LIVING IN THE GAP
Religious Life and the Call to Communion
Dennis J. Billy, C.Ss.R.
Religious Life
and the Call to Communion
PAPERBACK; 109 PAGES; 2011
ISBN: 978-1-56548-392-7
SALE PRICE:
$12.95
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About this Book
We yearn for communion with one another because of God’s yearning for
communion with us. Fr. Billy reminds us that communion, according to John
Paul II’s Novo Millennio Ineunte, lies at the very heart of the Christian
message.
Contemplating the other. Living in unity. Accepting each other as “gift.”
Sharing each other’s burdens. Although such right relationship is meant
to be practiced by everyone, the “spirituality of communion” has
special significance for religious, since they are called to be “experts”
in its daily practice.
Fr. Billy points to the striking benefits and authentic renewal that embracing
a spirituality of communion can bring to the life of men and women religious
and their communities. He offers companionship and concrete strategies for
helping to help narrow the “gap” between the vision of what we
desire to become and the reality of who we are.
Each chapter opens with an epigram about religious life and closes with a
series of reflection questions.
Some Reviews:
“Many members of religious institutes will recognize themselves in the
reflection of Father Billy, who offers a clear-eyed view of our struggles
over the last four or five decades. The author avoids useless polemic preferring,
instead, to situate religious life among the other vocations in the Church
and indicates how religious can live their unique vocation in a spirit of
communion. The book is an excellent tool for the initial and ongoing formation
of religious women and men, as well as a reliable voice for all those who
want to understand better how this religious life is to be lived today.”
Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Secretary, Congregation for Institutes
of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
“Religious
life is not a naïve utopia but a commitment to live in the gap between
vision and reality, the already and the not-yet, the place where human relationships
are deepened in the midst of human frailties. This is a well-written and thought-provoking
book which will raise questions for some and provide insight for many. Living
in the Gap offers a wise and spiritual foundation for those seeking the pearl
of great price.”
Sr. Ilia Delio, O.S.F.
Senior Fellow, Woodstock Theological Center
Living in the
Gap is a profound little book that examines the role and meaning of religious
life in our modern world. Those who choose to live a consecrated life are
called to communion with God and to relationship with the human family. Dennis
J. Billy, a Redemptorist and scholar, beautifully expresses how all men and
women struggle to faithfully live the gap between vision and reality. In the
six carefully written chapters Billy reflects on the essential topics of conversion,
vows, community, virtue and perseverance in living an authentic Christian
life. While written for religious, Living in the Gap is appropriate for any
person seeking a deeper spiritual relationship with God … Each chapter
includes questions for reflection, which facilitates group sharing or discussion.
Recommended for spiritual renewal and personal growth.
John Leonard Berg
Catholic Library World
There are some
very searching questions, [such as], “What would the world be like without
your religious order?” … He asserts that those living in community
must keep before themselves the example of the one perfect community, which
is the Holy Trinity … there is much food for thought in this book …
its readership should not be confined to community members, since we have
here good teaching on the Christian life which is available to all. The universal
call to holiness should affect us all, and this book could help us to realize
its implications.
Martin SSFJ in Franciscan
About the author
Dennis J. Billy, C.Ss.R.
Father Billy, a Redemptorist of the Baltimore Province, taught for more than
twenty years at the Alphonsian Academy of Rome’s Pontifical Lateran
University, reaching the rank of full (ordinary) professor. He is now scholar-in
residence and holder of the John Cardinal Krol Chair of Moral Theology at
St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook, Pennsylvania. Father Billy is
the author of numerous theological and spiritual books.
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