An Invincible Summer Within: Contemplation Practice - Hardcover

by Padraic O'Hare (Author)

An Invincible Summer Within is a book of sessions of contemplation (meditation) practice. It is for anyone who wants to be happy and good, for beginners or "experts," religious believers or secular humanists. It is for young adults (the pious and the "nones") and adults, for professors, students, campus ministers, dancers, carpenters, lawyers, plumbers, teachers, corporate workers--all who seek to be happy and good. It is for use alone or in circles of contemplation (meditation) practice.

To be happy and good, a person needs to acquire (slowly, patiently, gently) over the course of their lives the skill set of regular access to their inner lives, where their true (distinct from false) self resides in a great landscape of stillness, simplicity, and presence--listening, awake, mindful. This regular access is encounter with a Source within us which mitigates fear, regret, anxiety, anger, pain, chaos, and resentment.

This book provides practice achieving this regular access.

Author Biography

Padraic O'Hare is professor emeritus of religious and theological studies at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts. He is the author and editor of eight books, including two prior works on contemplation (meditation) practice: The Way of Faithfulness: Contemplation and Formation in the Church (1993) and Busy Life, Peaceful Center: A Book of Meditating (1995). The 1993 work received First Prize as Best Book in Catholic Education of the Catholic Press Association for l995. His other books deal with religious education, social justice, and Jewish-Christian relations.