Kirjahaku

Geoffrey Lilburne is a Minister of the Uniting Church in Australia, a theologian and poet, with qualifications in counselling and professional supervision.Joy Interrupted is his memoir of a life lived with depression. It is an honest, occasionally harrowing account of his experiences of depression and anxiety that affected his private and professional life; and of the various treatments offered to help him live with the difficult stresses of mental illness. It details what worked, and what didn't; what professional advice proved useful, and what was less effective. It records the development of medications and therapies that were available in his lifetime as well as the attitudes and reactions of others to his condition.It traces his life as student and academic, in Australia and the United States, his growth and development as theologian and minister, his work as a senior member of the Uniting Church's Assembly team and significant failures at various times in his personal life as well as in the academy and ministry. But more significantly, it relates how his discovery of prayer and spirituality enriched his life and helped him find ways of negotiating the various difficult symptoms of mental illness. His experience encourages him to share his insights and to offer to others realistic ways of coping with depression. He offers practical guidelines about the illness and its treatment and asks questions about how we night might move towards a holistic understanding of a condition that impacts brain chemistry, social interaction and the very spirit of a person. From a holistic definition of depression, he points to ways in which the treatment of the condition might need to be reshaped in practice. Based on the memoir and his reflections on his life, he traces a pathway to the rediscovery of joy that will help others as they seek to live with their depression and rediscover their joy.

I am not very good at prayer...An unexpected and unusual opening sentence for a book about prayer. And a declaration from the beginning that the book is basically a journey of exploration, an exercise in unpacking something that is constant within the Christian tradition, a reflection on Paul's command to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), an invitation to join the author as he recalls his own experiences of learning to pray, what prayer is like, how prayer 'works' in various times and ages and situations. Pray without ceasing also considers the discipline needed for prayer, persistence, learning from others within the tradition, including the desert fathers and mothers, considering the advice of acknowledged teachers like John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Henri Nouwen. It records journeys, study, encounters with groups, deep theological refection, ministries in various countries and places. It lists prayers that have helped the author to find words that express his life of prayer and his desire to share that life with others.Pray without ceasing is honest, recalling failures, distractions and difficulties as well as celebrations and successes. It is the story of a journey that many will find familiar, inviting, encouraging. Above all, at its heart, a reminder that it is the free gift of the Holy Spirit that works in each of us, helping us to grow in prayer and, finally, allowing us, tentatively, to describe what prayer is and what it means to pray without ceasing.