Planning Charitable Gifts,”
Seattle Times
, July 11, 1993.
[4]
Jeffrey D. Imbach,
The Recovery of Love: Christian Mysticism and the Addictive Society
(New York: Crossroad, 1992), 134.
[5]
John Shea,
Starlight: Beholding the Christmas Miracle All Year Long
(New York: Crossroad, 1993), 115–117. This story, courtesy of Reuben Gold and the Hasidic tradition, was drastically reworked by Shea. The latter’s early works,
Stories of Faith
and
Stories of God
, are a treasure trove of modern parables coupled with a brilliant analysis of the power of storytelling.
[6]
Beatrice Bruteau,
Radical Optimism: Rooting Ourselves in Reality
(New York: Crossroad, 1993), 99. She is the founder of a school of prayer in Pfafftown, North Carolina, and a trustworthy guide to contemplative consciousness.
[7]
Robert J. Wicks,
Touching the Holy: Ordinariness, Self-Esteem, and Friendship
(Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1992), 14. Wicks cites these words of Lonergan, which radically affirm that every authentic religious experience is an encounter with infinite Love.
[8]
“Introduction to Saint John” in
The Jerusalem Bible
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966), 144.
[9]
Brennan Manning,
Lion and Lamb: The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus
(Old Tappan, NJ: Revell/Chosen, 1986), 129–130. Now available through Baker (Grand Rapids, MI). Quoting from one’s own previously published works is a desperate measure, but sales are slipping and I need a pair of sandals.
[10]
William Barry,
God’s Passionate Desire and Our Response
(Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1993), 33. Quoting from Donne’s
Holy Sonnets
, 14.
[11]
Raymond Brown,
The Churches the Apostles Left Behind
(New York/Ramsey: Paulist, 1984), 93. A very pastoral book with a strong ecumenical flavor that examines the strengths and weaknesses of the various New Testament churches. His careful analysis has luminous insights and vital relevance for contemporary church life.
[12]
Henri Nouwen,
In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership
(New York: Crossroad, 1989), 42. An illuminating and inspiring study of leadership in the church based on biblical criteria.
[13]
Brown, 97.
[14]
Thomas J. Tyrell,
Urgent Longings: Reflections on the Experience of Infatuation, Human Intimacy, and Contemplative Love
(Whitinsville, MA: Affirmation Books, 1980), 17.
8: Fortitude and Fantasy
[1]
Anthony De Mello,
The Way to Love: Meditations for Life
(New York: Doubleday, 1991), 63–64.
[2]
Peter G. van Breeman,
Called by Name
(Denville, NJ: Dimension Books, 1976), 88.
[3]
Søren Kierkegaard, quoted by van Breeman, 39.
[4]
Johannes B. Metz,
Poverty of Spirit
(New York/Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1968), 39–40. This fifty-three page spiritual classic, in its umpteenth printing, captures in words of compelling beauty and insight the key message of the gospel: Our great human possibilities are realized only through our radical dependence on God, our poverty of spirit.
[5]
Johannes B. Metz,
Poverty of Spirit
(Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1998), 38.
[6]
Metz (1968 ed.), 39.
[7]
Nicholas Harnan,
The Heart’s Journey Home
(Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1992), 132–133.
[8]
Beatrice Bruteau,
Radical Optimism: Rooting Ourselves in Reality
(New York: Crossroad, 1993), 95.
[9]
Sebastian Moore,
The Fire and the Rose Are One
(New York: Seabury Press, 1980), 14. In three dense and brilliant works, including
Let This Mind Be in You
and
The Crucified Jesus Is No Stranger
, Moore, a monk of Downside Abbey, England, and frequent lecturer in the States, develops the theme of the reconciliation of all things in Christ.
[10]
Simon Tugwell,
The Beatitudes: Soundings in Christian Tradition
(Springfield, IL: Templegate Publishers, 1980), 54–55.
[11]
Maurice Blondel, quoted in
Jesus: The Man and the Myth
by James Mackey (New York: Paulist, 1979), 148. Quoted in an earlier work of mine,
A Glimpse of Jesus: The Stranger to Self-Hatred
.
[12]
Yves Congar, quoted by Avery Dulles in
Models of Revelation
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983), 161.
[13]
Eugene Kennedy,
The Choice to Be Human: Jesus Alive in the Gospel of Matthew
(New York: Doubleday, 1985), 117.
[14]
Edward Schillebeeckx,
For the Sake of the Gospel
(New York: Crossroad, 1992), 28.
[15]
15. Walter Burghardt,
Tell the Next Generation: Homilies and Near Homilies
(New York: Paulist, 1980), 315.
[16]
Iris Murdoch,
The Nice and the Good
(New York: Penguin Books, 1978), 315.
[17]
William Johnston,
Being in Love: The Practice of Christian Prayer
(San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1989), 99.
9: The Rabbi’s Heartbeat
[1]
Eugene Peterson,
Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John and the Praying Imagination
(New York: Harper & Row, 1989), 17.
[2]
John Shea,
An Experience Named Spirit
(Chicago, IL: Thomas More Press, 1986), 166. Here I have appropriated Shea’s words about the rejected heart and applied them to the cynical heart, believing they are essentially the same.
[3]
H. H. Price,
Belief
(London: Allen and Unwin, 1969), 40. Quoted in H. A. Williams’s
True Resurrection
(London: Mitchell Begley Limited, 1972).
[4]
Viktor Frankl,
Psychotherapy and Existentialism: Selected Papers on Logotherapy
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967), 9.
[5]
Eugene Kennedy,
The Choice to Be Human: Jesus Alive in the Gospel of Matthew
(New York: Doubleday, 1985), 14.
[6]
Sebastian Moore,
The Crucified Jesus Is No Stranger
(Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1977), 35.
[7]
Sebastian Moore, 37.
[8]
Sebastian Moore, 37.
[9]
John Cobb,
The Structure of Christian Existence
(Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1968), 135. Quoted by Shea, 220.
[10]
H. A. Williams,
True Resurrection
(London: Mitchell Begley Limited, 1972), 157.
[11]
James K. Baxter,
Jerusalem Daybook
(Wellington, New Zealand: Price, Milburn and Co., 1971), 2. I rewrote the story in certain places. None of the changes altered the meaning of the story.
[12]
Thomas Moore,
Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life
(San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 1992), 263.
[13]
Thomas Moore, 112.
[14]
Sebastian Moore, 99.
[15]
Sebastian Moore, 100.
[16]
Schalom Ben-Chorin, quoted by Hans Küng in
The Church
(New York: Sheed and Ward, 1968), 149.
[17]
I enthusiastically recommend three books that offer helpful and practical recommendations for developing and sustaining the awareness of present risenness: The time-honored classic by Brother Lawrence
—
The Practice of the Presence of God
—and two more recent works
—
The Awakened Heart: Opening Yourself to the Love You Need
by Gerald G. May (HarperOne) and
Radical Optimism: Rooting Ourselves in Reality
by Beatrice Bruteau (Crossroad).
[18]
Donald Gray,
Jesus: the Way to Freedom
(Winona, MN: St. Mary’s Press, 1979), 69.
[19]
Jürgen Moltmann,
The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God
(Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 1993), 23. Quoted by Alan Jones in
Soul Making: The Desert Way of Spirituality
(Harper & Row, 1985).
Internalizing the Book: Guide for Group Study
[1]
Eugene Kennedy,
The Choice to Be Human: Jesus Alive in the Gospel of Matthew
(New York: Doubleday, 1985), 14.
About the Author
In the springtime of Depression-era New York City,
B
RENNAN
M
ANNING
—christened Richard Francis Xavier
—was born to Emmett and Amy Manning. He grew up in Brooklyn along with his brother, Robert, and sister, Geraldine. After graduating from high school and attending St. John’s University (Queens, New York) for two years, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and was sent overseas to fight in the Korean War.
Upon his return, Brennan began a program in journalism at the University of Missouri. But he departed after a semester, restlessly searching for something “more” in life. “Maybe the something ‘more’ is God,” an advisor had suggested, triggering Brennan’s enrollment in a Catholic seminary in Loretto, Pennsylvania.
In February 1956, while Brennan was meditating on the Stations of the Cross, a powerful experience of the personal love of Jesus Christ sealed the call of God on his life. “At that moment,” he later recalled, “the entire Christian life became for me an intimate, heartfelt relationship with Jesus.” Four years later, he graduated from St. Francis College (major in philosophy; minor in Latin) and went on to complete four years of advanced studies in theology. May 1963 marked his graduation from St. Francis Seminary and ordination to the Franciscan priesthood.
Brennan’s ministry responsibilities in succeeding years took him from the hallways of academia to the byways of the poor: theology instructor and campus minister at the University of Steubenville; liturgy
instructor and spiritual director at St. Francis Seminary; graduate student in creative writing at Columbia University, and in Scripture and liturgy at Catholic University of America; and living and working among the poor in Europe and the U.S.
A two-year leave of absence from the Franciscans took Brennan to Spain in the late sixties. He joined the Little Brothers of Jesus of Charles de Foucauld, an Order committed to an uncloistered, contemplative life among the poor
—a lifestyle of days spent in manual labor and nights wrapped in silence and prayer. Among his many and varied assignments, Brennan became an
aguador
(water carrier), transporting water to rural villages via donkey and buckboard; a mason’s assistant, shoveling mud and straw in the blazing Spanish heat; a dishwasher in France; a voluntary prisoner in a Swiss jail, his identity as a priest known only to the warden; and a solitary contemplative secluded in a remote cave for six months in the Zaragoza desert.
