Books

Spiritual director and professor Frank Rogers had been there. As a young adult, he too was tormented by trauma suffered in the same family. Wracked by depression, he was on the cliff edge of suicide. From intense despair, he set off on a quest-for answers, for sanity, for a credible God to see him through. Cradled in the Arms of Compassion is at once a narrative of psychological transformation and a spiritual autobiography that details the survivor's journey. Rogers shows how he found recovery through a combination of reflective retreats, therapy, creative expression, and an extraordinary application of imaginative meditation that spiritual seekers and practitioners will find utterly fascinating. The ensuing discovery evolved into the uniquely self-restorative process known as the Compassion Practice.

Frank Rogers' account reveals that a compassionate sacred presence sustains this wounded world, and that this presence can be known, even in the sewers of life's most damaging traumas.

One of the few male accounts of childhood sexual abuse and fewer still that charts a spiritual course for the transformation of trauma.

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In the face of hurtful public dialogue and worldwide conflict, many Christians want to practice and experience genuine compassion. After all, centuries of Christian teachings have insisted that compassion is at the heart of the Christian life.

"Love your enemies," Jesus said in Luke 6:35-36. "Do good to them. Be compassionate, just as God is compassionate."

How do we become more compassionate toward others, especially our enemies? And since Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves, how do we practice being compassionate toward ourselves?

Join Andrew Dreitcer, codirector of the Center for Engaged Compassion, in exploring how certain Christian spiritual practices are compassion practices. Discover how ancient as well as contemporary practices can shape your life, helping you become more compassionate in today's world.

Dreitcer introduces you to the Compassion Practice, a compassion formation process that has been developed in the last decade. Each chapter includes a "Review and Practice" section to help you apply what you learned. Uncover and learn how to express your innate compassion within you, and find out how to turn your desire for compassion into a life centered in genuine, lasting compassion.

ORDER LIVING COMPASSION HERE

How can we tend to our families in a world filled with distractions and difficulties?
Between busy schedules, household tasks, and legacies of oppression, it can be difficult for parents and other caregivers of children to care for their inner selves, much less engage in spiritual contemplation. Then add to that the emotional challenges that can arise in the highs and lows of parenting, including fear, sadness, shame—and even joy and delight.

But there is a way to find the energy and grace to tend to our families, along with the world, from a place of spiritual wholeness. In parenting, we are repeatedly invited to discern how to live in right relationship with our kids, our partners or other adult family members, our communities, and ourselves. Parenting is part of living out God’s shalom.
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Authors and life partners Aizaiah G. Yong and Nereyda Yong contend that social healing and world peace start at home. As the parents of four young children in an interracial and intercultural family, they offer stories and spiritual practices for the inner and communal lives of parents in a beautifully diverse world.
 Sacred Parenthood invites readers into creative spiritual expression in everyday family life. We can find new ways to hold the vulnerable lives around us with a bit more tenderness. As we do so, we can experience anew the gift and sacredness of parenting.

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Do you feel stressed out during the day and lie awake at night worrying? You’re not alone. In today’s hectic, fast-paced world, stress and anxiety have become a default way of being—as natural to us as breathing air. And because stress is an inevitable part of life, one of the most important things you can do for yourself is to learn how to manage and heal it.

This book offers proven ways to help you counter the negative effects that stress has on the body and mind. You’ll also discover practical skills and clinically proven strategies grounded in mindfulness, neurobiology, and positive psychology to help you cultivate deep sense of emotional resilience.

Using the author’s innovative HEART tools (Heartful Engagement And Re-focusing Training), you’ll learn to manage stress by harnessing the power of positive emotions—such as gratitude, compassion, empathy, and hope—leading to a feeling of expansiveness and possibility, and a lived sense of calm, happiness, and vitality.

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In this book, Aizaiah G. Yong critically considers how the lives and spiritual experiences of mixed-race people can transform efforts for racial justice across the planet. Yong is inspired by the life and philosophy of Raimon Panikkar, a twentieth-century interreligious spiritual leader whose own experiences of the world were foundationally shaped by his life as a mixed-race person. This book focuses on the experiences of mixed-race people and challenges practical theology to broaden its own attention to practices of spirituality beyond mono-racial paradigms. Mixed-race people have profound resources for confronting and healing from racism and racial oppression within their lives and their stories, and this book demonstrates calls for strengthened collective efforts to tend to the beautiful depths of spiritual formation for mixed-race people.
 
 

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Compassion is more than a sympathetic feeling--it's the bond of human connection. Most religions lift up compassion, yet few people actually teach how to practice it.
Through rich and moving stories of people from various faiths, Frank Rogers shows ways to incorporate compassion in our daily lives. His interfaith perspective on mercy, kindness, and caring for one another trains us to Pay attention, Understand empathically, Love with connection, Sense the sacredness, and Embody new life (PULSE).

ORDER PRACTICING COMPASSION HERE

Jesus was a spiritual teacher who demonstrated personal and social transformation. His earliest disciples were first known not as Christians but as followers of the Way. Jesus' Way was a spirituality of radical compassion. He taught how to love and be loved by an extravagantly compassionate God; how to cultivate love for ourselves; and how to love our neighbors by extending love to the outcasts, the offensive, and even our enemies.

Compassion in Practice is an introduction to Christian compassion. It explains not just what Christian compassion looks like but how to practice it in a world ravaged by violence, fear, and reactivity. This book teaches us how to love as Jesus loved.

Expanding on the foundation of Practicing Compassion, Frank Rogers defines the way Jesus prepared his disciples to transform hearts hardened from the assaults of life into compassionate hearts.

ORDER THE PULSE OF LIFE HERE

This book honors Frank Rogers Jr., a beloved friend, teacher, mentor, and spiritual leader. It explores his work as an educator, scholar, and engaged practitioner of contemplative spirituality, highlighting the pillars of spiritual formation, religious education, and narrative pedagogy.

Designed for scholars, educators, and spiritual leaders, this book celebrates the power of compassion and reflection to transform lives. May it nourish readers and help the pulse of life be felt, embraced, and renewed in times of transition.

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