Wrestling With God [Paperback]

Killian Mcdonnell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2011

The Bible is full of persons who wrestle with God. As they stumble in their lives, they love and adore their Lord. They also scheme, lie, cheat, steal, quarrel, and fornicate. Abraham, the faith model for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, tells Sarah to lie; Sarah scolds God for ignoring her; Amnon rapes his sister; Judas recognizes Jesus unconditional love for him; Mary thinks that by distancing himself from her, Jesus hammered a spike into her breast; Peter s wife crawls into their bed and snuggles up; Jesus relatives think he is crazy. In a word, as seekers of God the biblical characters mirror our lives. Like Jacob we limp away from the wrestling match.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kilian McDonnell, OSB, is a monk/theologian of Saint John s Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota. He is the author of three other books of poetry: Swift, Lord, You Are Not, Yahweh s Other Shoe, and God Drops and Loses Things (Saint John s University Press).

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Liturgical Press (August 31, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974099287
• ISBN-13: 978-0974099286
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,201,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wrestling with God (and living to tell the tale), October 15, 2011

By 

ConnieM - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wrestling With God (Paperback)

"As though we'd quarreled,

my son moved out of home,

out of Nazareth to live in Peter's house

in lovely seashore Capernaum twenty miles

from me and family."

(Hammer, Spike, Mary)

In his fourth book of Poetry: WRESTLING WITH GOD, Father Kilian McDonnell, OSB, monk and theologian at Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota uses "the idiom of the common people" to speak for those who "love and adore their Lord" yet "limp away from the wrestling match" as they try to understand the mysteriously infinite ways of GOD.

Insight into Mary's bitter-sweet life is one of the poems in the first section titled: "STEPPING INTO THE RING." Father Kilian McDonnell gives voice to one of the sorrows which surely the mother of GOD was well acquainted. As JESUS fulfilled his destiny, did Mary ponder the prophesy of Simeon?

"and a sword will pierce even your own soul--

to the end that thoughts from many hearts will be revealed."
(Luke 2:35 NASB)

Within the second section: "TWO COUNT," Killian takes us through Abraham's lament of "Every Promise a Fang."

"I bind Isaac on the altar of Moriah,

but you stay my hand. We return to Beer-sheba heavy with knowing

God. I wait, wary."

Father Kilian shares a glimpse of sad reality in "COUNT THREE," as his friend and fellow monk, mathematician Father Florian Muggli, OSB, struggles with Alzheimers.

"I stand

in freedom, watch you stretch a palsied

hand, stroke shiny knobs,

open doors to your antiseptic dark

that covers the math of limits

and the infinite. The study of functions

to lift a rocket, gauge

the arc to the moon, ends

when your spoon cannot

calculate the distance from carrots

on the plate to your mouth."

Even as we love and ardently worship YAHWEH, surely all of us experience times of wondering what GOD is doing and why. Speaking the words we often fear to articulate, Father Kilian leads us through the valley of wrestling to a place "On the Highest Ziggurat" where we realize that

"If I climbed the highest ziggurat,

I could not touch your lowest mystery."

My sincere appreciation to Kilian McDonnell and Liturgical Press for supplying a complimentary copy of WRESTLING WITH GOD for review. Connie [...]

5.0 out of 5 stars Best recent book I've read, January 15, 2012

By 

Paul P. Marks (Baton Rouge, LA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wrestling With God (Paperback)

I don't generally read poetry but I loved this -- every poem. I read it on a silent retreat and was captivated by it. I'm looking forward to reading more of Father McDonnell's poetry.