Experiencing Mercy through Compassion, Grief, & Change
Recommended Books by
Sister Clare Wagner, OP (Marie Clarence)
Sr. Clare Wagner
"Back in the day”—around 1981 or ’82—I had the privilege of hearing Hans Küng, a contemporary German theologian, give a talk at the University of Chicago. He articulated a sentence I have never forgotten. Hans Küng said, “Jesus went about dumping mercy indiscriminately everywhere he went.” This quote is evidence of such deliberate, inclusive, and generous offering of merciful love, and, I think, it fits so well the beloved of God. It isn’t hard for me to see the three books I recommend today as mercy related.
May reading about these books bring a little “dump” of mercy into your life today.
Judy Cannato. Field of Compassion: How the New Cosmology Is Transforming Spiritual Life. Notre Dame: Sorin Books, 2010.
I just finished reading Judy Cannato’s second book, and I am about to begin it again with special attention to the “contemplative pause” and “prayer” sections at the end of each chapter. Field of Compassion requires a stretching of mind, heart, and spirit. It is instructive about morphogenic fields, holons, levels of consciousness, and the power of intention. I was introduced to new researchers and amazing studies—all of them helpful in getting a glimpse of our moment on this planet.
A favorite word in the book is resonance. Chapters detail the resonance of the Universe story, the Christian story, and the kingdom of God image. Karl Rahner is Judy Cannato’s theologian of choice as one who was a precursor in envisioning the Christian story as resonant with the new cosmology.
I highly recommend this amazing book and leave you with these two gems from the text. The author names these as four attitudes for manifesting a Field of Compassion: spaciousness, contemplation, commitment, and imagination. Would you like to live in that “field?” And a closing quotation: “Every movement we make, every thought we generate, impacts reality in some measurable way. Our energy is intertwined with all the energy that is. That is the simple truth” (p. 139).
Nancy Copeland-Payton. The Losses of Our Lives: The Sacred Gifts of Renewal in Everyday Loss. Woodstock, Vermont: Skylight Paths Publishing, 2009.
Dr. Nancy Copeland-Payton is a physician, a hospital chaplain, and a pastor. More importantly for the reader, she is a storyteller, a teacher, and one who shares wisdom effectively. She writes that, “every successive birth of ourselves is painful, for it cuts deep to let go of that which has nourished us” (p. 24). That thought normalizes loss as integral and, in some way, always present. Losses begin at birth and end only when life ends. Equal attention is given to the gifts born through the letting go the loss asks of us.
This is a reflective book that slows the reader down to see how to fully experience and deeply feel a loss. It offers an invitation to anticipate and unwrap a gift given. Dr. Copeland-Payton tells of a one-hour lunch with her son that proves to be an exquisite gift and evokes tears of loss—most touching. The final chapter is on the final loss . . . and gift of our lives, our own death. Profound questions are sprinkled throughout the book: they are the very helpful kind that move one to notice the mercy, love, and longing with which we are gifted. A favorite quotation from the book: “New life does emerge out of the ashes of our losses, sometimes with the dazzling colors of the phoenix” (p. 142).
John Reid and Maureen Gallagher. The Art of Change: Faith, Vision, and Prophetic Planning. Ligouri, Missouri: Ligouri Publications, 2009.
It may surprise you that I chose to recommend in “Soul Books” a volume on organizational planning. In this unique process described by Maureen Gallagher and John Reid, the art and science of planning is seen as a spiritual journey in which the virtue of hope is the stimulation for planning. As with most journeys with a strong spiritual dimension, this process calls for an openness to mystery, making connections, noticing the stresses along the way, and seeing and naming what is and what can be. The process is transformative, and it emphasizes conversation as foundational.
This book’s ideas significantly diminish the usual dread of a planning process. The planners and the organization involved benefit from a consistently positive attitude, recognition of pain where it is present, and reverence for the story of the organization and all the people involved. Planners and prophets are seen to have things in common. The sustaining realities in the process are the pertinent questions, rituals, and immense respect for each phase of the process. In the end, an action plan born of what is seen and named will be in place, and steps toward a positive vision of the future will be taken.