Richard Borgman - Search For The Beautiful Garden

SEARCH

FOR

THE

BEAUTIFUL

GARDEN

Searchers: Richard and Danelle Borgman

Richard and Danelle Borgman are veryunusual people. The Good Lord (there is no Lord except the Good One, arent wefortunate?) has shaped them for His service, even for a very special sort ofservice.

After a generation-long apostolic workdedicated to building Protestant Evangelical churches formed mainly of strayCatholics, He gave them a rendezvous with Mary. She has revealed to them that,when He heals us, the Good Lord operates from within our wounds. Human medicineand surgery try to heal our physical wounds from the still wholesome parts ofour bodies or minds. Our deepest, most entrenched wounds are our spiritualwounds, and the Savior Son heals them from within. This is a great secret, andit works. Richard and Danelle are living proof of this fact.

When our wounds are healed- or even before,as this is a lifelong process the Lord wants us to be fully at His service,i.e. at the service of all men and women. Full service means serving man andhumankind at all depths of human nature. This requires helping people to reachdown inside their person, to this small window which always is at the center oftheir hearts. Some of us never descend inside ourselves near this window, whichis usually closed. But this is where the Savior knocks softly, begging us toopen it to Him so that He might come in and invite us to His eternal feast.This is where time (which is part of creation) joins eternity (which is wherecreation has taken place, and where we belong or long to be).

This is the Good News Richard and Danellestrive to make known in their books, in their life. They have been around theworld, in the States where they come from and where they have returned, in Africa where Richard was a Pentecostal pastor for manyyears, in Europe , and especially in France whereMary has given them her secrets and where they became Catholics, i.e.Christians for good.

One thing they know and which Catholicsusually do not is that Protestant Evangelicals think they will dominate theChristian world in a few years time. The rate of conversion of Catholics toevangelical sects is already very high throughout the world, especially in Latin America and in Africa ,not to mention the US itself. This conversion process is very detrimental to the Truth. Evangelicals,which often impress Catholics by their strong praise and forceful apostolate,lose sight of many important gifts from God, which are also features of God himself.Not only do they lose sight, but they more often than not become dedicateddestroyers of Catholic beliefs and of Catholic image.

Catholics have the most complete andbeautiful bouquet of theological flowers, and Evangelicals reject many of theflowers in the bunch, also destroying quite a few others. The resulting bunchmay still reflect from a distance its original beauty, but when we get nearer,we see that this is not true. The damaged bunch cannot be an acceptablesubstitute for the original one. Richard and Danelle prefer speaking of The Garden,instead of flower bunch, and they are right. In a well- grown garden, theflowers are alive.

In this book, Richard and Danelle listthose gifts which only Catholics treasure, and bring the Truth in caring terms,to those who have thrown out flowers from the vase of their life. This is atthe same time an excellent book to read, very simple in its writing andtherefore not requiring the reader to be learned or wise. It is directed tothose who speak the language of the Evangelicals, whether they have alreadyjoined them or are tempted to do so. This book is therefore an excellent (andoriginal) handbook for those who are tempted to go astray and also for thosewho have succumbed to this temptation. This is a must reading for all thosewho consider themselves Christians but are not quite sure where the Truth lies,not knowing that the Savior, who says that He himself is the Truth, stillrequires us to do our share of the homework in terms of what to believe or not.

Lastly, this is a handbook for all thosewho want to reach people, and especially former Catholics who are nowEvangelicals or Evangelicals-to-be, and help them to discover the full beautyof The Garden.

This is, therefore, a must reading foreveryone who thinks that he is a Christian.

Jean-Loup Dherse

Former Vice-President of the World Bank

Former Associate Special Secretary of theSynod on the Laity ( Vatican 1987)

A member of the Emmanuel Community

A proud friend of Richard and Danelle

SEARCH FOR THE BEAUTIFUL GARDEN

Tableof Contents

Forward

Introduction

00. Remember

01. Born in Search

02. Enlarge My Heart

03. The Searching Heart

04. The Searchers Guide

05. Joyful Wholehearted Obedience

06. Welcome Home

07. A Traditional Supper

08. The Mother

09. Crown of Roses

10. The Brethren

11. Fellowship of Pain

12. Divine Mercy

13. The Garden is Beautiful

Appendices

1. Remember

2. Denominations

3. The Divine Fortress

4. Mercy

5. Catholic to Catholic

6. Most Asked Questions

Forewarned

U.S. Edition

Danger

This book is for Catholics, to encourage and restoretheir Catholic faith.

If you are not Catholic and you read beyond this page,you do it at your own peril.

We have written several books based on theimportance of unity amongst all Christians. We have labored for unity between Christiansfor twenty years, praying for Christian unity a minimum of twenty times a day.We know of few people who have worked harder to build bridges betweenChristians. To effectively build bridges, our side of the bridge must behumbly, but firmly anchored. Our side is Catholic.

If you are Eastern Orthodox, you canhappily enjoy just about everything in this book, though you might want to skipthe chapter on joyful wholehearted obedience to authority. I thank you forpersevering so many centuries in our common faith. If you are an un-baptizedgrade A pagan, like I was until the age of twenty five, you probably shouldgo to a solid Evangelical Christian and get soundly converted before advancingpast this page. If you are a convinced Buddhist or something similar, put thebook down. If you are in what some are calling the Third Wave, write us and wewill send you a list of other surfers. If you are agnostic, not knowing whatyou are, we cant help you. If you are in one of the denominations founded inthe Protestant Reformation such as Anglican, Methodist, or Lutheran ..., youwill find common ground with us since your spiritual ancestors were allCatholic. Lets see, what else is there? Oh, yes, the Evangelicals

If you are an American Evangelical:Traditional, Baptist, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Interdenominational,Non-Denominational, or from any other of the 50,001 Protestant-Evangelicaldenominations, here are my words of counsel as an Evangelical-Catholicmissionary who was an Evangelical-Evangelical missionary pastor for most oftwenty-five years. As Evangelicals, to keep from being taken in by usCatholics:

1. Dont read the history of the Churchfrom the first three centuries AD, written by those who lived it.

2. Only read the History of the Churchwritten by Evangelicals. Be careful not to read the Protestant authors,especially Anglicans from the 16th century Reform. Their ideas aresometimes tainted by the 1500 years of Catholicism from which they sprung.

3. Absolutely do not carefully read the Catechismof the Catholic Church or the documents of Vatican II. They will convert youinstantly.