Called as pope, St. John Paul II emerged onto St. Peter’s balcony proclaiming, “Do not be afraid!” What theology and mystery inspired this surprising proclamation? John Paul II’s quest for holiness was grounded in the mystical insight that we participate in God. We seek the Beatific Vision, the Face of God, through which we are transformed in theosis or divinization. This infusion of grace perfects and unites us. In this book readers will find engaging theology intermixed with spiritual direction and lectio divina meditations. Utilizing Aquinas’ method of scriptural interpretation, we are offered ways of seeking spiritual fulfillment to behold the Beatific Vision. Fr. Tom Kuffel shares personal experiences from his time studying and working in Rome, Nebraska, and Alaska. Reflecting on his own priesthood, his fascinating narratives encourage our own spiritual growth. Readers find fresh ways of engaging Scripture through St. John Paul II’s New Pentecost, encouraging new interpretations of Vatican II.

This book is a study of the Habad Hasidism movement, an influential part of the Hasidic Movement, which originated in the eigteenth century. Habad was founded by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1813) who established a Hasidic community in Belorussia and who set forth the new Habad doctrine in a book entitled Tanya (Likutey Amarim). This doctrine expounded the mystical ideas underlying the quest for God. Its essential innovation lay in the formulation of a religious outlook which concentrated upon perceiving the divinity: its essence, its nature, the stages of its manifestation, its characteristics, its perfection, its differing wills, its processes, the significance of its revelation and the possibilities of its perception. This conception generated a profound transformation of religious worship and was the cause of great controversy throughout the Jewish world.

Beginning with the belief that religion is a natural human activity, the author draws on art, science and morality to make a case for the truth of Christianity.

"This book develops a contemporary model of spiritual struggle aimed at perpetual ascent to and in God. Spiritual struggle in this project, which ultimately shifts the emphasis from virtue's acquisition to its pursuit, is defined as the exertion of effort in all conceivable dimensions-physical, emotional, psychological, intellectual, and spiritual-with intent to attain a semblance of, knowledge of, and intimacy with Jesus Christ in community, for God and for others. Gregory of Nyssa's theory of epektasis assumes a basic three-tiered conception of perpetual ascent, beginning with purification and detachment from fleshly passions, strengthening the soul by increasing in similitude to God, and ending with unity with God, that is, with inexpressible and transformative experience of God. God-the infinite, the Good, and the Paragon of virtue-functions as the orienting principle of this perpetual ascent, mitigating the issues of the unity of the virtues and the self-centeredness and self-effacement of virtue. This book goes on to provide two of many potential concrete instantiations of this suggested model. The first is the application of this model to the body, which in turn will have implications for contemporary sexual ethics. The second is a reintegration of ethics and Scripture through the contemporary application of an ancient Patristic lectio divina"--