Litanies of the Heart: Foreword

"Grace perfects nature," St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, "it does not destroy it." If grace perfects nature, then there must be a human nature to perfect. In other words, human nature is relevant. That's why Pope St. John Paul II, in his apostolic exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis, described human formation as the basis of all formation—including spiritual formation, intellectual formation, and pastoral formation.

Gerry Crete understands this reality, the need for solid human formation, more deeply than almost anyone else. And his book is not only an invitation for you to explore deeply your human-formation needs, but it also provides guideposts and trail markers for you to follow to have those legitimate needs met in ordered ways. This is not just a book for your head—this is a book for your heart. Through stories, experiential exercises, and questions for deep reflection, Gerry invites you into your own heart, with a focus on healing and growing.

Why? So you can better love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with every part of you, with every fiber of your being, carrying out the two great commandments: to love God fully and to love your neighbor and yourself fully. St. Thomas Aquinas is very clear: you cannot love God or your neighbor if you do not love yourself in an ordered way. Practical guidance on how to love yourself properly has been sorely lacking, especially when trauma and its effects complicate matters. It is such practical guidance that this book addresses so well.

Don't just read this book with your mind. Engage this book with your heart. Experience this book in all your being. Take the exercises in this book to the parts of you that have not yet been seen, heard, known, and understood. Have the courage to go on the adventure this book offers you. If you do, you will "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:8).

Read part two and part three.