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Everyone needs love. Everyone desires love. But not everyone understands love. In fact, love is probably the most misunderstood subject in history.

In his first Encyclical, Pope Benedict helps to clarify the meaning of love. He examines the nature of various kinds of love—human love and divine love, eros, friendship, and charity. He writes beautifully and inspirationally of how man was made for love by the God who is love, the God who became one of us out of love—Jesus Christ.

In the second part of the Encyclical, Benedict addresses the Church's practice of love. He examines the relationship between justice and charity, as well as the call of every Catholic to serve others in love. The Pope's "love letter" to mankind is remarkably accessible and timely.

Jewels from "God Is Love" ~ Deus Caritas Est

"'God is love and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him' (1 Jn 4:16). These words from the First Letter of John express with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian faith: the Christian image of God and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny."

"We have come to believe in God's love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, that gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction."

"St. John's Gospel describes that event in these words: 'God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should . . . have eternal life' (3:16). In acknowledging the centrality of love, Christian faith has retained the core of Israel's faith, while at the same time giving it new depth and breadth."

"In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant. For this reason, I wish in my first Encyclical, to speak of the love which God lavishes upon us, and which we in turn must share with others."

"I wanted here—at the beginning of my Pontificate—to clarify some essential facts concerning the love which God mysteriously and gratuitously offers to man, together with the intrinsic link between that Love and the reality of human love."

—Pope Benedict XVI

Benedict XVI has something for everyone in Charity in Truth-from praising profit to defending the environment, from calling for a role for government in the economy to insisting on the necessity of moral transformation and "gratuitousness" in economic life, from the issue of immigration to the importance of technology. However, he also insists on discernment and the purification of our ideas by faith and reason, in order to temper any immoderate and one-sided enthusiasms.

Charity and Truth was expected to be-and is-the Pope's encyclical on "social justice." And indeed "justice" and "rights" find their proper place. But "charity" and "truth" are shown to be the fundamental principles. "Charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine", he writes. "Without truth, without trust and love for what is true, there is no social conscience and responsibility, and social action ends up serving private interests and the logic of power".

Benedict calls for "integral human development," which promotes "the good of every man and of the whole man", including the spiritual dimension, "the perspective of eternal life". Without this, "human progress in this world is denied breathing-space."

What's more, true development requires "openness to life". ""If there is lack of respect for the right to life and a natural death," he writes, "if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational system and laws do not help them to respect themselves."

With respect to economics, the Pope insists "every economic decision has a moral consequence." He avoids the extremes of an unbridled capitalism and socialism. Instead, he holds that "the logic of the market and the logic of the State"-free economic exchange with political oversight and restraint-are not enough to secure human flourishing. There must be a generosity and "gratuitousness" among citizens and nations that goes beyond economic and political systems. "Charity" is necessary for "justice" to be "justice".

Benedict also argues that technology must not be seen as automatically providing solutions to problems, without the need for morality. Nor must man seek to avoid responsibility for overcoming social problems by rejecting technological development as inevitably evil. Benedict insists that man must be humble yet confident that he can, through faith and reason, make true progress in human development.

In "Charity in Truth" (Caritas in Veritate), Pope Benedict XVI shares his thoughts on social justice. In his third encycylical, the Holy Father reminds us of the importance of recognizing the social and economic needs of all people. He affirms that the efforts to improve the condition of humanity must continue.

Pope Benedict's first encyclical seeks to show the place of love in the life of the Church. Pope Benedict helps to clarify the meaning of love. He examines the nature of various kinds of love-human love and divine love, eros, friendship, and charity. He writes beautifully and inspirationally that we were made for love by the God who is love, the God who became one of us out of love-Jesus Christ. Benedict insists that we must take up the word love, which has been so abused, and purify it, showing how faith in this love might transforms us. In an age in which "hostility and greed have become superpowers", and in which religion has been abused "to the point of culminating in hatred," the burden of the encyclical is to show that on its own a neutral rationality can no longer protect us; that we need the God who has loved us unto death. This Love has a human face and a human heart. In the second part, Benedict links the Church's charitable work with the love of the Trinitarian God, stating that the charitable activity of the Church and her works of justice express love. An excellent reflection for both religious and civic leaders, those involved in ministry and those preparing for marriage.

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Jean Watson's Theory of Human Caring (Caritas) is now used in approximately 300 health care institutions in the United States and other institutions worldwide. This is the first international compendium of Caritas research, presenting the findings of 41 studies from 7 countries. The book examines similarities and differences in the ways in which each country applies Watson's Theory and documents the outcomes of these interventions. It addresses relationships between nurses and patients, nurses and their colleagues, self-care, and how Caritas is used to resolve outcome issues system-wide.

The book discusses at length eight different Caring Factor surveys, primary research tools for those using the Caritas process, which identify constructs that either support or impede caring in multiple settings. The first section focuses on the theoretical underpinnings of Caritas and presents seven adaptations of the Caring Factor Survey. Section II addresses measurements and methods for facilitating a caring relationship between nurse and patient. Measurements and interventions to facilitate Caritas in a variety of settings is the focus of Section III, and the final sections address the international measurement and international comparisons of Caritas. The volume will be an important resource for nurse leaders, educators, administrators in academia including unit managers, and for hospitals with or seeking Magnet status. The book serves as a complement to Watson's Assessing and Measuring Caring in Nursing and Health Care and Creating a Caring Science Curriculum: An Emancipatory Pedagogy for Nursing.

• Presents cutting-edge tools derived from the Caring Factor Survey for measuring caring in multiple contexts
• Discusses similarities and differences in caring contexts across nations
• Documents outcomes of Caritas in varied settings in the United States and internationally
• Addresses nurse-patient and nurse-colleague relationships, self-care, and resolution of system-wide outcome issues