Patrick's Books and CDs

A NEW CD by Patrick:

TIME TO GROW UP 

Living into our eternal destiny

a 2-CD set

This series of talks by Patrick Oliver was presented at the Christian Meditation Community’s retreat day in November 2009. In Time to Grow Up, Patrick invites the listener to go beyond the more common perceptions of what Christian life is about, and into the heart of the Gospel message. He reminds us that eternal life isn’t a prize in the future for those who’ve fulfilled certain requirements, but it’s about sharing in God’s presence now.

Heaven and hell are real – but not as places we get sent to because we’ve passed or failed a moral exam. God’s judgment and justice are real – but not as we may have thought. “Following Jesus” is an absolute necessity for all of us - but in a way more sublime and sacred than we’ve made it to be.

CD 1 – From where are you living?

              Trinity, heaven and hell

              Divine judgment’s upon you!

              God’s justice and mercy

CD 2 – Living prayerfully

              Revisiting difficult gospel passages

Phone Patrick on (07) 3356 4218 for your copy of the CD "Time to Grow Up: Living into our Eternal Destiny", or send your cheque for $20 plus $5 postage, made to "Patrick Oliver", to 94 Reuben St Stafford Brisbane Qld 4053.

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Now the CD!

Excerpts from the book

THE FREEING OF GOD

Revisiting the gospels

in the second half of life

Track 1 –       Introduction

Track 2 –       The Prologue (John 1:1-18)

Track 3 –       Nicodemus (John 3: 1-18)

Track 4 –       The Rich Young Man (Matthew 19:16-26)

Track 5 –       The Adulterous Woman (John 8:1-12)

Track 6 –       The Sign of Jonah (Luke 11:20-54)

Track 7 –       The Washing of the Feet (John 13:1-20)

Track 8 –       The Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14: 1-21)

Track 9 –       The Crucifixion (Mark 15:33-39)

Track 10-      The Emmaus Story (Luke 24: 13-35

                              Track 11-      Peter after the Resurrection (John 21: 14-25)

                                            $15 plus $5 postage and packaging throughout Australia

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Phone Patrick on (07) 3356 4218 for your copy of the CD "Excerpts from 'The Freeing of God: Revisiting the Gospels in the Second Half of Life'",  or send your cheque for $15 plus $5 postage, made to "Patrick Oliver", to 94 Reuben St Stafford Brisbane Qld 4053.

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I enclose $__ ($15 plus $5 postage throughout Australia for each CD)

There are some things you can know

only by staying on the journey for a few decades …

When we’re “staying awake”,

we find that life has a habit of trying to teach us about what it means

to really love, to fail, to hope and to pray.

It teaches us about being human …

which is about belonging to God.

Sadly, countless people through the years have been bruised and bludgeoned through the misuse and abuse of the scriptures. Rather than being set free to enjoy and relish the fullness of life, their passion and humanity have been hobbled through needless shame and guilt. The liberating message of the Gospel so often has been twisted into a voice of condemnation, a confirmation of self-hate, and a reinforcer of people’s fear of themselves as a failure – and it’s this abuse that “The Freeing of God” sets out to offset.

This book doesn’t pretend to be either a commentary or a translation of the gospels. Rather, it’s a retelling of every verse and chapter, from the perception of what’s sometimes called “the second half of life”. And what is this?

Most of us spend our first few decades trying to get it together, get secure, get loveable, or get over our fears – and when the Gospel is heard through these lenses, we can hear it as a finger-wagging insistence for us to improve. God gets painted wearing a perpetual frown that displays divine displeasure – for it seems we’re never good enough, never moral enough, or never believing fervently enough. Why would anyone want to have anything to do with God?

Hopefully though, somewhere along the line we gradually learn that love can’t be earned, that peace of soul can’t be bought and that forgiving life for being imperfect is the only way through. In this “second half of life”, we can let mistakes and wounds be the way into deeper loving, we can let ourselves and others be mixtures of light and shadow, and we can surrender the need to be something other than who we are. Such shifts in perspective also change the way we let the gospels tell us of who God is …

“The Freeing of God” holds that the Gospel speaks to the heart of being human, and will help readers to discover their own life as the sacred story. It’s an offering that invites the soul to dance with the God who woos.

$30 plus $10 postage throughout Australia. (See "Recent News" page for order form)

‘FROM PALMS TO PENTECOST – THE ETERNAL STORY’ was the theme of the 2007 Lay Retreat for the Toowoomba Anglican Diocese at the James Byrne Centre at Highfields, outside Toowoomba. These five CDs are edited recordings of the talks that trace the last week of Jesus’ life, through to the Ascension and Pentecost. Patrick approaches these talks through a spirituality that asks “How are these Gospel stories also my own? How is my story within the Great Story of the gospels and the story of humanity?”

CD1 –             Track 1: Friday evening: Introduction to the retreat

CD2 –             Track 1: Entry into Jerusalem to Washing of the Feet

                        Track 2: Last Supper reflection

                        Track 3: Gethsemane

CD3 –              Track 1: Betrayal by Judas to Carrying of the Cross

                        Track 2: Stations of the Cross reflection

                        Track 3: Crucifixion to the Burial of Jesus

                        Track 4: Good Friday reflection

CD4 –             Track 1: The Resurrection to Pentecost

CD5 –             Track 1: From Performance to Participation

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Please send me __ copies of “From Palms to Pentecost”.

Cost: $30 plus $5 postage and packaging throughout Australia. (Please write cheques to “Patrick Oliver”)

• The Track Back: The Spirit in Australian Creation was published in 1993 by St Paul Publications in Sydney. Written in a reflective style, it takes examples of Australian fauna and flora to illustrate phases of prayer and contemplation. $5 + $4 postage and handling

• Drinking Deeply: Learning to Listen to the Song of Your Soul was self-published in 1999. It takes mythological motifs from around the world to illustrate how the spiritual journey is an integral part of being human. Drinking Deeply uses many dreams as jumping-off points for showing the beauty, subtleties and challenges of the Journey. $10 + $5 postage and handling

• Getting Out of the Way: the Essence of Spirituality Put Simply was self-published in 2002. It explores the common phrases that are used in Christian-talk, and asks what they might mean in down-to-earth ordinary language. For example, what does “Jesus died to save us” mean – using words that aren’t highly theological or irrelevant? $10 + $5 postage and handling

• A God to Fall Into: Seven Echoes of the Great Adventure of Living in the heart of God was self-published in 2005. It gives a way into the key elements of the Christian tradition by distilling seven major themes or “echoes” that run through the scriptures. These echoes are divided into ten sub-themes that break open their richness in the scriptures and in the essence of Christian spirituality. It comes with a total of one hundred and five meditation cards. The ways of using this kit for prayer are endless. $40 plus $7 postage and handling
   

  
  Excerpts from an interview with Jan Herring in January 2006.

  So what made you write on “A God to Fall Into: Seven Echoes …”

  I wanted to find a way whereby people could get a sense of what is in the spirit of the “Great Tradition” of Christian teaching and what is not. When we are faced with the myriad of opinions, comments, books and biases of people’s reflections on the Christian Scriptures, it can be quite confusing and overwhelming. I wanted to provide a kind of ready-reckoner, a little discernment tool to help us see what lines up with the Tradition and what doesn’t. It isn’t the last word, only hopefully a little help along the way. On the personal level, I get tired of people pulling out this half-verse and that half-verse and stringing them together to get whatever meaning they want to fit their bias; it’s such an abuse of the Scriptural tradition. I also wanted to show the reader the perennial relevance and timelessness of scripture as well. You can get such a perspective not by simply cutting and pasting verses here and there, but by seeing and recognising the overall great patterns, which I call “echoes”. I suppose it took about two years to read through the Lectionary and observe what themes kept coming up. As I was reading, my hunch was that those themes that kept arising would be “meeting points” which would provide common ground with other religions and denominations, because God’s Spirit isn’t contained by geographical or cultural boundaries. The biblical story is the human story of divine encounter.

  How do your Seven Echoes come into this retreat?

  The invitations of the Holy Spirit go on in our lives whether or not we name them in religious terminology. Transformation and conversion happen in the ordinary stuff of life, and if it doesn’t happen there it’s not happening.

  It doesn’t matter to God whether you’ve got the right terminology. The Seven Echoes hopefully cover much of the “stuff” of life – the joys and sorrows, the personal interactions, the warp and woof that makes up the everyday. They are designed to help us read Scripture with a deeper insight, so connections with daily life can be made more readily. These seven echoes are the “life-death-life pattern”, “it’s about grace and not collecting badges”, “God’s never what you expect”, “engagement and detachment”, “the discovery and expansion of soulspace”, “the two-sided coin of prayer and non-violence”, and “there is only One”. When we’re aware of the great themes of the scriptures, we don’t so easily get thrown off and miss the wood for the trees.

For all enquiries or comments regarding any information on this website, please contact Patrick by
Email: p.oliver@mcauley.acu.edu.au or
Phone: (61)7 3356 4218
©Copyright 2007 Patrick Oliver