Beloved of Christians worldwide, Saint Patrick was a fifth-century Christian missionary. Though more well-known for driving the snakes out of Ireland and using a shamrock to explain the Trinity--both of which likely never happened--Saint Patrick's best-known contribution to Christian literature is an ancient prayer known as "St. Patrick's Breastplate" or "St. Patrick's Prayer." This lyrical exploration of the Christian faith and the centrality of Christ has been used by Christians throughout the centuries as a way to remind them of the ways they interact with the divine. In Christ, My Companion, Marilyn Chandler McEntyre explores the well-known portion of this ancient prayer, inviting readers to consider its meaning for them today. Drawing upon biblical, personal, and literary sources, McEntyre engages readers in their own reflections on particular ways they have experienced the presence of Christ and the variety of ways we are drawn into divine encounters.

Christ, My Companion: Meditations on the Prayer of St. Patrick

Religion & Spirituality

McEntyre, Marilyn

Christian Books & Bibles

Baker Books

“Like any other life-sustaining resource,” says Marilyn McEntyre, “language can be depleted, polluted, contaminated, eroded, and filled with artificial stimulants.” Today more than ever, language needs to be rescued and restored. Drawing on a wide range of sources, both critical and literary, Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies is an engaging address to everyone concerned with preserving the vitality and precision of the spoken and written word. “If every literate person in the United States read this book, the result could dramatically transform our society. . . . Written with modesty, keen insight, and grace, Marilyn McEntyre’s Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies proposes a revolution of human expression that would bring precision, honesty, and felicity to the spoken and written discourse of contemporary culture.

Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies

Eerdmans

Well-known biblical phrases -- "in the fullness of time," "fearfully and wonderfully made," "in the beauty of holiness," and others -- suggest and evoke and invite. In this book Marilyn Chandler McEntyre offers brief reflections on more than fifty such scriptural phrases that prompt readers to pay attention, to pause where we sense a beckoning. Some of these select phrases are devotional, some speculative, some whimsical, some edgy. McEntyre encourages us to see such "words within the Word" as invitations and, in doing so, to discover that they are places of divine encounter, epiphany, or unexpected guidance. The three sections of the book "Assurance," "Invitation," and "Surprise" -- organize the reflections by tone as well as theme. Rich with eloquence, wisdom, and wonder, these reflections will lead readers to enter the sacred spaces of Scripture, play with possibilities, and connect the biblical word with the ordinary -- and extraordinary -- lives we've been given to live.

What's in a Phrase?: Pausing Where Scripture Gives You Pause

When the time comes for us to die, how do we say good-bye to our friends, our families, and the lives we have lived? How do we remain faithful -- to God, to ourselves, and to loved ones -- as we face our final journey? As Marilyn McEntyre acknowledges, these questions are especially challenging because we now live longer than previous generations did, and many of us die more slowly. Those who are dying have a lot of things to deal with -- fear, discouragement, boredom, pain, regret. The list is long. In this book McEntyre offers fifty-two short meditations on the very real issues faced by dying people. She addresses a wide and sensitively chosen range of subjects, including such things as anger, losing control, curiosity, doubt, loss of privacy, family conflict, sadness, gratitude, and even spiritual adventure. McEntyre’s insightful reflections -- offering what she calls “a different kind of hope” -- speak to the heart of the physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of dying. Brief concluding prayers and lines from cherished hymns further lift up the reader as he or she seeks to faithfully navigate the great transition from this life to the next.

A Faithful Farewell: Living Your Last Chapter with Love

Self-Help

Death & Grief

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Sharing the Practice "A beautiful book of meditations." Christian Century "McEntyre's language is reflective and sensitive but not sentimental. . . . A thoughtful and realistic window into the often hidden, though well-traveled, end-of-life journey." Michael Card — musician and writer "Marilyn McEntyre embodies simple, patient kindness in the pages of this book." Samuel Wells — vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London "When we face our own death, or the death of someone dearer to us than life itself, we perceive as-yet formless truths and strive to articulate the fearful truths we apprehend. What we need is a companion who can abide amid our chaos, a sage who can choose the right moment to share a word, and a prophet who can say the thing we shrink from, yet need to hear. Marilyn Chandler McEntyre is all of these things. Going gently with her into the prison of death will set you free." Topeka Capital-Journal "Letting go of a loved one who is nearing the end of life is a difficult proposition, no matter how you slice it. Drawing from her years as a hospice volunteer, as well as from her experience of caring for her own family members, Marilyn Chandler McEntyre delves into this delicate subject with grace and compassion in her new book."

A Long Letting Go: Meditations on Losing Someone You Love

Beautifully written meditations on fifteen well-chosen words In What's in a Phrase? — winner of the 2015 Christianity Today Book Award in Spirituality — Marilyn McEntyre showed readers how brief scriptural phrases can evoke and invite. In Word by WordMcEntyre invites readers to dwell intentionally with single words — remembering their biblical and literary contexts, considering the personal associations they bring up, and allowing them to become a focus for prayer and meditation. McEntyre has thoughtfully chosen fifteen words (see below), and she gives each word a week, guiding readers in examining the word from seven different angles throughout the week. She draws on the spiritual practices of lectio divina and centering prayer as she encourages readers to allow these small words to help them pause and hear the voice of the Spirit. "I invite you to discover," says McEntyre in her intro-duction, "how words may become little fountains of grace. How a single word may, if you hold it for a while, become a prayer." <ul>
<li>Listen</li>
<li>Receive</li>
<li>Enjoy</li>
<li>Let Go</li>
<li>Watch</li>
<li>Accept</li>
<li>Resist</li>
<li>Allow</li>
<li>Be Still</li>
<li>Follow</li>
<li>Rejoice</li>
<li>Ask</li>
<li>Dare</li>
<li>Leave</li>
<li>Welcome</li>
</ul>

Word by Word: A Daily Spiritual Practice

Make a List: How a Simple Practice Can Change Our Lives and Open Our Hearts

What if writing a list could literally change your life?
From the ancient book of Numbers to the latest clickbait listicle, list-writing has been a routine feature of human experience. Shopping lists. To-do lists. Guest lists. Bucket lists. Lists are everywhere you look.
But what if our lists did more than just remind us to buy milk and take out the trash? What if the practice of list-making could help us discover who we truly are and even point us to our deepest joys, hopes, and desires?
In Make a List teacher, writer, and wordsmith Marilyn McEntyre shows readers how the simple act of writing a list can open doors to personal discovery and spiritual growth. Deepening her reflections with abundant writing prompts and real-life examples, McEntyre turns the humble list into a work of art—one that has the power to clear minds, open hearts, and change lives.

Personal Transformation

Two dozen select prayer poems to learn from and live with
Poetry and prayer are closely related. We often look to poets to give language to our deepest hopes, fears, losses—and prayers. Poets slow us down. They teach us to stop and go in before we go on. They play at the edges of mystery, holding a tension between line and sentence, between sense and reason, between the transcendent and the deeply, comfortingly familiar. When Poets Pray contains thoughtful meditations by Marilyn McEntyre on choice poems/prayers and poems about prayer. Her beautifully written reflections are contemplative exercises, not scholarly analyses, meant more as invitation than instruc¬tion. Here McEntyre shares gifts that she herself has received from poets who pray, or who reflect on prayer, believing that they have other gifts to offer readers seeking spiritual companionship along our pilgrim way. POETS DISCUSSED IN THIS BOOK Hildegard of Bingen Lucille Clifton Walter Chalmers Smith Robert Frost Wendell Berry Joy Harjo John Donne Gerard Manley Hopkins Said Marilyn McEntyre George Herbert Thomas Merton Denise Levertov Scott Cairns Mary Oliver Marin Sorescu T. S. Eliot Richard Wilbur Francisco X. Alarcon Anna Kamienska Michael Chitwood Psalm 139:1-12

When Poets Pray

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Lent is about more than going to church on weekdays and giving up chocolate or social media. It's also a time to form one's heart and mind through study and prayer. In&nbsp;Where the Eye Alights, Marilyn McEntyre offers forty short meditations, based on excerpts from Scripture and poetry, that guide readers on a devotional journey from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday. As in&nbsp;lectio divina--the spiritual practice of reading Scripture repetitively and meditatively--McEntyre invites us to notice words that may give us pause and summon us to reflection. This book calls our attention to how the Spirit speaks through phrases that can open doors to deep places for those willing to sit still with them.&nbsp; "Lent is a time of permission," says McEntyre. "Many of us find it hard to give ourselves permission to pause, to sit still, to reflect or meditate or pray in the midst of daily occupations--most of them very likely worthy in themselves--that fill our waking minds and propel us out of bed and on to the next thing. We need the explicit invitation the liturgical year provides to change pace, to curtail our busyness a bit, to make our times with self and God a little more spacious, a little more leisurely, and see what comes. The reflections I offer here come from a very simple practice of daily meditation on whatever has come to mind in the quiet of early morning."

Where the Eye Alights: Phrases for the Forty Days of Lent

What can we learn from contemporary writers about keeping public conversation compassionate, vigorous, faithful, and life-giving? Those who want to avoid simplistic partisan rhetoric and use words in a challenging, spirited way need practical strategies. This book offers a range of them.&nbsp; Drawing upon the work of exemplary contemporary writers,&nbsp;Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict&nbsp;shows how to speak and write clearly and generously. For example, we can attend more carefully to the effects of metaphors, recognize and avoid glib euphemisms, define terms in ways that retrieve core meanings and revitalize them, and enrich our sense of history by deft use of allusion.&nbsp; Contemporary readers are awash in many words that have been cheapened and profaned. But with deliberate use of intelligence and grace we can redeem their "sacramentality"--humanely uttered words can convey life-giving clarity and compassion.&nbsp;Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict&nbsp;is an homage to outstanding wordsmiths who have achieved that potential and an invitation to follow them in making well-chosen words instruments of peace.

Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict

History

World

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by McEntyre, Marilyn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by McEntyre, Marilyn