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Healed by Love: Contemplation as a Path of Healing according to St. John of the Cross
Find healing through the path of contemplative prayer, which is God’s self-communication in love and awakens within us our own need for transformation.
God has planted in our hearts an insatiable longing to love and be loved, that is, to love God, others, and creation with the very love of God. We know, however, from our human experience, that we fail to love as we desire with all our hearts. In Healed by Love, Carmelite Friar Daniel Chowning urges those in need of healing to seek refuge in the spiritual doctrine of St. John of the Cross.
The more we grow in love, the healthier we become. The doctrine of St. John of the Cross is one of healing and transformation of the human person. For him, the path of contemplation, which is God’s self-communicating love, is a journey of purification, healing, and transformation at the deepest root of our being where we can love God, others, and creation according to God’s original plan for us and grow toward the fullness of who God created us to be. In Healed by Love, those suffering in body and spirit may find comfort through the teaching of St. John of the Cross and the path of contemplative prayer.
God has planted in our hearts an insatiable longing to love and be loved, that is, to love God, others, and creation with the very love of God. We know, however, from our human experience, that we fail to love as we desire with all our hearts. In Healed by Love, Carmelite Friar Daniel Chowning urges those in need of healing to seek refuge in the spiritual doctrine of St. John of the Cross.
The more we grow in love, the healthier we become. The doctrine of St. John of the Cross is one of healing and transformation of the human person. For him, the path of contemplation, which is God’s self-communicating love, is a journey of purification, healing, and transformation at the deepest root of our being where we can love God, others, and creation according to God’s original plan for us and grow toward the fullness of who God created us to be. In Healed by Love, those suffering in body and spirit may find comfort through the teaching of St. John of the Cross and the path of contemplative prayer.
249 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 29, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 16, 2025
Provincial Superior Fr. Daniel Chowning took the time and effort to bring forward a readable, yet profound teaching of St. John of the Cross. It's the Carmelite foundational charism that is a gift to our troubled world.
This book is for those of us who experience our own brokenness within a broken world. We have an opportunity to experience Love that lifts up all our many negative determinants and provides a clear and compelling path. It's called prayer. We put our love toward God and through Jesus we are loved into a well-being beyond our imagination. We dare to have confidence, then in faith we not only desire God, but our deepest ontological desires are met.
St. John of the Cross is a master teacher from his early experience of poverty, selfless ministry to the sick and indigent, his philosophical training, his years of being mentored by Teresa and then a spiritual director to nuns. But for us he left a literary trail of poetry and messages. Father Daniel has done the heavy lifting making this available to readers. All we have to do is turn the page.
This book is for those of us who experience our own brokenness within a broken world. We have an opportunity to experience Love that lifts up all our many negative determinants and provides a clear and compelling path. It's called prayer. We put our love toward God and through Jesus we are loved into a well-being beyond our imagination. We dare to have confidence, then in faith we not only desire God, but our deepest ontological desires are met.
St. John of the Cross is a master teacher from his early experience of poverty, selfless ministry to the sick and indigent, his philosophical training, his years of being mentored by Teresa and then a spiritual director to nuns. But for us he left a literary trail of poetry and messages. Father Daniel has done the heavy lifting making this available to readers. All we have to do is turn the page.
May 8, 2026
Healed by Love was, first of all, immediately frustrating because of its lack of focus. Chowning constantly goes off on strange tangents only loosely related to the points he’s trying to make. More frustrating, however, is his overemphasis on the relationship between the health of the soul and physical health. Certainly the two are connected; man is a unified totality of body and soul. Sin takes its toll on the psyche, which in turn can have ill affects on the body. But at times Chowning extends these conclusions to the point of foolishness, and in ways that become very theologically problematic.
Keeping 2 starts because the source material from John of the Cross is just good. But I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone.
Keeping 2 starts because the source material from John of the Cross is just good. But I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews