For Fall 2010: Three Journeys of Faith

For this fall season, we have selected three items about faith journeys:

· a best-selling author travels between two very different religious communities in America ,and renews his lost faith

· a Canadian discovers the transcendence of pilgrimage, by walking 500 miles

· a Palestinian doctor who lost three of his daughters in the Gaza war refuses to hate

To access any link, simply put your mouse over it, click, and you will see or hear the item. ALSO – there’s more where this came from! For previous postings, just keep scrolling down for more interviews, articles and videos.

MITCH ALBOM TALKS ABOUT HIS NEWEST BEST-SELLER, HAVE A LITTLE FAITH

The author ‘s first non-fiction book since Tuesdays with Morrie is about “seeing faith on a small level”, according to Albom. It is about a suburban rabbi in his 80’s, and an inner city minister serving the poor and homeless. As someone who had left the faith of his early lie behind, Albom says his time with these two men “knocked cynicism out of me”.

Here is Mitch Albom’s interview with CBS’ Katie Couric from 2009. (The first 25 minutes are about the book.)

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5604542n

In our library:

Have a Little Faith is found in our Kingsway-Lambton church library. Call number 296.7

On our website:

See the Book Review, from September, posted on the Library web page. Click on Book Review.

WALKING 500 MILES – TO GO TO CHURCH

Arthur Paul Boers is an Ontario Mennonite Pastor, who made a 500 mile pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Europe. In this interview on CBC Radio’s Tapestry, he talks about his revelations and observations about walking and pilgrimages as religious practice. (Warning – it will make you want to do it!) Boers also wrote a book about it, called The Way Is Made by Walking: A Pilgrimage Along the Camino de Santiago.

http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/2010/06/and-would-i-walk-500-miles---to-go-to-church-1.html

CARRYING A MESSAGE FOR PEACE

Three of Izzeldin Abuelaish’s daughters, and a niece, were killed when Israeli tank shells hit his house in Gaza in January 2009 . But Dr. Abuelaish says he is “ a believer, with deep faith as a Muslim”, and that he refuses to hate, despite his terrible loss.

Currently living in Toronto with his surviving daughters, Dr. Abuelaish Is promoting a message of understanding and peace. This CBC TV interview

followed a speech he gave at a Toronto synagogue.

http://www.cbc.ca/connect/2009/11/gaza-mds-synagogue-speech.html

CBC Radio’s The Current also interviewed Dr. Abuelaish in May 2010, and played a documentary about him, called Do No Harm. You can find those items at this link:

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2010/05/may-05-2010.html

In our library

Books about forgiveness, and interfaith understanding

Left to Tell : Discovering God amidst the Rwandan holocaust by Ilibagiza, Immaculée - a miraculous story of how one woman survived the Rwandan genocide , and discovered the power of prayer and forgiveness.

Call Number: 282.09 Ili

Faith Club ;A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-- Three Women Search for Understanding Idliby, Ranya, Oliver, Suzanne, Warner, Priscilla

Three mothers, one Muslim, one Christian and one Jew, gather after Sept. 11^th

to try and develop understanding.

Call Number 201.5 Idl

For Fall 2010: Three Journeys of Faith

For this fall season, we have selected three items about faith journeys:

•a best-selling author travels between two very different religious communities in America ,and renews his lost faith
•a Canadian discovers the transcendence of pilgrimage, by walking 500 miles
•a Palestinian doctor who lost three of his daughters in the Gaza war refuses to hate

To access any link, simply put your mouse over it, click, and you will see or hear the item. ALSO – there’s more where this came from! For previous postings, just keep scrolling down for more interviews, articles and videos.

MITCH ALBOM TALKS ABOUT HIS NEWEST BEST-SELLER, HAVE A LITTLE FAITH

The author ‘s first non-fiction book since Tuesdays with Morrie is about “seeing faith on a small level”, according to Albom. It is about a suburban rabbi in his 80’s, and an inner city minister serving the poor and homeless. As someone who had left the faith of his early lie behind, Albom says his time with these two men “knocked cynicism out of me”.

Here is Mitch Albom’s interview with CBS’ Katie Couric from 2009. (The first 25 minutes are about the book.)

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5604542n

In our library:

Have a Little Faith is found in our Kingsway-Lambton church library. Call number 296.7

On our website:

See the Book Review, from September, posted on the Library web page. Click on Book Review.

WALKING 500 MILES – TO GO TO CHURCH

Arthur Paul Boers is an Ontario Mennonite Pastor, who made a 500 mile pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Europe. In this interview on CBC Radio’s Tapestry, he talks about his revelations and observations about walking and pilgrimages as religious practice. (Warning – it will make you want to do it!) Boers also wrote a book about it, called The Way Is Made by Walking: A Pilgrimage Along the Camino de Santiago.

http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/2010/06/and-would-i-walk-500-miles---to-go-to-church-1.html

CARRYING A MESSAGE FOR PEACE

Three of Izzeldin Abuelaish’s daughters, and a niece, were killed when Israeli tank shells hit his house in Gaza in January 2009 . But Dr. Abuelaish says he is “ a believer, with deep faith as a Muslim”, and that he refuses to hate, despite his terrible loss.

Currently living in Toronto with his surviving daughters, Dr. Abuelaish Is promoting a message of understanding and peace. This CBC TV interview
followed a speech he gave at a Toronto synagogue.

http://www.cbc.ca/connect/2009/11/gaza-mds-synagogue-speech.html

CBC Radio’s The Current also interviewed Dr. Abuelaish in May 2010, and played a documentary about him, called Do No Harm. You can find those items at this link:

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2010/05/may-05-2010.html

In our library

Books about forgiveness, and interfaith understanding

Left to Tell : Discovering God amidst the Rwandan holocaust by Ilibagiza, Immaculée - a miraculous story of how one woman survived the Rwandan genocide , and discovered the power of prayer and forgiveness.

