The Beatitudes are "The Hope and prayer and Vision of Jesus, the blueprint for Christian discipleship, the job description of every Christian," says John Dear, whose stirring meditations are a call to action, a summons to take up the Beatitudes as a daily handbook for life. An internationally known voice for peace and nonviolence, Dear combines scriptural wisdom with practical advice from peacemakers like Gandhi (who regularly read the Beatitudes), Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and many more, all set against vivid descriptions of peace efforts in places like Afghanistan, Israel, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. In each chapter, Dear affirms that the God of peace is alive and at work among us, calling his sons and daughters into the fullness of a life of true, lasting peace. Book jacket.

"To take care of each other should be our primary concern in this 21st century and Father Dear is steady on this course." --Thich Nhat Hanh For John Dear, a Jesuit priest and respected leader of the ecumenical peace movement, the spiritual life is a combination of contemplation and action, of maintaining inner peace and projecting that peace into the greater world. It is the spirituality exemplified by the lives of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and others throughout history who remained true to the highest ideals while addressing the most difficult problems and conflicts of the real world. As a tireless advocate for social justice and human rights, Dear has followed that path in his own life, and in Living Peace he describes his journey. Breaking down the life of peace into three parts an inner journey, a public journey, and the journey of all humanity he shares the spiritual practices that have sustained him and teaches readers how to integrate these practices into their own lives. From the Hardcover edition.

Drawing on stories from the lives of the saints, scripture, and everyday life, Jim Forest opens up the mysteries of the Beatitudes. These ancient blessings, with which Christ began his Sermon on the Mount, are all aspects of communion with God. As Forest shows, they are like rungs on a ladder, each one leading to the next. They appear at the doorway of the New Testament to provide an easily memorized summary of everything that follows, right down to the crucifixion ("Blessed are you who are persecuted") and the resurrection ("Rejoice and be glad").

The raising of Lazarus in John's Gospel is one of the most dramatic and poignant episodes in scripture. This title offers a compelling new reading of the story of Lazarus, which calls us all to pursue a life of peace.

A disruptive and surprising journey through the Beatitudes. Most of the time, life doesn't work out like we expect it will. We spend time and energy trying to climb some sort of spiritual ladder, oblivious to the fact that it is God who is moving toward us. We want answers to our problems, yet what is offered is presence. What if we were to become united with our brokenness rather than our victories? What if God moves closest to us in the absence, the ache, and the longing? Words from the Hill turns each beatitude on its head to see the unexpected beneath the understood--diving into the story of a woman on death row to speak about mercy, personal stories from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to talk about peace, and much more. Stu Garrard has walked with these people in their stories, and he vulnerably offers his own as he unpacks the Good News of the Beatitudes. God is on your side, and He is closer than you think.

Jesus the Rebel explores the radical life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth and shows how his witness speaks directly to our own contemporary world of violence, war, poverty, and nuclear weaponry. As John Dear ponders Jesus' call to discipleship, he shares his own journey of Gospel peacemaking. In jails, soup kitchens, shelters, and warzones, Jesus the bearer of God's Peace and Justice is reborn and invites us to be transformed in our homes, workplaces, churches, communities, and hearts.