Resources

 "The word disciple doesn't mean "follower", it means "student"......If we are not in some way sitting at His (Jesus Christ) feet and learning from Him here and now, we are not his disciples now. Since no one graduates from the school of Jesus until death, if we are not disciples we are dropouts."

– A challenging quote  from Reaching Jesus - Five Steps to a Fuller Life, by Fr David Knight, a former Dove retreat speaker.

Books

Reaching Jesus - Five Steps to a Fuller Life

by Fr David Knight

Published by St Anthony Messenger Press

"This book is about five things you need to do in order to enter into the experience of Jesus Christ as saviour, teacher, leader, lover and lord. In the experience of union with him on these levels you will discover the fullness of the life of grace."

Step One: The Choice to Be a Christian-Dying to False Hopes and Saviours; Rising to Jesus Christ, Saviour of the World

Step Two: The Choice to Be a Disciple - Dying to Inadequate Lights and Teachers; Rising to Discipleship

Step three: The Choice to Be a Prophet - Dying to Social Conformity; Rising to Prophetic Witness

Step Four: The Choice to Be a Priest - Dying to Self-enclosed Religion; Rising to Ministry

Step Five: The Choice to Be a Steward -Dying to Noninvolvement; Rising to Responsibility for the Kingdom

"Five graves, five risings; That is the substance of this book. Baptism committed us to all of them. But it is possible, even probable, that neither at the time of our Baptism nor afterward did we ever put them specifically in focus. We are committed to them all; we are even living them all in a general, perhaps haphazard way. And they are bearing fruit in our lives. But perhaps not the fruit they ought to bear, and not the fruit they can bear if we live them to the full.

The Christian life, the life of grace, is meant to be ongoing passionate living on every level; body, emotions, mind and will. The Christian life, passionately lived in love, is meant to give us life to the full, joy to the full.

It is meant to be an experience of God, an experience of Christ, an experience of being Christ, of being his body, seeing with his eyes, choosing according to the desires of his heart, living by his devine life, giving his life to others. It is an experience of redeeming the world.

At Baptism each of us was anointed with chrism and consecrated by God to carry on the mission of Jesus. Each one of us was sealed and committed, consecrated and anointed to be prophet, priest and steward of Christ's kingship. We were christened, "Christ-ed", so that we might continue the life and missionof the Anointed one on earth, so that we might be Christ."

A Father Who Keeps His Promises - God's Covenant Love in Scripture

by Scott Hahn

Published by St Anthony Messenger Press

Scott Hahn explores the "covenant love" God reveals to us through the Scriptures, and explains how God patiently reaches out to us - despite our faults and shortcomings - to restore us into relationship with his devine family. Begining with Adam and Eve and coming down through the generations to the coming of Christ and the birth of the Church. You'll discover how the patient love of the Father revealed in the Bible is the same pesistent love he has for you.

"What is it that unites people as members of one family? Flesh and blood and a common name. Accordingly, the members of God's universal family, the Church, are united in the sacrificial family banquet we call the Eucharist - Christ's flesh and blood. Similarly, just as a common name unites a family, we as Church are united through baptism, rebirth and adoption into God's family in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit"  ...................

"God's plan unfolds in three stages: the Old Covenant is promise; the New Covenant is fulfillment; eternity is consummation. The time period between A.D. 30 and 70 represents a momentous turning point in God's covenant plan as it unfolds in history. All Old Covenant signs had to give way to New Covenant realities. Likewise, at the end of time, the New Covenant signs (the sacrements) - which actually do what they signify - will give way to the tangible realities of eternity.

While the fulfillment is spiritual and invisible, its reality cannot be underestimated. The New Jerusalem is now. This is not another piece of the puzzle of covenant-historical interpretation. This is the puzzle; this is the picture. This is the climax of the Old and New Covenants."