Human beings . . . how often have we heard those two words without a thought to what they mean? Oh, we could define "human," but what about the word "being" or better yet, "Being." Vaclav Havel, Czech writer, dissident, and finally, peaceful liberator of his country searched for the true meaning of Being in his series of essays written while in prison. Havel described Being as the state of one's heart, the key to life and one's orientation to it. He believed there are moments when we briefly glimpse these islands of meaning: when we love, show compassion, look into another's eyes. These thoughts on the nature of Being, the inherent right of human beings to live freely, truthfully and in dignity came to Havel in the solitude of his imprisonment. How often do we witness these social and peaceful revolutions fermenting in the minds of those imprisoned (Mandela, Gandhi, King, Solzhenitsyn) all for the intrinsic right to be a human Being? Now it is John Chuchman's turn to awaken us to the meaning of Being, our own peaceful revolution within. This is John's seventeenth book. In all of them he travels through moments of grief and joy with his poetry, companionship and caring. "Being - Our Destiny" is an introspective understanding of true self. It is a radiant source of wisdom and a link between our Being and the Divine, through the redemptive power of Love. Follow John's Quest for True Self and his discovery of God as BEING-in-Love.

Divine Incarnation is not merely some historical event that happened 2000 years. Incarnation and Creation are One in the Same each and every Moment. As Creation Evolves so does Incarnation. As we evolve, our notion of the Divine evolves.

The first letter of John, 4, 7-16, touched me deeply with the words, God is Love; When we live in Love, we live in God and God in us. The restrictive, biased, inadequate view of Our Creator as a white-haired old man sitting in judgment of us simply no longer worked for me. Indeed, it seems we have envisioned the Divine in our own image. Perhaps a better idea of God is Source of Love, Embodiment of Love, and Love in Action. God (as Verb) IS Love and I AM only because (God as) LOVE IS. Join me here in exploring this notion.

Human Experience is the very stuff of Spirituality; Don't try to escape life's everyday experiences and don't worry about trying to define Spiritually. Just live life to the fullest and be aware of the guidance all around us. Awareness, Awareness, Awareness

One man's venture out from the apparent security of religious boundaries in order to seek Spiritual nurturing and personal growth. His experiences along the way--frustrations with institutionalized religion and excitement in discovering life's wonderful gifts--all expressed in free-form poetic style.

John Chuchman, Pastoral Bereavement Educator and Companion shares his Grief and Caregiving workshop and seminar materials and background information hoping to help anyone experiencing a loss in life and anyone wishing to improve his/her basic caregiving skills.

Some humorous, yet sad aspects of institutional religion.

Human Experience; The Very Stuff of Spirituality The place you and I stand every day of our lives is Holy Ground because God is present. My present experience, where I am called to be Right Now is Sacred. In the here and now, in this space and moment, I can nurture a spirit of contemplation within myself and deepen my awareness of God who speaks to me continually in the midst of my daily life. Like you, I am invited to draw near to The Fire of God's Mystery, to Love and Contemplate God's presence in the world, and to remember I stand always and everywhere on Sacred Ground. The Holy Spirit is always at work in you and me calling us into a deep, prayerful Attentiveness to God's Presence within every moment, in every person, I encounter, in all aspects of God's Creation. The Spirit calls you and me to Silence, Sacred Space, Slowing, Seeing, Sensing, and Savoring.

Expressions of frustration at the lack of accountability and transparency on the part of church hierarchy. A sharing of feelings that institutional church has lost sight of the original mission seeking now only to protect the institution as it exists and the hierarchy's control of it. Expressions of resentment of the attempts to reverse the great work of Vatican II with hope that church will become all it can be for people on life's journey. A plea and hope that people take back their church.

John Chuchman's book "I Love My Church, BUT, OH MY GOD" is about religion, specifically the troubled contemporary religious culture of the Roman Catholic Church, which includes within it elements of deep spirituality and high institutionalism. Formulated in John's characteristic free-line formatting, some selections read as mystical poetry and others as direct confrontation - all contest for institutional and hierarchical reform. In his inclusion of both the political and the mystical, the prosaic and the poetic, John provides a metaphor of the Church itself: often superficial and foolish in the midst of complexity and depth; commonly self-betraying yet self-confronting; always human yet relentlessly pressing its way to God. Barbara M. DeGrand, M.A.

In " . . . Journeying through Life . . ." John shares experiences, observations, lessons, insights, and his personal growth and transformation.

"This is a book of poetry in the truest sense: life experiences recollected in tranquility and expressed in striking, creative ways." Ernest E. Larkin, O. Carm. Kino Institute, Phoenix, Arizona

One man's journey up the Mountain of Life with many of the Treasures discovered along the way.

A Collection of Wisdom encountered by the Author, John Chuchman, on his path of Spiritual Growth. It is his hope that some of these may be helpful to the readers on their life journeys. David armed himself with a few small pebbles and used one to slay the giant Goliath. Would that one of the Wisdom Pebbles contained in this work can be used by you to slay whatever Goliath is blocking your path to Spiritual Wholeness.