{"id":4747,"date":"2006-01-26T23:42:59","date_gmt":"2006-01-26T23:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=4747"},"modified":"2025-09-24T03:48:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T03:48:47","slug":"latest_read_pra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=4747","title":{"rendered":"Latest read \u2013 Praying Self-Abandonment to Divine Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

This book was given to me by my friend Theresa Bonopartis. The actual title in the United States edition (the one I have) is In the Arms of Mary<\/strong>, but the title in all the other countries (45) where it\u2019s been published is Praying Self-Abandonment to Divine Love<\/strong>. That\u2019s an awkward but much more accurate description of the book. I don\u2019t know why they changed the title for the U.S. edition (Mary sells?). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The author, Slawomir Biela, is involved in a worldwide group called the Families of Nazareth Movement<\/u>. I had never heard of them \u2013 I gather there are only about 3,000 members in the United States. But they must be having an impact elsewhere \u2013 there are five different forewords in the book, written by five different Cardinals (from the U.S., Spain, South Korea, Mexico, and the Philippines).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Biela seems to be an interesting guy \u2013 he is Polish and earned a Doctorate in Physics, before studying the Theology of Spirituality and becoming involved in the Nazareth Movement.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The introduction gives a famous Karl Rahner quote to the effect that the Christian of the 21st<\/sup> century will be a mystic, or will not be a Christian at all.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I read the book over the time I was here in Sloan Kettering \u2013 besides the forewords and introduction, there are fourteen chapters and I read one each morning. My experience has been that it\u2019s much more profitable to read this type of book slowly over a period of time, rather then in a few days. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It is an excellent book; like many books of this type, a call to self-confrontation and conversion. And of course, in many ways that makes it a very \u201ctough\u201d book. Not tough to read, per se. It\u2019s actually an easy read. Just tough to buy into.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

For example the first chapter in entitled \u201cto Pray with the Attitude of the Tax Collector\u201d. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

(Remember that story? The Pharisee and the tax collector? Lk 18: 9-14). Other chapters have titles like \u201cthe Lost Sheep on the Shepherd\u2019s Shoulder\u2019s\u201d and \u201cTo Trust in the Example of the Canaanite Woman\u201d. The last chapter is \u201cIn the Arms of Mary\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

So I found it to be a fine work \u2013 thank you Theresa for the gift. I am going to look into other books by the author, and his collaborator in the Nazareth Movement, Fr. Tadeusz Dajczer.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are two websites, the first the Families of Nazareth Movement in Ontario: http:\/\/www3.sympatico.ca\/familiesofnazareth\/Index.htm<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

and the In the Arms of Mary Foundation in Colorado <\/span><\/span>Welcome to In the Arms of Mary Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This book was given to me by my friend Theresa Bonopartis. The actual title in the United States edition (the one I have) is In the Arms of Mary, but the title in all the other countries (45) where it\u2019s been published is Praying Self-Abandonment to Divine Love. That\u2019s an awkward but much more accurate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9821,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4747\/revisions\/9821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}