Soul Care: The Lenten Model

By Carolyn J Sweers

Soul care, said Socrates, was the most important activity a human could do.  It was far more important than such common human concerns as the desire for money or honor (“likes” on Facebook?). 

 

Socrates demonstrated by example what he meant by soul care: 1) a realistic attitude about death, 2) the importan

• Language: English
• Publisher: TOPLINK PUBLISHING, LLC
• Release date: Apr 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781946801142

Carolyn J Sweers

Carolyn Sweers grew up on an Iowa farm in the 1950's. It was there that she had her first experiences of the profound truths she tries to describe in this book. These experiences, more than any others, shaped her life and led her to a career as a philosophy student and teacher. This book and others that she has had published recently, have a shared objective: to evoke insight in the reader. She knows from experience the importance of finding what Kierkegaard called "the truth for me." And, she shares the Socratic conviction that people have within them this truth. It simply needs to be evoked.

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Soul Care

The Lenten Model

By

Carolyn J. Sweers

Copyright © 2017 by Carolyn J. Sweers.

PAPERBACK: 978-1-946801-05-0

HARDBACK: 978-1-946801-06-7

EBOOK: 978-1-946801-14-2

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Contents

Preface

Lent As Spiritual Journey

Ash Wednesday And The Remembrance Of Death

Fasting: Recognizing and Removing Impediments to Spiritual Growth

Almsgiving: How Giving and Receiving are Intertwined

Prayer: Communion with the Divine

Postscript: Learning from Jesus How to Pray

Preface

This book began in Lent as a way

to continue my own engagement with the season.

I am by temperament and training a philosopher.

My life and work have been shaped by

moments of mystic communion

which can’t be adequately described or named

and is, I presume,

what is pointed to by the word God.

I have, wherever possible, used a word other than God

to refer to the framing Mystery of our lives….

the horizon that draws us toward reverence,

humility

and compassion.

Though I sparingly use the word God,

it is my hope that persons who speak of God

may recognize some similarities

between what is written here

and what they say

they believe.

The challenge I posed for myself

was to try to describe the Lenten practices

in the way I have experienced them;

a way I hope will be useful for any spiritual seeker

as well as not opposed to Christianity

for those who actively participate in that tradition.

To