In Sundown at Faith Regional, Barbara Schmitz offers Heart Medicine which "drops the pain body"-an invitation to let go to the rhythms of her love songs to life. Death and childhood; memory and forgetting; family cacophonies and inventions of relationships. Detachment and acceptance, like 'the indifference cloak, ' creates a liberating energy. "The wings to the heart the Sufis say / are independence / and indifference, ' and the sense of humor at our failings becomes the success. Laced with "beauty, the lyrical pain," we drink an elixir of laughter and tears. "Barbara Schmitz explores the necessary question of how to live fully even as one faces one's own mortality. The poems are clear-eyed, unflinching, accepting of loss and grief, acknowledging suffering, yet often witty and filled with a quiet sense of wonder as she observes the world around her and ponders the connections we humans make with our surroundings and each other. She knows that 'It hurts this dissolving / Still it's where we hope to go.' Her poems never lose faith as they sing us on our way."-Grace Bauer, author of Unholy Heart: New & Selected Poems "Sundown at Faith Regional is like a look at a lifetime in a moment's flash. Barbara Schmitz works with heavy themes of aging and illness using a gentle touch that shows a comforting joy. It's this kind of playing with our expectations that adds to the power, with poems like 'Meditation on Potato Salad' which has dimensions by being both funny as well as a serious meditation on meditation. It's a book full of surprises in both the pain and the joy of it, well worth the journey."-Matt Mason, author of I Have a Poem the Size of the Moon "'Give me inspiration' Schmitz asks 'one more noseful mouthful / eyes alight give me wonder' and the universe answers as it always does, with longings fulfilled and forgotten, with generous hours that whittle down toward their final goodbyes. While both faith and fear linger here, Sundown at Faith Regional bends the needle toward hope, 'not lying exactly / but stretching the truth / with our arms so / it fits over our shoulders.'"-Todd Robinson, author of Mass for Shut-Ins
Author and poet Barbara Schmitz offers a heartful, funny, and deeply moving “spiritual autobiography” that brings the reader along on each stage of her fervent inner quest for mystical experience. Beginning with a Catholic girlhood in Nebraska, she graduates to an unlikely apprenticeship with Allen Ginsberg at the Naropa Institute; a dedicated transcendental meditation practice; and finally to thirty years of joys and struggles with a Sufi teacher (Shahabuddin Less) with whom she travels to Bali, Turkey, India, Kashmir, and the Holy Land. Incisive as lightning—the meaning of her Sufi name, Vajra—her questions and yearnings are our own, and she doesn't let God, her teacher, or herself off the hook.
A compelling preacher shares her unique method for creating memorable sermons in this practical, down-to-earth manual that's chock-full of excellent ideas for homiletical preparation. It's an engaging look at what characterizes outstanding preaching as well as a humorous catalog of the hazards facing those who enter the pulpit. Schmitz relates numerous amusing and instructive anecdotes from her own preaching experience and offers valuable advice on how to write and deliver messages with maximum impact. For example, Schmitz notes that compelling stories which resonate with hearers are a crucial ingredient of great sermons -- and Preaching To Myself illustrates how to tap into this endlessly renewable resource. Simple, funny, field-tested in the trenches with real people -- if you want to enjoy a chuckle while learning what makes top-notch sermons that change lives, then this is the book for you. Schmitz has written an entertaining and engaging book full of helpful ideas and sermon examples that will challenge and inspire. This is a very good tool, especially for the newer preacher. Rev. Kevin E. Martin Canon for Congregational Development, Episcopal Diocese of Texas Preaching To Myself will be very useful, particularly for people who feel unorganized about the whole project of preaching. It's written with humor and lots of helpful hints about how to get and stay organized for this crucial ministry. Rt. Rev. Catherine M. Waynick Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis Barbara G. Schmitz is an Episcopal priest who loves to preach. She has served several Episcopal and Lutheran churches in Michigan, as well as at the diocesan and synodical level. She is currently the Assistant to the Bishop of the North/West Lower Michigan Synod (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). A graduate of Houghton College and Cornell University, Schmitz is the author of The Life Of Christ And The Death Of A Loved One: Crafting The Funeral Homily (CSS).
A step-by-step description of crafting a funeral homily. Included are sample sermons and canticle and music suggestions to aid in planning the entire funeral service.
This foundational Peace and Conflict Studies text is formatted to fit inside a 14 week college/university term. The chapters are designed to provide a succinct overview of research, theory, and practice that can be supplemented with material chosen by the professor. The book introduces students to the core concepts of the field, and provides an up to date alternative to the Peace and Conflict readers. It will move from historical development of the field to the way forward into the future. Each chapter will reflect current trends and research and contain up to date examples, questions for discussion or for potential student research topics, suggested reading, and engaged teaching activities.
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