The Gift of Peace: Personal Reflections [Hardcover]

Joseph Bernardin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1997

“I can say in all sincerity that I am at peace. I consider this as God’s special gift to me.”
—Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago, announcing on August 30, 1996, that his cancer had returned after fifteen months of being in remission. The Cardinal died November 14, 1996.

In the final two months of his life, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin made it his mission to share his personal reflections and insights in this book, The Gift of Peace. Using as a framework the previous three years, which included false accusation of sexual misconduct, diagnosis of cancer, and return of the cancer after fifteen months of being in remission, Cardinal Bernardin tells his story openly and honestly. At the end of his life, the Cardinal was at peace. He accepted his peace as a gift from God, and through this book, he shares that gift with the world. The Gift of Peace is part of the Cardinal’s pastoral legacy; through this book his ministry lives on.

From The Gift of Peace:
“The past three years have taught me a great deal about myself and my relationship to God, the Church, and others. . . . Within these major events lies the story of my life— what I have believed and who I have worked hard to be. And because of the nature of these events, I have spirituality and gained insights that I want to share. By no means are these reflections meant to be a comprehensive autobiography. They are simply reflections from my heart to yours. I hope they will be of help to you in your own life so you too can enjoy the deep inner peace—God’s wonderful gift to me—that I now embrace as I stand on the threshold of eternal life.”

I invite those who read this book to walk with me the final miles of my life’s journey.
Peace and love,
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The well-loved cardinal of Chicago completed this book during the last few months of his life. In it he records the personal struggle of his final three years, during which he faced charges of sexual misconduct, later dropped as admittedly false. Eventually, Bernardin made peace with his accuser, helping the younger man reconcile with his Catholic faith before he died of AIDS. Bernardin also accepted his own imminent death from pancreatic cancer as a true lesson of the cross, writing here about his mixed sense of abandonment and hope with a profound awareness of the meaning of shared suffering and Christian love. A very moving last testament, written with simplicity and deep wisdom.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

The Gift Of Peace is the final legacy left to us by one of America's most beloved and respected clerics. Preparing The Gift Of Peace was an extraordinary effort which consumed Joseph Cardinal Bernardin's final days, and offers deeply personal reflections about his last three headline-filled years. The Gift Of Peace also reveals the Cardinal's spiritual growth amidst a string of traumatic events: false accusations of sexual abuse; reconciliation a year later with his accuser (who had earlier recanted the charges); a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and surgery; the return of cancer (in his liver); his decision to discontinue chemotherapy and live his remaining days as fully as possible. Even after Cardinal Bernardin relinquished the day-to-day operation of the Archdiocese in his final weeks, he continued to work on The Gift Of Peace. Cardinal Bernardin was known for his gift of reconciliation, and for a "consistent ethic of life" that urged a reverence for life from conception to natural death. In his final years he made a trip to Israel with Jewish leaders; launched the Catholic Common Ground Initiative to heal rifts among America's Catholics; and sent a letter to the Supreme Court urging them not to approve "physician-assisted" suicide. The Gift Of Peace is a worthy testament to the memory of a Christian life amidst contemporary issues and modern day challenges of life in the last years of the 20th century. -- Midwest Book Review

This touching and insightful little book serves as a poignant reminder to all of us that people of faith do have an extraordinary resource which can allow them to face life's most difficult moments, life's worst surprises, life's most bitter defeats with equanimity and peace and sometimes even an undercurrent of seemingly unshakable joy. Cardinal Bernadin wrote this book in the final two months of his life. In it he reflects on the three years previous in which he was falsely accused of sexual misconduct, and in which he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which, after a brief remission, reappeared with a vengeance. Through all of this, he maintained his faith and his gentle and loving perspective on life. He admits that his spiritual journey has always been a struggle to become closer to God and that the trials of the false accusation and his illness taught him how to release his pain, his anger, and himself into God's hands. This is a book that should be of interest to all people of faith and, in particular, to anyone who struggles with serious illness or the issue of forgiveness. Joseph Cardinal Bernadin's legacy is not only his life's work but his ability to forgive fully and to die well. -- From Independent Publisher

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: Loyola Press; 1 edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0829409556
• ISBN-13: 978-0829409550
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #314,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, June 25, 2004

By 

cnyadan (Bavaria, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gift of Peace: Personal Reflections (Hardcover)

As a native Chicagoan, I was living there when the allegations of sexual abuse against Cardinal Bernardin came out back in 1993. Being quite young still, as well as not being Roman Catholic, and not having a whole lot of contact to the Roman Catholic Church, I didn't know who he was before then. However, from that point onward, Cardinal Bernardin became more of a presence in Chicago, in good part because of his loving attitude toward his accuser, whose charges were false, and because of all the work he did trying to work for the good of all people, Roman Catholic or not. Therefore, when he died in 1996, I, as well as most of the city of Chicago, mourned the passing of a truly great man.

