The Way of Beatitude: Living Radical Hope in a World of Division and Despair

by Casey Cole OFM

Overview

What if we looked at the things we see wrong in the world with empathy, dug below the surface of people’s disappointing actions to experience their pain, and understood hurtful words as a cry for consolation? What if we responded with sorrow instead of outrage, and love instead of hate?

If we could do all that, we’d be living as Jesus taught us in the Beatitudes. Fr. Casey Cole, OFM—host of YouTube’s Breaking the Habit—wants you to embrace the pain caused by anger and division in the world and then look to Jesus for hope through the Beatitudes.

“The only thing that evangelizes is love,” Cole writes. “The only thing that will ever change someone’s mind, cause them to turn from their evil ways, accept Jesus into their lives, and become a peacemaker themselves is love. If we want to make peace in our world, we must put down our weapons and take up the cross.”

In The Way of Beatitude, Cole explores the meaning of the words Jesus preached at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5: 3–12) and shows you how to get beyond apathy and despair and help Christ bring about the Kingdom of Heaven in the here and now. The Beatitudes, he says, offer a path toward radical change.

You will learn how to:

• surrender to the mercy of God;
• face with courage the heartache caused by division and animosity;
• be patient and lean into God’s providence;
• hunger always for justice;
• commit to solidarity with the powerless and the broken;
• be liberators of the oppressed; and
• lay down your life for the sake of God’s Kingdom.

By sharing his own stories of striving toward supreme blessedness, Cole shows you how to surrender power and move beyond the harmful divisiveness of our world.

Chapters include reflection questions and practical ideas for living the Beatitudes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646801459
Publisher:	Ave Maria Press
Publication date:	04/08/2022
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Fr. Casey Cole, OFM, is a Franciscan priest, author, speaker, and online evangelist at the popular YouTube channel Breaking in the Habit. He lives in Macon, Georgia, where he serves as chaplain to St. Peter Claver Catholic School, Mount de Sales Academy, and Mercer University. He is the author of Called and Let Go.

Cole earned his bachelor’s degree from Furman University and did his priestly studies at The Catholic University of America and Catholic Theological Union.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

1 Surrender: Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit 1

2 Heartbreak: Blessed Are They Who Mourn 15

3 Confidence: Blessed Are the Meek 29

4 Longing: Blessed Are They Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness 43

5 Solidarity: Blessed Are the Merciful 57

6 Authenticity: Blessed Are the Pure of Heart 69

7 Liberation: Blessed Are the Peacemakers 83

8 Witness: Blessed Are You When They Insult and Persecute You 99

Conclusion: On the Way to Blessedness 113

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Insightful, humorous, and practical.” —Bishop Michael F. Burbidge, Diocese of Arlington

“What a great book! Fr. Casey Cole, OFM, offers a beautiful and deep encounter with the Beatitudes.” —Fr. Harrison Ayre, cohost of the Clerically Speaking podcast

“Few can reach across the divides of our Church and world—age, ideology, clerical state—like Fr. Casey Cole. He brings the wisdom of the gospels into the twenty-first century and models how we can be agents of peace in a polarized age.” —Ashley McKinless, executive editor at America, cohost of the Jesuitical podcast

“A contemporary, wonderfully realistic look at the Beatitudes by one of Catholicism’s most positive voices.” —Mike Hayes, cofounder of Busted Halo