[Magdalen] Books for mind, heart and spirit, wounded and otherwise

[Jay Weigel]

Right now I'm leaning very hard on one by Karen Casey entitled Each Day a
New Beginning (Daily Meditations for Women). It's from the Hazelden
Foundation and dates back to my Al-Anon days, but it only recently
surfaced. (Amazing, isn't it?)

On Tue, Feb 2, 2016 at 4:51 PM, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'll try to list some for you, but I also have quite a few I'd be glad to
> donate, Susan. I'll call you.
> You know what just popped (or hopped) into my head?  "The Velveteen
> Rabbit." Don't know why...
>
>
> > On Feb 2, 2016, at 3:57 PM, Susan Hagen <susanvhagen at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I would like your help on a project.  I work at a state psychiatric
> > hospital that houses adults with serious mental health problem and
> > often co-occurring substance abuse issues.  A few months ago I was
> > talking to our chaplain and we got to talking about books.  One of the
> > programs she runs is a spiritual reading group for some of our higher
> > functioning patients.  They meet several times a week for an hour to
> > sit quietly and read.  They can choose from bibles (TANAKHs, Korans
> > too), devotional books, books on spirituality and world religions.  We
> > have people from pretty diverse backgrounds, Christian, Jew, Muslim,
> > secular, probably other religions.  Pastor Cynthia says that many
> > struggling with questions about what it means to be a human, and a
> > human facing adversity and suffering.  One book she frequently offers
> > them is Viktor Frankls classic, Man's Search for Meaning.  She said
> > that some are willing and able to engage with pretty demanding books.
> >
> > I love books as I know do many of us here.  I had been trying to hold
> > myself together through the holidays so promised myself that if I got
> > all the holiday stuff done I could go through my 'life lists' and put
> > together a collection to donate to the hospital spirituality program.
> > I took in four cartons of my favorites, books I love that have been
> > helpful to me.  I would love to hear recommendations from the rest of
> > you.  What are the books that have helped you make sense of life, the
> > universe and everything?  I'll be glad to share my list but at the
> > moment it's in a Word document in table format and I'll have to reduce
> > it to plain text to post it.
> > Thanks,
> > Susan
> >
> > --
> > The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among
> > you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the
> > land of Egypt.
> > Leviticus 19:34
>