Title: Reading Thomas Merton and Longing for God in Haiti: Learning Wisdom in the School of My LifeAuthor(s) Gerard Thomas Straub, with Jonathan Montaldo
Published by: Pax et Bonum CommunicationsLike Saint Francis of Assisi, although to a secondary extent, Merton has mentored Gerry Straub’s spiritual exercises of remembering, of being awed by, and of obeying the commands of God’s love, received throughout his community’s days at the Santa Chiara Children’s Center. His prose is undergirded with the poetry of his longing for God’s presence in and for Haiti hour by hour. Gerry’s prose and life resonate with Merton’s texts. This book befriends Merton’s own searching for God. Straub and Merton sing together, adding their voices to the chorus of God’s beloved community in Haiti.
—From the Introduction by Jonathan Montaldo
“This new book is the finest rendition of Gerard Straub’s on-a-rough-road contemplative life in action. He recounts the influence of the monk Thomas Merton on his conversion and contemplative life. Straub’s journal reflections share his whole-hearted commitment to aid the most vulnerable.”
—L’Osservatore Romano
“The power of contemplation and action to beacon hope for our world’s dark journeys shines out in Gerry Straub’s fascinating tale of his adventures in Haiti as the founder of the Santa Chiara Children’s Center. Merton would have been avid to read the story of this married, secular Franciscan who gave up a New York media career to serve the poor. Gerry’s witness in this book would have mentored Merton on how faith in action can triumph in hiding over despair and violence.”
—Guerric Heckel, OCSO, Director of St. Francis Retreat Center at Mepkin Abbey, South Carolina
“Merton would be pleased and humbled to know he accompanied Gerry Straub into the most appalling circumstances of Haiti, and to afford motivation throughout such hopeless daily experiences encountered here with bald honesty and raw faith.”
—Brother Paul Quenon, OCSO, Abbey of Gethsemani, and Author of In Praise of the Useless Life
“In Reading Thomas Merton and Longing for God in Haiti, Gerry shows us a lot of his struggles and doubts, his stuff, as he wrestles with real-life problems. This is how mature adults put together a life of the gospel. The book is a manual in the sense that we see a model of what it’s like to do one’s homework and to put it into practice the demands of the gospel. Gerry’s book is a lesson in how to do it for any adult who’s serious about their faith.”
—Deacon Dennis Dolan, Paulist Deacon Affiliate serving in St. Petersburg, Florida
Gerald Straub has written and directed more than twenty documentary films focusing on the plight of the poor in such poverty-stricken nations as India, Kenya, Uganda, Jamaica, Haiti, Brazil, Peru, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, and The Philippines. He lives primarily in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where he operates the Santa Chiara Children’s Center, a home for forty-five abandoned and displaced kids.
ISBN13: 979-8986088815
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