The Sadness of Christ

Rating:
Summary: Excellent spiritual reading.
Review: More's strength to face his imminent excecution leads him to ponder on Christ's Passion. His marvellous way of looking at life and man in the midst of political turbulence and of struggling against a tide of King Henry VIII followers gives us the necessary strength to strive in difficult situations and to think that happiness and love can be found in the detachmentof material things and as close followers of Christ's example

Rating:
Summary: An excellent meditation on PRAYER by a Man of Prayer
Review: Sir Thomas More wrote THE SADNESS OF CHRIST while imprisoned in the Tower of London awaiting excecution for defiance of apostate King Henry VIII's ACT of SUPREMACY[declaring himself Head of the Universal(Catholic-Christian)Church]. More's essay is didactic meditation on Christ's AGONY IN THE GARDEN before He was arrested at Gethsemane, including the betrayal by his friend and Apostle, Judas. More's intention for writing was two-fold and mutually inclusive: First was to steel himself for martyrdom in defying the King's illegal(according to Magna Carta and Royal Oath of Coronation)assertion of Self-Apotheosis. The second--more subtle and profound--was to illuminate the humility of Jesus Christ submitting to criminal degradation in the Mystery of Man and Savior and GOD-MAN as SAVIOR.

Following Introduction by Gerard Wegemer of University of Dallas Texas, More's COMMENTARY on the Gospel concerning Jesus' bitter Three Hours in Prayer before Trial and Crucifixion is dramatic, startlingly blunt and incisive.The writing is rife with sarcasm and wit for which the former Chancellor and Humanist scholar was renowned. Again and again, history's Man for All Season's pricks "conscientious" reader's conscience with irony of The Lord- God-made-Man freely...yet in Fear & Trembling...acquiescing to abandonment, mockery,torture and death. The Lesson is "simple": If God Almighty...INNOCENCE...embraced ultimate Suffering for sakes of(often)thankless, sinful creatures OUT OF LOVE, might we not imitate Him in gratitude? The essay concludes with Scriptural quotes; exhortations on Imploring Divine Help and(grace)To Treat Those Who Wrong Us; Meditations on Saving One's Life and (spiritual)Detachment...

A PRAYER BEFORE DYING--the essence of the work written as Final Testament by one of the West's genuine heroes to Goodness and Justice in integrity of conscience and purity of heart--concludes THE SADNESS OF CHRIST. This last prayer is a plea for MERCY: For Friends; for enemies; and for the very lonely man who had been stripped of honor,love and even family consolation AS HAD BEEN THE LONELY GOD to Whom he prayed for courage and strength as sustaining Blessing. This is a wonderful book:provocative in TIME of TRIBULATION;ultimately consoling to seekers wishing to confirm the Source of Mercy as certain and KNOWING our plight...(10 stars)

Rating:
Summary: St. Martha Parish Bulletin Book Club March 2002 Selection
Review: St. Martha Parish in Okemos, Michigan Bulletin Book Club March 2002 Selection Fr. Jonathan Wehrle, Pastor
As Roman Catholics we accept that we will die to this earth and be born into another. Our religion is rich in historic saints whose sufferings and trials mirror our contemporary human reaction to impending death. St. Thomas More is an example. He refused, even when faced with execution and death in Renaissance England, to deny his Christian life. Rather, he focused "sharply on Christ's human reaction to His approaching death." [p. v]
St. Thomas More wrote his last book with the purpose of contrasting "Christ's way of acting with our own." [p. vi] More, a lawyer and judge, served King Henry VIII as Chancellor of the Roman Catholic Church of England until he resigned in protest at the actions the king was taking to destroy the Catholic Church in England. While King Henry VIII did sunder the Church of England from Rome and further abused human and religious rights, it was not without the ultimate protest from More. Reflecting upon Christ's steadfastness provided solace for More in the Tower of London awaiting trial and his last confession and execution.
This final work of St. Thomas More's shares his reflections on the Passion and Death of Christ. Christ as fully God begged as man his Father to remove the passion to come, but humbly submitted when the choice was presented. More concludes from this that while Christ made distinctions, we also "sometimes apply to our whole selves things which actually are true only of the soul [made in the image and likeness of God], and on the other hand we sometimes speak of our selves when strict accuracy would require us to speak of our bodies alone." [p. 30]
More, seeming quite contemporary, includes a Collection of Scriptural Quotes and Reflections and presents the case for such as right reason as a key to the next world, but also for making ourselves every day "living members, sweet Savior Christ, of Your holy mystical body, Your Catholic Church." [p. 154] While More did not wish to die to this world, he reflects that "Whoever saves his life in such a way that he displeases God shall soon afterwards, with no little grief, find his life thoroughly displeasing." [p. 144]
More's work in this text unmistakeably imprints the imagery in todays Catholic Church as one body of people called Church with Christ as its Head.