Call Number: 282.09 Ili

Faith Club ;A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-- Three Women Search for Understanding Idliby, Ranya, Oliver, Suzanne, Warner, Priscilla
Three mothers, one Muslim, one Christian and one Jew, gather after Sept. 11th
to try and develop understanding.

Call Number 201.5 Idl

‘CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE’ AND ‘SIMPLICITY’

For previous postings and links, simply scroll down. To open the link is simplicity itself; put your mouse over it, and click. Voila!

Richard J. Foster is considered a leading writer on Christian spirituality. Celebration of Discipline,

reviewed in our monthly Library reviews for June, is his best-known work. It sold over one million copies and was named by Christianity Today as one of the top ten books of the twentieth century.

Foster’s thinking about spirituality is also readily available via the internet, on YouTube. There are, for example, three different videos called “Simplicity” in Parts One, Two and Three.

Here is Part One; if you like it, and want to access the other parts, and other Foster videos, they will be displayed on the same web page for you to access when you go to this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3724f98vkI

You can find Foster’s Celebration of Discipline in the Kingsway-Lambton Library, 248.4 Fos.

THE INSPIRATIONAL LEGACY OF RANDY PAUSCH’S THE LAST LECTURE

Before he died of pancreatic cancer in 2008, Randy Pausch was named by Time magazine as one of the world’s most influential people. It was all because of a video of his talk, called The Last Lecture, that was posted on the Internet. ( To see the video just click on the link with your mouse. Duration, about 1hr.15 minutes. This write up, and the book reference, continues below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

The computer science professor intended the lecture as a video memory for his children, as he knew he didn’t have long to live. But it became so much more.

Dr. Pausch did not speak about religion or spirituality. It is reported he deliberately chose not to talk about his beliefs. Instead, his lecture focussed on what he said would help people achieve their childhood dreams, or help others achieve their dreams. The lessons he provided were about living, and life, and became a widespread source of inspiration.

Randy Pausch also co-wrote a best-selling book called The Last Lecture. You can read the review of

this book in the posted reviews for May, 2010, on the Library’s web page.

The book can be found in the Kingsway-Lambton Library at:

Pausch, Randy with Jeffrey Zaslow. The Last Lecture Call number: 616.99 Pau

A CATHOLIC CONVERT SPEAKS OUT

John Bentley Mays became a Roman Catholic in 1998.In this article, the former Globe and Mail and National Post journalist writes about the current scandals in his church;” Has my faith in Christianity been ungrounded by these recent events? Not even slightly.”

But he also says the time of “face-saving, image management and avoidance”

is over. And that it is a time both of danger and of hope.

This article appeared in The Globe and Mail Easter weekend; Sat. April 3^rd, 2010.

(To access the article, simply put your mouse over the link below, and click.)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/one-catholic-in-the-darkest-hour/article1521519/?cmpid=rss1

For reading in our church library, we have selected works by Catholic writers, both of our time, and of old:

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Basic Writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas ( 1215-1274)

208.1 Tho

Aquinas is considered one of the greatest and most influential theologians of all time.

Nouwen, Henry J. Can You Drink the Cup? 248.48 Nou

Described as “a series of reflections on life to help your prayers become a joy,”

written by the Catholic priest who taught at Yale and Harvard, was a friend of Jean Vanier, and worked with the mentally handicapped at L’Arche in Toronto.

Richards, David Adams. God Is. 212.1 Ric

The Giller prize novelist’s defense of his Catholic faith, and critique of popular culture’s narrow-minded attacks on religion.

BOOKS, NOT BOMBS: Three Cups of Tea author Greg Mortenson

Greg Mortenson’s unsuccessful mountain climb in Pakistan in 1993 turned into a passionate mission to improve peoples’ lives through schooling. He told his story in the bestseller, Three Cups of Tea. He has now helped build over 130 schools in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide an alternative to the radical ‘madrassas’. They also educate girls; an estimated 44,000 of them.

Mr. Mortenson recently published a followup book, Stones into Schools.

Mr. Mortenson appeared in this interview on CBC’s The Hour on Jan. 20, 2010. Click on the link, then scroll down to the headline: VIDEO. Click on the second box, that says “Greg Mortenson” Interview duration: 9:44

.

http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/season6/greg_mortenson.html

If you’re interested in hearing a longer interview, you can click on this link for a podcast of CBC Radio’s Sunday Edition with Michael Enright. Scroll down and click on the Jan. 24^th episode. The first few minutes are an essay by Enright – followed immediately by his interview with Mortenson.

http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/podcast.html

Or read this interview in the Globe and Mail, published online Jan. 24, 2010, which focuses on Mortenson’s own family life – which elicited many comments from readers.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/school-building-in-afghanistan-greg-mortensons-magnificent-obsession/article1442419/

In our church library: Both of Greg Mortenson’s books are in our church library. You can find them

under the call number: 371.82 Mor

Stones into Schools, Mortenson, Greg

Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson, Greg.

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SHANE CLAIBORNE

One of this month’s recommended books in Kingsway-Lambton's Book Reviews (click on the tab on the Library web page, and read the posting for January 2010) is Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution; Living as an Ordinary Radical. Claiborne and others in his Christian community ask questions like, “ How can you worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday?”

This article from the Christian website, the Wittenburg Door, calls Claiborne “the face of the new monasticism, which includes a very strong solidarity of living with the poor,” and includes an interview with Claiborne.

http://archives.wittenburgdoor.com/archives/claiborne.html

Claiborne is also a writer for Sojourners, a Christian social justice web site that describes its mission as articulating “the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world.”

http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm