Rise Up with a Listening Heart: Reflecting and Meditating with the Monks of New Skete - Hardcover

The comforting text of the Monks and the attractive gift package, make RISE UP a valuable addition to the category.

RISE UP with MUSIC What can soothe the soul as much as the grace of music? Music allows us to express and deal with our feelings constructively, lifting them to a new place, a new level of integration. Whether our feelings at the moment are joy, sorrow, or even heartache, the enchantment of music helps free the soul to sing, and its energy becomes an infectious catalyst to change. On the wings of a beautiful melody, suddenly we feel different, ready to move forward. No doubt this is why classical music is such a natural for the start of the day: It clears our head and brings us to a calm center. Surprisingly, this can even take place in your car. With today’s astonishing advances in sound quality, rush hour can suddenly become a front row seat at symphony hall, letting you arrive at work focused and ready to do your best. All you need do is open yourself to enrichment.

RISE UP from LOW SELF-ESTEEM The image makers of this world parade before us visions of life and health that are ever young, ever successful, clothed in a seamless tapestry of cheerfulness and glee. The mirror on the wall portrays a vision with many more blemishes. Measured against popular standards, we can easily undervalue our own worth. But the diary of daily life is a drama of infinite variations of both joy and frustration. To be whole is to be perfectly human, with all its vitality and weaknesses. The judge of that perfection is the Higher Power who sees into our hearts and who knows our nature and loves us, no matter what. To measure up to our own standards is an inhuman task, so leave that judgment to a Higher Power. Rise up to the life we are all called to: to be perfectly human as the Creator intended, just as all the other living beings with whom we share this world are perfect in their intended way.