Rating:
Summary: St. Martha Parish Bulletin Book Club March 2002 Selection
Review: St. Martha Parish in Okemos, Michigan Bulletin Book Club March 2002 Selection Fr. Jonathan Wehrle, Pastor
As Roman Catholics we accept that we will die to this earth and be born into another. Our religion is rich in historic saints whose sufferings and trials mirror our contemporary human reaction to impending death. St. Thomas More is an example. He refused, even when faced with execution and death in Renaissance England, to deny his Christian life. Rather, he focused "sharply on Christ's human reaction to His approaching death." [p. v]
St. Thomas More wrote his last book with the purpose of contrasting "Christ's way of acting with our own." [p. vi] More, a lawyer and judge, served King Henry VIII as Chancellor of the Roman Catholic Church of England until he resigned in protest at the actions the king was taking to destroy the Catholic Church in England. While King Henry VIII did sunder the Church of England from Rome and further abused human and religious rights, it was not without the ultimate protest from More. Reflecting upon Christ's steadfastness provided solace for More in the Tower of London awaiting trial and his last confession and execution.
This final work of St. Thomas More's shares his reflections on the Passion and Death of Christ. Christ as fully God begged as man his Father to remove the passion to come, but humbly submitted when the choice was presented. More concludes from this that while Christ made distinctions, we also "sometimes apply to our whole selves things which actually are true only of the soul [made in the image and likeness of God], and on the other hand we sometimes speak of our selves when strict accuracy would require us to speak of our bodies alone." [p. 30]
More, seeming quite contemporary, includes a Collection of Scriptural Quotes and Reflections and presents the case for such as right reason as a key to the next world, but also for making ourselves every day "living members, sweet Savior Christ, of Your holy mystical body, Your Catholic Church." [p. 154] While More did not wish to die to this world, he reflects that "Whoever saves his life in such a way that he displeases God shall soon afterwards, with no little grief, find his life thoroughly displeasing." [p. 144]
More's work in this text unmistakeably imprints the imagery in todays Catholic Church as one body of people called Church with Christ as its Head.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful thoughts of a man on the way to his martyrdom
Review: St. Thomas More writes a series of meditations on the passion of Christ in this short volume, beginning with the betrayal of the Iscariot and ends with the actual capture and trial of Jesus. More wrote this volume while contemplating his upcoming martyrdom; while seeing his friends from the London Carthusian Charterhouse being martyred; while receiving messages of encouragement from Bishop John Fisher, who resided in worse conditions in the cell below him in the infamous Tower of London.

This volume is a wonderful volume for meditation, but needs to be taken slowly. More was not one for long, flowery sentences, and thus wrote very simply. The initial urge is to read quickly. It is best to take in each word with this volume and picture Christ's suffering in one's mind while reading. A good book.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful thoughts of a man on the way to his martyrdom
Review: St. Thomas More writes a series of meditations on the passion of Christ in this short volume, beginning with the betrayal of the Iscariot and ends with the actual capture and trial of Jesus. More wrote this volume while contemplating his upcoming martyrdom; while seeing his friends from the London Carthusian Charterhouse being martyred; while receiving messages of encouragement from Bishop John Fisher, who resided in worse conditions in the cell below him in the infamous Tower of London.

This volume is a wonderful volume for meditation, but needs to be taken slowly. More was not one for long, flowery sentences, and thus wrote very simply. The initial urge is to read quickly. It is best to take in each word with this volume and picture Christ's suffering in one's mind while reading. A good book.