Traveling Your Road to Joy (Bridges to Contemplative ... (ISBN 1594710937)

Sharing the Divine Life:
The editors of this excellent small-group resource have taken on a major task in mapping out a road to joy in a world often filled with pain and suffering. The writings they have selected from Merton and "other voices" expand on their own early explanation: "The fundamental joy that pervades life in Christ through all of life's inevitable sorrows is a growing faith in the reality that God became man in Christ and in Christ's humanity we humans share the divine life." For each of the eight sessions they have selected psalm excerpts such as "Your deeds, O Lord, have made me glad; for the work of your hands I shout with joy." (Psalm 91). Waiting for Joy through Sorrow and Anguish contains the poem "Kindness" by Naomi Shihab Nye that reads, in part, "Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, / you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing...Then it is only kindness that makes sense any more..." In The Joy of Doing God's Will for Me, a selection from author Irma Zaleski gives examples of joyful experiences found in the sounds of birds singing and children's voices, but also in the midst of unbearable suffering. She writes of joy as an inner experience of the presence of God that cannot be categorized, defined, or taught. A Joy that Tastes of God contains an excerpt from Merton's A Search for Solitude in which he wrote, "Christ loves us and espouses us as His own flesh. Isn't that enough for us?" Traveling Your Road to Joy is the fifth of eight planned booklets in the series Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton. Each includes an introduction to the series; background on Merton and contemplative living; guidelines for contemplative dialogue; eight small-group sessions; and closing prayers. Suggestions for using the book and a free facilitator's guide are also provided.