The Love Letters: Saint Francis and Saint Clare or Assist Meet Pope Francis by Bruce Davis, Ph. D.

The Love Letters: Saint Francis and Saint Clare of Assisi Meet Pope Francis asks who is Pope Francis and where is he leading the Church? To understand the impact of Pope Francis and his inspiration to the Catholic Church, indeed people of all religions, we turn to the two saints who are his inspiration, Saint Francis and Saint Clare of Assisi and the great love of their spirituality. Eight hundred years ago when the Church had fallen into scandal and hard times, Saint Francis and Saint Clare lifted the Church to new life, new beginnings. Today the Church suffers the same crises. Today Pope Francis is looking at the heart full spirituality of Saint Francis and Saint Clare to lift the Church with less pomp and ceremony and more embracing the poor and unwanted. The Love Letters is the love story of Francis and Clare and the challenge for Pope Francis and the world to discover the same love in our hearts, our neighbor, nature, and all creation.


The Love Letters: Saint Francis and Saint Clare of Assisi Meet Pope Francis is historical fiction. What if Saint Francis and Saint Clare were to meet Pope Francis? What would be their thoughts, dreams and hopes for a new Church? The Love Letters is the mystical love discovered by two of the world's greatest mystics long ago asking who is the new Pope Francis? Can he rebuild the Church into a living Church, a church less concerned with rules and order and more about forgiveness and compassion? In the silence of our hearts, in giving to those in need, Saint Francis, Saint Clare, and Pope Francis offer a new vision for us all to become instruments of true peace and joy.


This title is available in traditional print and eBook formats at fine online retails such as Alibris, Amazon, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, Book Depository, Booktopia, Copia, Google Books, iBookstore, Scribd, and Smashwords.

 

About Author Bruce Davis, Ph. D.

Bruce Davis, Ph.D. was trained as a psychologist but discovered early that true happiness is not possible without a meaningful spiritual life. Through the years he traveled and lived in many cultures in different parts of the world. But it was in Assisi, Italy, the historic home of Saint Francis and Saint Clare, that he found a peace and inner path which seemed universal in its language and presence. In Assisi, pilgrims from every part of the world, of all religions find a spirituality that speaks of simple peace.

 

After years of bringing groups to Assisi, Bruce and his wife, Ruth, decided to live in Assisi. In the spirit of Saint Francis, they created The Assisi Retreat Center with altars to all the world’s major religions. Their center was given an official blessing by Pope John Paul. The Assisi Retreat Center was listed as one of the top ten meditation retreats in the world by Travel and Leisure Magazine. More recently CNN listed the center again as one of the top ten meditation centers in the world.

After many years of leading retreats, Bruce found the main ingredients for personal transformation included spending time in silence, nature, and heartfulness meditation. The peace and quiet of silence helps people to discover an inner presence in the heart that is lost by many in our busy world. Ruth has created a movement practice called Sacred Movement Ritual which is prayer through movement. Since creating the Assisi Retreat Center, Bruce and Ruth have started Silent Stay, a retreat center near Napa, California.

Bruce is the author of several books including: The Magical Child Within You, The Heart of Healing, Monastery Without Walls, My Little Flowers, The Calling of Joy, and Simple Peace-The Spiritual Life of St. Francis of Assisi. Bruce is also a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post. For more information about Bruce’s and Ruth’s current activities visit their website at: www.SilentStay.com.

Truth: My Synchromystic Journey by Niki Norlock

Grave Distractions Publications would like to announce the publication of Truth: My Synchromystic 3rd edition by Niki Norlock. The second edition of Truth was actually one of the first books that we published here at GDP and Niki holds a special place in our hearts.

The journey of a Synchromystic… It guides us to the realization that all things created are divine, and that in all things we can find evidence of the love sourced creative force that birthed our physical world. It teaches us to embrace the truth that there is no separation between physical and spiritual. It helps us to understand and accept that life, in all its mystical and magical glory, is merely a representation of our purest hearts desires. Essentially, it reminds us that our most precious gift is the experience of life itself, and in the process, strips away our dependence on fear as the motivating force behind our decision making.


Raised a Christian and living a life of confusion, I was, for many years, the black sheep of a family that could not accept my views, my choices or my actions. I had grown up knowing that I did not fit in to the societal ‘box’ that had been presented to me as the ‘norm’ and so had lived a life pushing against all the things that I saw to be ‘wrong’ in our world.


In early 2009, my self-destructive cycle came to an abrupt end shortly after the passing of my most respected and treasured family elder. After what seemed to be a lifetime of loss and poor choices, I was gifted with the desire to find a better way to live. I set out to find the answers to some of the most fundamental questions about human existence. Who am I? Why am I here? – and most importantly – What is this God thing anyways?


For several nights I lay awake asking for guidance; no answers came... Then came the night when my heart led me to offer what I had never offered before; I would give up my preconceived notions, my beliefs, my fear of change and I would, without question, follow the path that was laid before me. My body was infused with radiant warmth and I drifted off to sleep knowing that life as I knew it, would never be the same. In that moment I embraced the presence of the Divine; I would from that day on, never be alone again. I woke up the next day, quit my job and two weeks later I found myself on the other side of the world, in a strange land, pen in hand, documenting the extraordinarily exciting encounters I was having with ordinary people who would ultimately be the inspiration behind my life’s work.


What followed was a magical adventure into the unknown, a sychromystic journey filled with signs, messages and divine gifts of grace. Chance encounters with remarkably wise strangers would eventually lead me to an internal place of peace and acceptance, for myself, the life I had lived, and for the world and all the potential that it holds hidden within our jaded perceptions. In the Philippines, I entered a world where faith, family and friendship were the core values, where trust in the divine was not something people struggled to attain but rather was simply a way of life. It is a world where miracles are not the exception but rather the expectation and it is there that I learned the power of forgiveness and gratitude to heal the human heart.


Truth – My Synchromystic Journey is the story of the return to innocence; an emotional exploration into self. It is all that I was, and all that I am, laid bare for all to see. It is a revealing of a deeper truth, one that we all share, buried in our untapped knowingness… That we humans, all of us, are not, never have been, and never will be, alone.


This title is available in traditional print and eBook formats at fine online retails such as Amazon, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Books A Million, Book Depository, Copia, Google Books, Kobo eBooks, iBookstore, Scribd, and Smashwords.