New this spring:
The Sacred Gaze: Contemplation and the Healing of the Self
Eight hundred years ago, Clare of Assisi advised a correspondent to gaze into the mirror of the crucified Christ and study her own face within it. A hundred years ago, sociologist Charles Horton Cooley said we can know our self only as it is reflected to us by others. Contemplation is the choice to find our reflection in the divine Mirror. In The Sacred Gaze, Susan Pitchford explores how a false self is created by distortions in the mirrors around us. Drawing from the mystical and sociological traditions, and with practical suggestions for how to begin, Pitchford shows how gazing into the face of Christ can reveal to us who we really are. When the true self is known, and known as God’s beloved, the way is opened to radical freedom and joy
Endorsements:
The Sacred Gaze invites the reader to consider devoting the time and energy to cultivating the contemplative life, not only for its own sake, but also for the way deep experiences of God’s unconditional love have the potential to bring a deeper level of healing to a wounded or spoiled identity. To experience oneself as beloved of God, expressed either through a mutual gazing in love upon one another in imaginative contemplation or as held in God’s embrace in imageless prayer for long periods of time over a lifetime, leads to the discovery of one’s true self that relieves one of the burden of all ego projects. To look into the mirror who is Christ is to discover one’s own Christic identity.
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