Pause in Wonder

Learning to Delight in God and His World

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Pub Date 08 May 2020 | Archive Date 30 Jun 2020

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Description

In Pause in Wonder, Eddie Ensley recounts stories from his own spiritual journey as a Native American and a Catholic deacon to show how you can experience joy even in the most difficult circumstances. Simple, spiritually sound prayer practices—based on scripture and tradition—heighten your sense of wonder and bring you greater joy in everyday life.

With compassion and wisdom, Ensley draws from his Native American heritage and spiritual journey to the Church to explore joy’s true meaning and how to find it and experience it in both happy and discouraging seasons of life. Combining prayer exercises with his personal testimony, Ensley and his ministry collaborator Deacon Robert Herrmann will help you appreciate in a new way the life-changing power of the sacraments and other riches of the Church, and to be more mindful of the invisible realities all around you.

Ensley and Hermann offer step-by-step pointers to help you cultivate practical spiritual habits such as engaging in contemplative prayer and journaling to enrich your prayer life. You will also learn how to:

*  choose joy, centering your whole being on God;

*  become the custodian, rather than the prisoner, of your thoughts and emotions;

*  experience release from stresses and worries by learning to “sing with the angels”; and

*  pour out your joy upon others through the intentional practice of compassion.

You will discover how to encounter God in deeply personal yet practical ways. Fresh approaches to prayer combined with scripture and the wisdom of the saints will help you rejoice always and appreciate life in all its messy excellence.

In Pause in Wonder, Eddie Ensley recounts stories from his own spiritual journey as a Native American and a Catholic deacon to show how you can experience joy even in the most difficult...


A Note From the Publisher

Eddie Ensley is a permanent deacon in the Diocese of Savannah. He serves on the clergy staff at St. Anne Catholic Church in Columbus, Georgia. Ensley teaches graduate school at Josephinum Diaconate Institute, Pontifical College Josephinum, where he also serves as a course developer. He is a mission member of Alleluia Community, an ecumenical covenant community.

He and Robert Herrmann operate Deacons in Ministry, through which they have preached to more than 370,000 people in 350 locations since 2001. The two are coauthors of Writing to Be Whole.

Ensley is a licensed clinical pastoral counselor with a master’s degree in pastoral studies (Loyola University) and a doctorate in clinical pastoral counseling (Cornerstone University). The author of fifteen books, he has more than thirty years of experience leading parish missions, retreats, and renewals.

Ensley is an enrolled member of the Echota Cherokee tribe and a member of the Knights of Columbus. He lives in Fortson, Georgia.



Robert Herrmann is a permanent deacon in the Diocese of Savannah. He serves on the clergy staff at St. Anne Catholic Church in Columbus, Georgia. An expert in spiritual journaling and teaching contemplative prayer, Herrmann is the coauthor of Writing to Be Whole.

Herrmann is certified in parish ministry from Loyola University. He has more than thirty years of experience leading parish missions, retreats, and renewals. He also served as campus minister and theology teacher at St. Anne-Pacelli Catholic School in Columbus. Herrmann and Eddie Ensley operate Deacons in Ministry, through which they have preached to more than 370,000 people in 350 locations since 2001.

Herrmann is a member of the Knights of Columbus. He lives in Fortson, Georgia.

Eddie Ensley is a permanent deacon in the Diocese of Savannah. He serves on the clergy staff at St. Anne Catholic Church in Columbus, Georgia. Ensley teaches graduate school at Josephinum Diaconate...


Advance Praise

Pause in Wonder offers a personal and compelling sharing of loss, pain, and grief. This story is a wonderful bridge-builder and a journey of hope and joy especially for our native brothers and sisters searching for their roots who face shame for their identity. This book points to an enculturated approach to find your true self with scripture, family history, prayer, and poetry.” 
Sr. Kateri Mitchell 
Founder of The Tekakwitha Conference 

Pause in Wonder is beautifully written, honest, tender and uplifting. I loved especially Deacon Eddie Ensley’s candid sharing about his own struggles, his descriptions of the beauty of nature, and his anecdotes about his grandparents and his Native American heritage. His life bears witness to the fact that the gospel expresses itself in the cultures of various peoples, while those cultures are also purified and restored in Christ.”
Mary Healy 
Professor of sacred scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary 

“Deacon Eddie Ensley is a master storyteller. By humbly sharing stories from his own journey with God, he shows how one can enter intimacy with the Lord in a multitude of ways and experience his healing, love, care, joy, and goodness.”
Dan Almeter 
Counselor and pastoral leader of Alleluia Christian Community 

“Deacon Eddie Ensley skillfully blends testimony, teaching, and storytelling to share his own fascinating journey with the Lord. He has had quite an adventure! Ensley witnesses in a touching way how the Lord has used his very brokenness and limitations to ‘work everything to the good’ in his life. Pause in Wonder is singularly interesting and instructive—a rewarding read!”
Patti Gallagher Mansfield 
Author of As by a New Pentecost 

“One of the biggest lies many of us accept each day is that joy is a reaction to external circumstances. In reality, true joy comes from within and flows from the power of Holy Spirit. In Pause in Wonder, Deacon Eddie Ensley and Deacon Robert Herrmann remind us that we can experience joy anytime and anywhere, even in the midst of suffering. As they so powerfully point out, joy is a choice. If you’re looking to find greater joy in your life, start by choosing to read this book. You won’t regret it!”
Gary Zimak 
Catholic speaker, radio host, and author of Give Up Worry For Lent. 

 

Pause in Wonder offers a personal and compelling sharing of loss, pain, and grief. This story is a wonderful bridge-builder and a journey of hope and joy especially for our native brothers and...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781594719554
PRICE $15.95 (USD)

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Featured Reviews

I have read a lot of Christian books over the years. So many of them leave me feeling that there just wasn’t anything else in life, and I have always wondered if I am missing something.

This book was so full of fascinating information and exercises to try that I was astonished. I absolutely loved reading about Eddie’s experiences with his grandfather, who was a native American, and how he helped form so much of Eddie’s childhood since his parents were fairly dysfunctional.

From those beginnings, he becomes interested in Christianity and eventually settles into life as a Catholic. In this book, he shares so many details that are sure to be springboards for a deeper life as a Christian or Catholic. This book is a treasure.

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"Pause in Wonder" has three great strengths: the author's openness to his Native American tradition, his openness to what he received from his formation as a Baptist and his openness to Catholic tradition. Actually, that is one strength: openness. Openness to the Spirit - and above all, to the joy of the Spirit. He is a living witness to the truth of Saint Paul's saying about God's power being made manifest in human weakness. In this sense, this is an empowering book. It will help its readers entrust their weakness to God and receive the joy of His Spirit.

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