Take 5: On the Job Meditations With St. Ignatius [Paperback]

Mike Aquilina (Author), Kris Stubna (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2008

Build your career while you build your faith by discovering the balance and insight of one of history's greatest workers--St. Ignatius--founder of the Jesuits.

Literally designed and written to be used in short breaks from work, there are three prompts following each meditation to help you apply St. Ignatius's teaching to interpersonal issues, stress, office politics, goal setting, moral issues, and more:

Think About It - Makes the connection between the teaching and everyday work issues.

Go There - Helps you vividly imagine the scene in the Gospel story and ties it to the issue at hand.

Remember - Gives you a single sentence or phrase you can easily learn by heart to help you through the issue.

Americans spend the bulk of their lives at work. How will your investment and activity at work serve the Lord?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Newman provides a model for so many different kinds of Catholics. He did what love required." --Scott Hahn --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Vice-president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, Mike Aquilina has authored or edited more than a dozen books on Catholic history, doctrine, and devotion. He is currently co-host of EWTN's Swear to God and a regular panelist on The Weekly Roman Observer broadcast by the Catholic Family Network.
 
Father Kris D. Stubna received his doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He is the diocesan secretary for education for the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Father Stubna is the author or co-author of several books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor (March 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592764037
• ISBN-13: 978-1592764037
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #551,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #38 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Catholicism > Roman Catholicism
  • #81 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality > Meditations

More About the Author

Mike Aquilina is author or editor of more than thirty books, including The Fathers of the Church, The Mass of the Early Christians, and A Year with the Church Fathers. He has co-hosted eight series that air on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). He has co-authored books with Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., and theologian Scott Hahn. He is past editor of New Covenant magazine and The Pittsburgh Catholic newspaper. He appears weekly on Sirius Radio's "Sonrise Morning Show." Mike and his wife, Terri, have six children, who are the subject of his book Love in the Little Things.

In 2011 Mike was a featured presenter of the U.S. Bishops' Diocesan Educational/Catechetical Leadership Institute. He also wrote the USCCB's theological reflection for Catechetical Sunday in 2011.

His reviews, essays and journalism have appeared in many journals, including First Things, Touchstone, Crisis, Our Sunday Visitor, National Catholic Register, and Catholic Heritage. He contributed work on early Christianity to the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought.

Mike is a also poet whose works have appeared in U.S. literary journals and have been translated into Polish and Spanish. He shared songwriting credits with Grammy Award-winner Dion DiMucci on the forthcoming album "Tank Full of Blues."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Phenomenal New Spiritual Guide for Parents and their Young Adult Children, September 5, 2010

By 

Lisa Kende - See all my reviews

This review is from: Take Five: Meditations With John Henry Newman (Paperback)

Take Five: Meditations With John Henry Newman
As the mother of four young adult children, including one still in college, I am constantly seeking spiritual material succinct enough to fit into their busy schedules but powerful enough to inspire them on their journeys. Five minutes a day is all that is needed to empower all who read this thought-provoking and very complete collection of reflections that provide the most essential food for the spirit. While most of John Henry Newman's writings may not be addressed to the general public, this soon-to-be beatified man's work should be more widely known. This compilation of Newman's reflections combined with key scripture verses is accessible to all readers. Every one of the 76 meditations are special, but the ones that my own children liked best were: "The Soul's Happiness" (mere knowledge kindles no love); "The World Is Too Small to Satisfy Us" (reminding our children that in an overly materialistic world, only God can satisfy our deepest longings); "Check Your Emotions" (Newman urges the use of reason to take prayerful control of our passions and emotions); "What Are You Looking For" (seeking only wealth, power, pleasure or comfort will never fully satisfy our spirit that yearns to know Christ); and "Life Without God" (helping others to know God's joy and grace while not allowing dark corners in our lives to remain without the light of the Spirit). The "Think About It" section at the end of each meditation challenges the reader to quietly and prayerfully seek God's response in their own souls. I will encourage each of my children to begin the day with one of Newman's kernels of wisdom, confident that those few minutes in prayerful reflection will initiate a conversation with God and sustain them all day long. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to all parents as a powerful and effective tool in guiding our children (and us) to resist all that is negative in the world and replace it with God's light shining through them. I thank God for the authors who edited Cardinal Newman's texts providing us with an anointed book that brings to life the best of a future saint.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A SPARKLING GEM OF A BOOK, September 3, 2010

By 

Ilow M. Roque (La Jolla, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Take Five: Meditations With John Henry Newman (Paperback)

"There is a time to put direct inquiry on hold and give ourselves to prayer and practical duties." Sound advice from one of the earlier, thought-provoking reminders in this sparkling gem of a book: Take Five | Meditations with John Henry Newman, written by Mike Aquilina and Fr. Juan R. Vélez and published by Our Sunday Visitor. This particular paragraph, referenced above, which begins with a direct quote from soon-to-be canonized priest, cardinal and poet, John Henry Newman: "Study is good, but it gets us only so far . . ." is actually the 15th in a series of 76 concise, logically organized meditations moving from the elementary to the sublime. Each meditation--one per page--is built upon the great man's writings and remarkably rich spirituality. Whether taken whole in one reading or in part page-by-page over a course of weeks and months, these wonderfully insightful meditations will open up, even to the busiest reader in the midst of the world, a unique pathway into prayer and contemplation. My advice to spiritual inquirers at all levels, from the novice to the spiritually adept, is to follow the authors' recommendation to use this book as a guide for daily prayer and meditation. The structure of the book itself is ideal: first, the authors introduce us to Cardinal Newman, the man, where we are given the opportunity to get to know him through a brief sketch of his life and spirituality at the beginning of the book. This is something readers will likely find themselves referring to again and again, prompting many, I suspect, to even wider explorations of this most gifted Christian leader. Then comes the meditations, consisting of a short summary of Newman's thoughts on subjects taken, as the authors explain, from various salient points for which Newman is justly remembered: The pursuit of objective religious truth; Teaching on the Virtues; Defense of the Catholic Church; A devout spiritual and moral life; and Generosity and loyalty in his friendships, which sets the topic and tone for each meditation to follow. Each meditation consists of an excerpt taken from Newman's thirty-plus volumes of writings and diaries. Next comes three brief and extremely useful sections entitled: "Think About It," which establishes a prayerfully resonant tone throughout the book; "Just Imagine," which provides a vivid, prayerful experience of the Scriptures that tie in, and finally, "Remember," a pithy summation which the authors suggest may be used as a daily aspiration. Each meditation is given its own page, which makes it ideal for daily reflection for readers on the go. This book is a must have for every serious Catholic who wants to take their faith to the next level, which is to respond appropriately to the universal call to holiness and seek interior union with God.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prayer with a new Saint-John Newman, September 3, 2010

By 

P. Forrester (Fallbrook, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Take Five: Meditations With John Henry Newman (Paperback)

John Cardinal Henry Newman was a convert to Catholicism. I too am a convert from a zealous Protestantism to Our Beautiful Catholic Faith. I read several of his books on my journey into the Catholic Church (Development of Doctrine and Apologia Pro Vita Sua). This little pocket-sized book of meditations will help me pray with a Saint. I am so excited already even though I have only started to read it.