Deus Misereatur

Combat Hapkido: The Martial Art for the Modern Warrior by John Pellegrini My rating: 5 of 5 stars It can't be easy to come up with a "new" martial art, get it honed and proven by other martial art masters, and recognized by the World Kido Federation. But John Pellegrini, 9th Dan in Hapkido and Tae Kwon Do, founder and president of numerous martial arts institutions, and accomplished author, has not only crafted a new form of Hapkido, but he has manufactured a book that gives a good sense of his system. "Combat Hapkido: The Martial Art for the Modern Warrior" is a glossy, magazine-sized 150 page manual published in 2009, to promote his system and give the practitioner a feel for it. This handbook is not too wordy, but has enough verbal detail to explain the history of Combat Hapkido, some of its genealogy, and three of its primary principles. Most of the material are sequential photographs that are clear and walk the karateka easily through numerous techniques...

The Good Shepherd: A Thousand-Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament by Kenneth E. Bailey My rating: 5 of 5 stars Kenneth E. Bailey, seminary professor, author, career missionary, and international lecturer, had the pleasure of pulling together and publishing this 288 page paperback, "The Good Shepherd: A Thousand-Year Journey From Psalm 23 to the New Testament" before he died. Bailey crafted an easy to read, informative picture of the Good Shepherd that professors and parishioners alike will benefit from. This volume is filled with material from his own and his students' experiences in Lebanon, Egypt and Israel. The author also drew from Aramaic and Armenian sources of earlier Christian writers. "The Good Shepherd" touches on nine biblical passages starting with Psalm 23 and ending with 1 Peter 5.1-5. In working with these nine passages, Bailey looks for continuity and discontinuity, "In our reflections on the nine texts we will pay close atten...

As you declared through Isaiah, so we affirm: You are the LORD, and there is no other, besides you there is no God; you equip people, even those who do not know you, so that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides you; you are the LORD, and there is no other. You form light and create darkness; you make well-being and create calamity; you are the LORD, who does all these things (Isaiah 45.5-7). And so to you do we pray: Just as you did for us back when we were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures (Titus 3.3), so now through your Son Jesus Christ, save those who trust in their own strength, those who walk in darkness, those who are hostile and alienated from others and from you… As you have been our healer and helper in days past, please restore and raise up those dealing with – and not dealing very well with – depression, dementia, disease, debilitation, and distress… In the same way t...