“Some
books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and
digested that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read,
but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and
attention”
Sir Francis Bacon
GIFTED AND SENT
By Pat Collins cm
Foreword by Bishop Ambrose Griffiths OSB
Published by New Life Publishing
In this book, Fr. Pat explores the call to holiness and mission for every believer. He shows how God gives us natural talents and supernatural charisms and how He empowers and provides for us to enable us to live out our calling in accordance with the Divine will.
Fr. Pat says “Like Jesus, our activities have to be empowered by the Spirit. This means that the true evangelist is a humble person, one who in poverty of spirit acknowledges his or her complete dependence on God. Without Him we can do nothing (John15:5) but with God’s help all things are possible (Mark 9:23)"
Extract from Foreword
No one could deny that the Church in England and much of Europe is in urgent need of renewal if it is not to slowly die. But ample help is at hand if only we recognize the bounteous gifts of God and are willing to answer His call. Individuals and the whole Church will come alive only when we are ready to acknowledge and repent our sins and become serious in our pursuit of holiness….All holiness comes from God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ by the working of the Holy Spirit and we can all become holy if we allow and encourage the Holy Spirit to work in us. If we spend time in prayer and meditation on the Scriptures under His guidance, we shall grow in appreciation and experience of the person and saving work of Jesus and thus be able to share this with others, which is a far more effective way of evangelizing our culture than any amount of theories….
Extract from Chapter 16 – The Mystical Dimensions of the Charisms
Fr. Karl Rahner S.J. was probably the best known Catholic theologian of the late 20th century. In the 1970s he wrote:
“The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he or she will not exist at all, if by mysticism we mean…a genuine experience of God emerging from the very heart of our existence.” This statement is very true and its truth and importance will become still clearer in the spirituality of the future. The passing years have shown just how prescient he was. Not only has sociological research indicated that in modern Catholicism, the centre of gravity is shifting from the experience of religious authority to the authority of religious experience, Pope John Paul II acknowledged this trend when he wrote “People today put more trust in … experience than dogma.”
A mystic is a person who goes beyond mere head knowledge about God, to have a direct, heartfelt awareness of the length and breadth, height and depth of the love of Christ, (see Eph 3:18-19). Mystic consciousness, whether mild or intense, is a characteristic of religious experience and lies at the heart of all genuine Christianity….