This book is an autobiographical "letter" from Cardinal Bernardin chronicling the last three years of his life. It's written as somewhat of a long letter to the reader, and at once one gets drawn in to the utter love and the kindness that radiate through the words written in the pages of this book.

I had been looking for something to learn more about the kind of person Cardinal Bernardin was and the sort of things that he taught. I was fairly dubious that I would "get" much from this book, as a lot of it is written about his battle with cancer, and with him facing an imminent death. However, I ended up enjoying it immensely. It's just a bit eerie as well, because by the time he finishes it up, he knows his time on earth is extremely short, and the reader is kind of put in a place of seeing glimpses of the world as he must have seen it in that fall in Chicago. Here I was, in that same city, seventeen years old, and "starting" life as a college freshman. And yet, despite this disparity, there is something very comforting, and something that rings very, very true in the writing, something that made me devour the words, ending up reading the book in the matter of a few hours.

Cardinal Bernardin finished this book on 1 November 1996, and died two weeks afterward. The Gift of Peace. Yes. May his spirit be eternal.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful Message - On forgivenss, giving , living and dying, February 27, 2000

By 

"arch114" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gift of Peace (Paperback)

Recently I lost my father to a 10 year bout with cancer. This book provided me with joy, tears and abudance within a month of my own fathers death. Cardinal Bernardin was a remarkable man who had the courage to face his accusers, his illness and ulitmately his death. He has reconfirmed that faith, hope, love, forgivenss and kindness is the very essentials of what life needs to be about. It is clear from the Cardinal as it was from my experience with my own father that even when you think you are at your darkest human hour you need to reach out and make a difference every single day until your final moment in this part of your journey here on earth.

This book is a must read for anyone who has doubted that there is peace in death. He reconfirms that the lessons most important in life are to continue to give of yourself every day despite the adversities you face. In his illness, through his false accusation and his wonderful rediscovery of a deeper faith in Christ it makes accepting God's plan for you important.

Anyone who has an ill parent or someone close to them should read this book it will give you a much clearer spiritual understanding of illness, death and living every moment under God's plan.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bernardin's "Presence" remains with us!, November 17, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gift of Peace: Personal Reflections (Hardcover)

A year ago, on November 14, 1996, our beloved Cardinal Bernardin died, as we the people of his flock, spent time in prayer and reflection over his years as our shepherd. It is amazing to realize how we were enveloped into his loving care, even as he lay dying. Some months later, his book, "The Gift of Peace: Personal Reflections" was published, as his gift to us. More than its worldwide sales, is its personal value to those who read it, perhaps once, maybe several times. How many people near death will ever have the energy to focus on the Lord's Presence, amidst physical pain? For Cardinal Bernardin, the pain he wrote about may have focused on physical and emotional difficulties that surfaced in the final three years of his life, but clearly, there are words in his book that can yet feed the flock, "how if we let Him, God can write straight with crooked lines," if only we let go of the control and allow HIM to direct our life's journey. This does not mean we should make no plans, but rather, set aside time daily to draw close to the Lord, and let go of the concerns that may grip us --- to make room for HIM in our lives. Is there room for HIM in the inn of our deepest selves? There is no other option. No matter what difficulties or hurts arise, we are all still family, always needing to work on healing; the other choice leaves us without family and friends. Cardinal Bernardin speaks of redemptive suffering -- the kind Jesus felt, the kind we may experience. The message clearly leads the reader to know that we, like Jesus, can move beyond the suffering, toward something better, allowing the Lord to work in our lives, bringing us into communion with Him and others who are feeling pain and suffering. In the midst of his pain, Bernardin's faith was strong, but he was preoccupied with the pain. His message is this: develop a strong prayer life in your best moments so you can be sustained in your weaker moments. Lean on family and friends, and church community, as they minister. As you read this book, you may feel the connection with Cardinal Bernardin because either you or a family member or friend is experiencing the pain and suffering of illness. Cardinal Bernardin's presence remains with us, in these words, "Pray while you're well, because if you wait until you're sick, you might not be able to do it."