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| Fr. Paddy Dunne interviews me on Highland Radio in Co. Donegal during my Irish speaking tour earlier this month. I'm holding a Padre Pio prayer card. |
Catholic columnist Matt C. Abbott generously gave me his online forum this week so that I could share with you the preface of my new book Remembering God's Mercy: Redeem the Past and Free Yourself from Painful Memories.
Here is an excerpt:
[In an early interview, Pope]Francis spoke about why he admired the early Jesuit Peter Faber, whom he would soon declare a saint. Since you can tell a lot about a man by his friends – including his friends in heaven – I began to read Faber's spiritual diary, the Memoriale, to see what it might tell me about Francis's spirituality. That too was a revelation. I found in Faber a man who had many of the same vulnerabilities as me. He battled anxiety, depression, and temptations to sin. Learning how he conquered those weaknesses helped me to better fight my own spiritual battles.
As I continued to research the wisdom of Pope Francis on healing of memories, and the Jesuit roots from which it sprang, something happened to me that was completely unexpected.
I was expecting inspiration. I was not expecting grace. But grace is what I experienced. This book that you are now reading, although it began as an effort to answer my readers' desire, ended up answering my own desire for greater intimacy with Christ. Pope Francis and the Jesuits who inspired him took me on a journey that has brought me to a deeper understanding of the mercy of God – the mercy that both forgives and heals.Read the rest. I'm thrilled that the same preface has been published in Italian by L'Osservatore Romano, which also has posted it in English on its website. (Note that there is one paragraph that should be a blockquote, as it is by Newman and not me: "If the third or fourth or twentieth moment of pain ... .")
Remembering God's Mercy is available from Aquinas & More, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and wherever Catholic books are sold.
