“In her openly personal manner, Paula D’Arcy helps us understand what it means to truly love, how to open our hearts to others and give what is most needed—our authentic selves. She describes her own tragic loss of husband and child in a drunken driving accident, her rise from the grief, and then tells the stories of three others with whom she shared deeply of life and death and grief. Among these were Julia, a young woman courageously trying to make a new life after a prison term, Scott, a teenager locked in feelings that he cannot deal with, and Morrie Schwartz (Tuesdays with Morrie), dying of ALS and searching for meaning in his life. By being completely authentic with them, she learns as much as she gives. ‘Acceptance and healing had begun in earnest for me when I became willing to see beauty in exactly what I’d been given. As soon as I stopped holding onto memories, or even to the way I wanted my life to unfold I began taking in how it was unfolding.’ The message of love permeates the memoir as we see these relationships develop and grow and become something life changing for each person, including the author. This growing knowledge of how to forgive and love moves Ms. D’Arcy to mend her broken relationship with her father and risk beginning a new life of discovery, leaving behind her home of many years and moving half way across the country to be near a friend who shares her desire to grow in spirit. Sacred Threshold is a little book with a big message—a very good read. “
“A well-annotated, impartial anthology of key texts from world religions—including the primitive, ancient, and esoteric alongside the living faiths of both Western and Eastern cultures . . . The excerpts are grouped by faiths and subclassified by type: sacred narratives, doctrines, rituals, institutional expressions, experience, and ethics . . . There are good bibliographies at the end of each section.”
“Distinctive in selecting excerpts not only from classic religious texts but also from those of long-dead faiths (Greek, Egyptian, etc.) from ‘small-scale traditional religions’ (American Indian, Polynesian), from new religious bodies (Mormon, Moonie) and from secular world views (Bertrand Russell, Marx, U.N. charter preamble). Religions with sections all their own are Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism, and Sikhism.”
“Having to explain to a Protestant friend that, ‘yes, you can come to Mass with me. But, no, you can’t take communion,’ is, I suspect, a common situation for a Catholic. That the practice of intercommunion, common among many Protestant denominations, has not been extended by Catholics remains something of an ecumenical stumbling block for some. This book explains why this situation must continue.
Cardinal Kasper, a noted theologian even before his elevation, is currently president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. He employs his many years of experience in ecumenical endeavors along with his keen theological intellect to give a clear and complete answer to a complex question. The topics covered include not only the Eucharist, but the nature of the Church and the sacramental priesthood.
Despite being written by a theologian and translated from German original, this book is very readable and accessible to a wide audience. It is recommended for all parish and academic libraries.”