FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DICK MURRAY & HAMILTON BOOKS ANNOUNCE
SEEN AND UNSEEN WORLDS: PRIVATE
MEMOIRS OF A FORMER JESUIT
Available NOW in Stores and Online
May 28, 2012 – The highly anticipated and private memoirs of a former Jesuit, “
Seen and Unseen Worlds,” was officially released today by Hamilton Books. It offers an extremely rare journey back in time to a Medieval-like way of life from 1945-1956 behind the invisible walls of the most influential religious Order in history, The Society of Jesus. Its author, Dick Murray, who left the Order after 12 years, relies on detailed journals and letters home his family saved and he discovered almost 50 years later. They vividly portray his mysterious, scholarly and religious past. It was a life full of both the angelic and demonic. One particular manifestation of diabolic evil will chill the reader to the bone.
His book focuses on the ebullient Jesuit war cry, “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam” (for the Greater Glory of God), and the secrets of Jesuit success and influence throughout the world. With their feet planted firmly on Main Street and their minds focused on being “men for others,” Jesuits have always striven to learn and teach by intellect and will, and by sharing the presence of God and the glory of His love with everyone they meet. All this continues despite the slimy opposition of an apparently unseen fallen angel, the Devil himself, the “dragon” of The Apocalypse, who appears prominently in this book.
There is history, humor, life, death, shock, pain, and life-changing decision-making in these pages. The most difficult act for the author was to request a release from his vows. Now, many years later, he encourages his readers to make the most of what they see both in this world with their sight and in the unseen world with their faith.
“Seen and Unseen Worlds” demonstrates that a new Jesuit in training in 1945 was immediately time-transported for two years into a nearly Medieval and almost completely monastic culture.
Consider the pressing emphasis on Latin as an example. There was Latin for daily Mass, and Latin for conversation during times of silence. A novice’s new 455 page prayer book, his “Liber Devotionum,” was mainly in Latin. His “Missale Romanum” (the Mass Missal) was in Latin. He accepted bodily mortifications that took the forms of a waist chain with sharply irritating points and self-flagellations with hand whips. He spent long hours on his knees. Systematic contradictions abounded. The Novice had to learn to close his eyes, as it were, to see and to close his ears to hear. He quickly understood that believing was as hard as learning. Faith became for him as St. Paul defined it: “…that which gives substance to our hopes, which convinces us of things we cannot see.”
Then, after the first two years when he made his vows and placed “S.J.” after his name, the author combined intense Ignatian spirituality as a Jesuit with intense academic studies as a scholar. It was a sacred life the author is grateful for even to this day. His companionship with Jesuit saints and scholars cannot be adequately described. Leaving them behind was painful, but those heroes still live with him in happy memory and devoted prayer.
Enjoy.
About the Author: J. Richard Murray entered religious life in the Society of Jesus at Milford Novitiate, Ohio, on February 10, 1945. He made his first vows on February 11, 1947, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Subsequently he earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin and Greek and a master’s degree in English Literature from Loyola University of Chicago. He earned a Ph.L. (Licentiate Degree in Philosophy) from West Baden College, West Baden Springs, Indiana. As a Jesuit Scholastic, Murray taught in Jesuit High Schools for four years, three years at the University of Detroit High School and one year at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio. When he returned to West Baden College to study sacred theology, he requested and received a release from his vows. Murray voluntarily left the Society of Jesus on December 1, 1956.
About the Publisher: Hamilton Books was launched in 2003 and is the non-academic imprint of University Press of America, a member of the Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group. Hamilton publishes a wide variety of high-quality non-fiction including biographies, personal memoirs, and books on spirituality.
Seen and Unseen Worlds
Price: $35.96 (Hard Cover) 203 pages
ISBN 076-185-791-5 May 2012
For further information, see www.hamilton-books.com or www.rowman.com
CONTACTS:
Dick Murray - dickmurray@hwmail.net or (386) 760-4080 – Author available for interviewsne: (000)13-4567.
johnfmurray@mindspring.com
