Joan Chittister, Guest Author Visits St. Mark's

The Lion's Den Bookstore and The New Canaan Library are pleased to present Joan Chittister, Order of Saint Benedict, who will introduce her new book The Gift of Years:  Growing Older Gracefully on Tuesday evening, April 22 at 7 PM.  Following the reading will be a question and answer session and signing. There is no admission charge; reservations are not necessary but are requested and can be sent to mmoyna@stmarksnewcanaan.org.

The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully

Joan Chittister, Order of Saint Benedict, one of the most celebrated spiritual writers of our time, encourages us to cherish the blessings of older age and to overcome its burdens. She embraces aging as a natural part of life that is both active and contemplative, productive, and deeply rewarding. We need to take a stand against age discrimination and resist the illusion of eternal youth. We need to surmount our fears of getting older and find the beauty of what it means to age well. Because this is a special period of life—maybe the most special of them all. To live these years well, we need to look at every one of them head up and alive. Life is not about age, about the length of years we manage to eke out of it. It is about aging with grace, about living into the values offered every day.

Perhaps the most important dimension of aging well lies in the awareness that there is a purpose to aging. There is a reason for old age. There is intention built in to every stage of life, no less this one than any other. Old age rewards us with wisdom, freedom, and prosperity of another kind. Old age enlightens—not simply ourselves, but those around us as well.

This book looks at the many dimensions of the aging process, its purpose and its challenges, its struggles and its surprises, its problems and its potential, its pains and its joys. It deals with the sense of rejection that comes from feeling out of it. It reflects on the temptation to isolate oneself from the changes taking place, and on the need to stay involved. It discusses issues of health and well-being and the need to put one’s affairs in order. It describes what happens as old relationships end and shift, change and disappear in favor of the many new people and new challenges that come to take their place. It talks about the fear of tomorrow and the mystery of forever—and how to cope with it all. It is panoply of central issues that emerge with age to bring us to the fullness of life, to make us new again.

These are the capstone years, the years in which a whole new life is in the making again. But the gift of this period is not merely being alive, it is the gift of becoming more fully alive than ever.
                     
JOAN D. CHITTISTER is an internationally known author and lecturer, and the executive director of Benetvision: A Resource and Research Center for Contemporary Spirituality.  She currently serves as co-chair of the UN-sponsored Global Peace Initiative of Women.
Her many books include:

       The Friendship of Women

       In Search of Belief

       The Book of Ruth

She lives in Erie, Pennsylvania.

                               Praise for THE GIFT OF YEARS

“Joan Chittister has a prophetic voice that is desperately needed in our troubled time.”   

—KAREN ARMSTRONG, author of The Great Transformation

“One of our generation’s great spiritual teachers offers an encyclopedic feast of meditations on where we are all headed. Joan Chittister’s reflections are at once wise, mischievous, and comforting. Her book makes us all sorry we’re not older!”                  —LAWRENCE KUSHNER, author of Kabbalah

“The Gift of Years is a series of thought-provoking meditations not just on ‘growing older gracefully,’ but on the ultimate meaning of life itself. This is a book rich in wisdom—a wisdom that comes only from a life well-lived and a carefully cultivated spirituality. It is a book that is destined to be a classic.”—RICHARD P. MCBRIEN, author of Lives of the Saints

“In a world that glorifies youth and degrades old age the words of Joan Chittister about aging are a precious gift. Through numerous insights, she invites us to realize that old age is not a drawing away from a fulfilling life, but a new life unto itself, a life which if lived well will draw us ever closer to the Source of all life.”—SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR, author of The Garden of Truth

“The Gift of Years brims with insight, pluck, verve, and courage—and trust that finally in God’s love ‘all will be well.’ It shows us both the joys and the challenges of growing older, and encourages us to discover the deep spiritual meaning that can come with older age.”—HELEN PREJEAN, author of Dead Man Walking

“Perhaps you have to be in the second half of life to know how truthfully and helpfully Joan Chittister speaks. We live in a first-half-of-life culture, which makes this wisdom all the more necessary—and all the more wonderful.”—RICHARD ROHR, author of Everything Belongs