Posted July 22, 2010 Book: The Joshua Priest: A Biography of Faith Author: Barbara Benjamin Nepperhan Press, LLC. Yonkers, NY. 2010. Pp. 141. An Excerpt from the Jacket: Since the publication of Joshua in 1983, countless millions of readers across the globe have found their faith transformed by "the good news" of Jesus' unconditional compassion and love that they encounter in the writings of Father Joseph Francis Girzone, The Joshua Priest. Here, in this inspiring biography, the reader discovers the deeply rooted faith and raw courage that, on critical occasions, saved Fr. Joe's life and made his Joshua ministry possible, a faith that remained steadfast in the face of daunting personal crises and turbulent world events. An Excerpt from the Book: Addressing contemporary peace movements and contemporary violence, Thomas Merton had written in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander: "There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist, fighting for peace by nonviolent means, most easily succumbs — activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life. . .are a form, perhaps, of the most common form of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to help everyone, is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of the activist neutralizes their work for peace. It destroys their own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of their work because it kills the inner wisdom which makes thier work fruitful." Force by the circumstances of his health to remove himself from any and all arenas of contemporary violence, Father Joe was challenged, as never before, to let God into every corner of his life, to let God love him and work in him. He was challenged, as never before, to be rather than to do. He was challenged to let God do for him more than he could ever have imagined doing for himself. And the more he let God love him and work in him, the more freedom he expeienced, freedom from fear, freedom from doubt, and freedom to follow his own deepest intuitive promptings. Table of Contents: 1. Living faith 2. The first born: a child of faith 3. Attractions and distractions: the formative years 4. Hair shirts and humility 5. The sword of Jesus 6. Into the dark night 7. Faith under fire 8. The Joshua Years