Gratefulness

The Habit of a Grace-Filled Life

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 02 Feb 2018 | Archive Date 05 Apr 2018

Talking about this book? Use #AveMariaPress #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

In a consumer-driven world where we’re told we need and deserve more, Susan Muto, executive director of the Epiphany Association, reminds us that gratefulness is a gift from God.

In Gratefulness: The Habit of a Grace-Filled Life, she reveals that grateful living is not another new fad but has been the way of saints and Christian mystics for centuries. 

Many popular secular books today explore how embracing gratitude can lead to a happier, healthier life. In contrast, renowned author, speaker, and teacher Susan Muto approaches gratitude from a uniquely Catholic perspective.

In this insightful, inspiring book, she explores how life-changing a spirit of gratefulness can be by using both personal and well-known examples of the struggles and rewards of grateful living.  Muto and companions such as Julian of Norwich, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Henri J. M. Nouwen, and Dorothy Day highlight the power of gratitude as a grace from God and walk with us as we learn to practice thankfulness.

We start the journey toward gratefulness by embracing gratitude in all circumstances and end it by thankfully accepting the missions God entrusts to each of us. Along the way, we begin to accept God’s grace by understanding

the benefits of positivity and dangers of negativity,the redemptive power of prayer, andthe lasting fruits of thankfulness.

A spirituality of gratitude reminds us that, even without the possessions, luxuries, or leisure time society claims are the most important things in life, God still loves, cares, and knows what’s best for us. Muto also provides practical tools that help us embrace this grace in our lives.

 

Features & Benefits

Provides a Catholic approach to the topic of gratitude that has received much attention recently in books such as Gratitude by Oliver Sacks, The Gratitude Diaries by Janice Kaplan, and The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.Susan Muto has written or coauthored more than forty books.


In a consumer-driven world where we’re told we need and deserve more, Susan Muto, executive director of the Epiphany Association, reminds us that gratefulness is a gift from God.

In Gratefulness: The...


A Note From the Publisher

Susan Muto, executive director of the Epiphany Association, is a renowned speaker, author, teacher, and dean of the Epiphany Academy of Formative Spirituality.

Muto earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in English literature from the University of Pittsburgh, where she specialized in the work of post-Reformation spiritual writers. Beginning in 1966, she served in administrative positions at the Institute of Formative Spirituality at Duquesne University and taught as a full professor in its programs, edited its journals, and served as its director from 1981 to 1988. An expert in literature and spirituality, she continues to teach courses on an adjunct basis at a number of schools, seminaries, and centers of higher learning.

Muto is a frequent contributor to scholarly and popular journals such as Mount Carmel and Spiritual Life Magazine, and served as editor of Epiphany’s online journals and courses, including Growing in, with, and through Christ. She is the author of more than thirty books, among them Twelve Little Ways to Transform Your Heart, Table of Plenty, Then God Said, and Virtues: Your Christian Legacy. She is the coauthor—with Rev. Adrian van Kaam, C.S.Sp. (1920-2007)—of more than forty books, including Commitment: Key to Christian Maturity, and The Power of Appreciation.

Muto lectures and leads conferences, seminars, workshops, and institutes nationally and internationally. She has received many distinctions for her work, including a doctor of humanities degree from King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. She was one of four Catholic writers to be honored in 2009 with a lifetime achievement award by the Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Muto also is the recipient of the 2014 Aggiornamento Award presented of the Catholic Library Association. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Susan Muto, executive director of the Epiphany Association, is a renowned speaker, author, teacher, and dean of the Epiphany Academy of Formative Spirituality.

Muto earned a master’s degree and a...


Advance Praise

“We look for happiness in all the wrong places. Susan Muto shows that it’s to be found in a grateful heart. Gratitude is the antidote to negativity. It’s the key to understanding reality—the only key that fits. Thanks to Susan Muto for giving us this very simple, very practical, very needed book.”
Mike Aquilina
Author of A History of the Church in 100 Objects

“Susan Muto’s book gently offers insights and practical guidance on living a grateful life through the mountain tops, valleys, and flatlands of life's journey, along with distinctive counsel from ‘a great cloud of witnesses’ spanning the ages of Christian history. Come and read and join a company of grateful souls.”
Rebecca S. Letterman
Associate Professor of Spiritual Formation
Northeastern Seminary

“Susan Muto’s reflections on the challenges of the Christian life together with insights gleaned from the saints help the reader understand the practical aspects of a life of holiness. Gratefulness is a blessing for all of us who seek to follow Christ in the midst of our everyday lives.”

Rev. Gregory Jensen

Chaplain at University of Wisconsin–Madison


“In this reflective work on gratitude, renowned spiritual author Susan Muto offers God’s people a critical word for today. She provides a vibrant explication on fulfilling the apostolic command to ‘give thanks in all circumstances.’ Even as much of the world sinks into the darkness of depreciation and offense, Muto shines the joyful light of Christ upon the path of those yearning for something more than seeing only what is wrong with life.”
Stephen L. Martyn
Asbury Theological Seminary

“We look for happiness in all the wrong places. Susan Muto shows that it’s to be found in a grateful heart. Gratitude is the antidote to negativity. It’s the key to understanding reality—the only key...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781594717857
PRICE $15.95 (USD)

Average rating from 8 members


Featured Reviews

This is a book that carries a real punch to it and one that in my view needs to be read, Susan Muto combines her knowledge and understanding along with some of the great Saints from our history that enhances one of the powerful messages of the Christian faith.
This is a subject that is often written about but in such a soft and flowery way that it may leave you with a o how wonderful i must try that which isn't a bad thing but what Susan has done is to wright a book that demonstrates that this is a life style we need to embrace and not just admire. It is a life style that has changed not just individuals but their environments which leads to the building up of others and communities. But I guess you well have to read it to fully appreciate what Susan has done and if I'm right or not.
I have been given a free copy of this book from NetGalley in return for a honest review.

Was this review helpful?

Relevant, necessary, and valuable book for everyone living in modern American culture. A well-written Christian perspective on the discipline and lifestyle of gratefulness.

I desperately needed this book. My family is going through an intensely difficult time, and all we can do now if focus on the good. Unfortunately, I'm not so great at that. This was exactly what I needed to help myself intentionally focus on being grateful for the many blessings we experience everyday. As quoted in Muto's book, "Nothing given by the most high God is insignificant." (Thomas a Kempis).

Was this review helpful?

This book came at the right time for me. I was drowning in a sea of fear and panic, but page by page, chapter by chapter it helped pull me back up.

Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: