Rome Reports tells my story

The news service Rome Reports, which normally covers the Vatican, today offers a profile of my journey and apostolate.

I am terrifically impressed by how beautifully reporter Yeney Amaro condensed my story into this brief video. It features an interview shot at Mundelein Seminary by Jesse Weiler of the Liturgical Institute in July of this year, plus vintage clips of me with disc jockey "Rodney on the ROQ" Bingenheimer in 1986 (shot by Chris Carter) and with Jeff Probst on "Sound FX" in 1995. The book on Ignatian spirituality for healing that I mention is Remembering God's Mercy: Redeem the Past and Free Yourself from Painful Memories.

"God is there in our desperation and weakness and skepticism"

Catholic academic Ann Koshute today posted a beautiful review of my latest book, Remembering God's Mercy: Redeem the Past and Free Yourself from Painful Memories. Here is a taste of it:

Remembering God's Mercy is a mini-retreat, an invitation to deep contemplation as well as an instruction on mercy through Scripture and the example of the saints. My favorite parts of the book are those where Dawn asks questions for personal reflection, and when she invites the reader to pray with her. (Her reflection on the Seven Sorrows in chapter 4 particularly touched me, and I will surely use it for further contemplation.) I was also moved by her recollection of being introduced to the Jesus Prayer by her friend and fellow convert Jeffry Hendrix, who later succumbed to kidney cancer. This simple yet powerful prayer – Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner – comes easily to my lips as an Eastern Catholic; perhaps too easily. Dawn recounts her discomfort with the prayer, believing it to be more a recitation of her wretchedness than a form of praise and supplication. It seems that trying to say the prayer was a fruitless effort. Only when faced with desperation (Dawn recounts an incident of where a painful memory from her past overtook her, causing great anxiety) did the words of the Jesus Prayer spontaneously arise from deep inside her:

“I said it again. And again. And, as I did, something happened…. The prayer was not leading me to self-pity. It was opening my heart to the purifying love of God.”

This is the beauty of God’s mercy in action, and the lesson we must learn in order to be embraced by it: to simply let go and be loved. Of course, God’s mercy comes with the charge to be formed by it, to be changed. But I must first know that God’s mercy is available to me, that He wants to give it to me, and that I am worthy of receiving it. It doesn’t matter if that knowledge comes as a result of the desperation Dawn describes, or if we can only weakly or even skeptically cry out to Him. God is there in our desperation and weakness and skepticism. As Pope Francis says, God “waits for us to concede him only the smallest glimmer of space so he can enact his forgiveness and his charity within us.”

Read the rest on the St. Joseph's College Theology Blog. My gratitude to Ann for helping spread the word about my literary apostolate to those seeking spiritual healing.

On bringing dark memories into Christ's light

In this new video, recorded during a talk I gave at a private home, I share how the Ignatian approach of my book Remembering God's Mercy: Redeem the Past and Free Yourself from Painful Memories can help people who have not been helped by popular approaches to spiritual healing.

William Doino, Jr., has praised this aspect of Remembering God's Mercy in his review on the First Things site:

Eden’s approach differs substantially from books on “inner healing,” because it reverses the process often recommended by the latter. Instead of starting with oneself, and trying to recall every painful trauma for God to treat, Eden begins with Christ’s sacrifice, and encourages us to unite our wounds to his, as a means of receiving his infinite mercy. She also places a high priority on the Sacraments—especially Confession and the Holy Eucharist—whose transformative qualities she describes movingly.

Remembering God's Mercy is available from Marytown and all major booksellers.

Listen: The Anderson Council performs my song "Girl on the Northern Line"

[Updated on December 7 with "Northern Line" video]:

Before I was an author, I was a rock historian and sometimes tried my hand at songwriting. One of the songs I wrote, "Girl on the Northern Line," was intended for the Anderson Council, friends who had me pose behind a Viewmaster for the cover of their first album on a brisk Queens morning in 2001.

So it is with great joy that I can announce that, fifteen years after I wrote the song, "Girl on the Northern Line" is finally seeing release as one of four newly recorded tracks on the Anderson Council's wonderful best-of CD Assorted Colours. Best of all, pop fans are raving about the album and even singling out my tune. Just today, MyCentralJersey.com reviewer Bob Makin wrote, "Of the four new tracks, the harmonic, innocent-sounding brief encounter of 'Girl on the Northern Line' stands out."

Here is a video of the song, featuring footage shot by fans of the Anderson Council:



And here is a preview video for Assorted Colours.


What a terrific blessing to fulfill my dream of having the Anderson Council record one of my songs, and to do so as I prepare to enter into my new vocation as a seminary teacher. If MOJO magazine ever does a feature on "Systematic Theologians Who Rock," perhaps now I will be on their short list.

Now available: my dissertation on redemptive suffering

Since I posted the text of my dissertation defense, readers have asked where they can purchase my dissertation. I am happy to announce that it is now available for purchase online. Just go to the ProQuest Dissertation Express website and search for "Goldstein, Dawn Eden" in the author field, or type in the title: "The Mystical Body and Its Loving Wounds: Redemptive Suffering in Magisterial Teaching, Pre-Papal Writings, and Popes' Teachings as Private Theologians, 1939-2015."

"Dear Jesus ... I choose to suffer this with you"

It is a joy to share the interview that Father Paddy Dunne did with me for his Highlands Radio program "Walking with God" on March 7, during my most recent tour of Ireland. The message I share is that of my latest book, Remembering God's Mercy: Redeem the Past and Free Yourself from Painful Memories, where I write of how we find healing through locating our own wounds in the wounded and risen Christ. I am grateful to Sister Susan Evangelist, who sponsored and organized my tour, for enabling me to meet Fr. Dunne and so many other wonderful people in Donegal, Derry, and beyond.

"Eden's approach differs substantially from books on 'inner healing'"

A new book by Dawn Eden discusses healing painful memories through the lens of Christ’s Passion.https://t.co/1zVJP8X9sw

— First Things (@firstthingsmag) July 4, 2016

First Things online columnist William Doino, Jr. has a beautiful and thought-provoking review of my new book Remembering God's Mercy: Redeem the Past and Free Yourself from Painful Memories in which he observes:

Eden’s approach differs substantially from books on “inner healing,” because it reverses the process often recommended by the latter. Instead of starting with oneself, and trying to recall every painful trauma for God to treat, Eden begins with Christ’s sacrifice, and encourages us to unite our wounds to his, as a means of receiving his infinite mercy. She also places a high priority on the Sacraments—especially Confession and the Holy Eucharist—whose transformative qualities she describes movingly.

Read the rest at the First Things website. Remembering God's Mercy is available from Marytown, Aquinas & More, and wherever fine Catholic books are sold.

Watch me teach on St. John Paul II's theology of suffering

I am delighted to share with you these videos of lectures from the final day of the John Paul II Forum's 2016 summer workshop that I taught from June 13-17 at St. Mary's Seminary, Houston, Texas: "Love Unleashed through Suffering: The Healing Message of Salvifici Doloris and Its Precedents in Catholic Tradition."

The videos marked "III" and "IV" are the final two lectures of the workshop (it was eight lectures in toto). Although "IV" is labeled as a continuation of the topic of "Suffering and the Imago Dei," it also concerns how Pope Francis develops John Paul II's theology of suffering. Video "V" is a brief Q&A session.

These lectures draw upon my doctoral dissertation "The Mystical Body and Its Loving Wounds: Redemptive Suffering in Magisterial Teaching, Pre-Papal Writings, and Popes' Teachings as Private Theologians, 1939-2015," which will soon become available through ProQuest. An overview of my dissertation may be found in the prepared text I read at my defense (click here and scroll down to read).

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In addition to my teaching work, I write books on healing in Christ, such as the new Remembering God's Mercy, which I frequently donate to priests, seminarians, and religious to help them ministry to survivors of trauma or abuse. If you would like to help fund these donations, please click here to contribute via PayPal.