During his retreat in the isolated cave, Brennan was once again powerfully convicted by the revelation of God’s love in the crucified Christ. On a midwinter’s night, he received this word from the Lord: “For love of you I left my Father’s side. I came to you who ran from me, who fled me, who did not want to hear my name. For love of you I was covered with spit, punched and beaten, and fixed to the wood of the cross.” Brennan would later reflect, “Those words are burned into my life. That night, I learned what a wise old Franciscan told me the day I joined the Order
—‘Once you come to know the love of Jesus Christ, nothing else in the world will seem as beautiful or desirable.’”
The early seventies found Brennan back in the U.S. as he and four other priests established an experimental community in the bustling seaport city of Bayou La Batre, Alabama. Seeking to model the primitive life of the Franciscans, the fathers settled in a house on Mississippi Bay and quietly went to work on shrimp boats, ministering to the shrimpers and their families who had drifted out of reach from the church. Next to the community house was a chapel that had been destroyed by
Hurricane Camille. The fathers restored it and offered a Friday night liturgy and social event, which soon became a popular gathering and precipitated many families’ return to engagement in the local church.
From Alabama, Brennan moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in the mid-1970s and resumed campus ministry at Broward Community College. His successful ministry was harshly interrupted, however, when he suffered a precipitate collapse into alcoholism. Six months of treatment, culminating at the Hazelden treatment center in Minnesota, restored his health and placed him on the road to recovery.
It was at this point in his life that Brennan began writing in earnest. One book soon followed upon another as invitations for him to speak and to lead spiritual retreats multiplied exponentially. The new and renewed directions in which God’s call was taking Brennan eventually led him out of the Franciscan Order. In 1982, he married Roslyn Ann Walker and settled in New Orleans.
Brennan was a popular speaker and bestselling author. He traveled widely, writing and preaching, to encourage men and women everywhere to accept and embrace the good news of God’s unconditional love in Jesus Christ. Brennan went home to be with his Abba on April 12, 2013.
Other Books by Brennan Manning:
Prophets and Lovers
(Dimension Books, 1976)
The Gentle Revolutionaries
(Dimension Books, 1976)
The Wisdom of Accepted Tenderness
(Dimension Books, 1978)
Souvenirs of Solitude
(Dimension Books, 1979)
A Stranger to Self-Hatred
(Dimension Books, 1982)
Lion and Lamb
(Revell/Chosen, 1986)
The Ragamuffin Gospel
(Multnomah, 1990)
The Signature of Jesus
(Multnomah, 1996)
The Boy Who Cried Abba: A Parable of Trust and Acceptance
(Multnomah,1996)
Reflections for Ragamuffins: Daily Devotions from the Writings of Brennan Manning
(HarperOne,1998)
Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin’s Path to God
(HarperOne, 2001)
The Wisdom of Tenderness: What Happens When God’s Fierce Mercy Transforms Our Lives
(HarperOne, 2002)
The Journey of the Prodigal: A Parable of Sin and Redemption
(Crossroad, 2002)
A Glimpse of Jesus: The Stranger to Self-Hatred
(HarperSanFrancisco, 2003)
The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think like Jesus
(HarperOne, 2006)
The Furious Longing of God
(Cook Communications, 2009)
Souvenirs of Solitude: Finding Rest in Abba’s Embrace
(NavPress, 2009)
Patched Together: A Story of My Story
(Cook Communications, 2010)
All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir
(Cook Communications, 2011)
To order books and CDs by Brennan Manning, contact Willie Juan Ministries, PO Box 6911, New Orleans, LA 70114; 504-393-2567.
About the 2015 Edition Editor
J
OHN
B
LASE
preached for over a decade; but then he thought he’d go where the money is, so he started writing poetry. He’s a lucky man with a stunning wife and three kids who look like their mother. They all live in Colorado. His books include
Know When to Hold ’Em: The High Stakes Game of Fatherhood
;
Touching Wonder: Recapturing the Awe of Christmas
; and
All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir
(cowritten with Brennan Manning). He ponders faithfully at
www.thebeautifuldue.wordpress.com
.
About the Cover Illustrator
C
HARLIE
M
ACKESY
is English. He slowly came to faith in Jesus from atheism and still struggles with institutionalized religion. He feels that humans function best in the context of love and is excited by the notion that that is who God is. Painting has been his way of praying, and he loves to make work that helps people sink into the peaceful understanding that they are known, loved, forgiven, and free. This painting was made for a friend who always struggled to believe that God could love him.
