Father Francis Chisholm is a good priest-somewhat peculiar, perhaps, but a good priest all the same. Forged as a youth in the fires of suffering and tragedy, Francis accepts his vocation and strives to serve his people in humility and good humor, with compassion and courageous heart. After two spiritually eventful but conventionally unsuccessful assignments as a curate, Father Chisholm is sent as a missionary to China. Upon arrival, he finds his mission in ruins: the property deserted, the chapel roofless, the house ...
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Father Francis Chisholm is a good priest-somewhat peculiar, perhaps, but a good priest all the same. Forged as a youth in the fires of suffering and tragedy, Francis accepts his vocation and strives to serve his people in humility and good humor, with compassion and courageous heart. After two spiritually eventful but conventionally unsuccessful assignments as a curate, Father Chisholm is sent as a missionary to China. Upon arrival, he finds his mission in ruins: the property deserted, the chapel roofless, the house reduced to rubble. For thirty-five years, Father Chisholm ministers to his people in spirit and body, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and leading souls out of sin and into Christ's own life-enduring throughout the onslaughts of poverty and plague, greed and indifference, famine and war. Recognized as the best of A. J. Cronin's novels, The Keys of the Kingdom has been lauded since 1941 as a "magnificent story of the great adventure of individual goodness" and a "subtle and spiritual story...told with warmth and vitality." Yet its supreme accomplishment is the credibility with which it portrays the truth that suffering is a promise of Christ and this life but a preparation for the next.
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Add this copy of The Keys of the Kingdom to cart. $34.31, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2024 by Cluny Media.
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«The Keys of the Kingdom», written by Scottish writer A.J. Cronin in 1941, is about a Scottish Roman Catholic missionary priest in rural China in the first four decades of the twentieth century. Cronin?s theme, shown through Fr. Francis Chisholm?s life, is that tolerance and humility are the preeminent Christian virtues and that success is not always visible. This book reminds me, though it is a more inspiring and optimistic novel, of «The Power and the Glory» by Graham Greene and «The Samurai» by Shusako Endo. Each novel deals with the spiritual struggles of a Roman Catholic priests in China, Mexico, or Japan.
His bishop tells him: ?You are the stray cat, Francis, who comes stalking up the aisle when everyone is yawning their head off at a dull sermon. That?s not bad metaphor ? for you are in the church even if you don?t match up with those who find it all by the well know rule?You?ve got inquisitiveness and tenderness. You?re sensible of the distinction between thinking and doubting. You?re not one of our ecclesiastical milliners who must have everything stitched up in neat little packets ? convenient for handing out. And quite the nicest thing about you, my dear boy, is this ? you haven?t got that bumptious security which springs from dogma rather than from faith.?
The book deals with the inner spiritual struggles of maintaining faith, tolerance, and humility. His humility, tolerance, respect, and love slowly bear fruit in his life and those around him. A beautiful book, full of wisdom, «The Keys of the Kingdom» shows the truth that God calls us not to be successful but to be faithful.
