Albert Pike is a retired public school teacher and administrator. Since retirement, he has concentrated on his relationship with the rest of the world and his calling to ministry. Although his service to students and to the professionals for whom he was responsible was satisfying, there was something missing from a very successful career in education. Albert’s psychological difficulties and physical ills both served as a catalyst for him in his search for personal fulfillment. Since childhood Father Al has felt called to serve the people of God in a very special way. For a myriad of reasons, he did not choose to enter the seminary and study for the priesthood. One of those reasons was that the time was not right. The 1950’s and 1960’s were difficult times for anyone committed to serving as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. The Spirit of God was preparing him for a special ministry that only time and experience could provide. The dedication to a life of service was always present; many physical and emotional trials were needed to ready him for his total commitment to follow Jesus.
Searching for Salvation
from Brokenness to Wholeness
by Albert L. Pike, Jr.
Searching for Salvation
from Brokenness to Wholeness
by Albert L. Pike, Jr.
Published Jan 31, 2009
60 Pages
Genre: POETRY / General
Book Details
Working and Walking Through Life Successfully
This book is a chronicle in prose and in verse of one man’s path through a difficult period of ten years: from diagnosis of bipolar disorder to emotional and spiritual health. Hopefully, the reader will gain insight into the long and difficult journey toward Father Al’s accepting the calling of the Lord to His service. It is now with great joy that he shares part of that journey with his reader. May these few pages of authentic emotional openness help to validate his conviction that we are all worthy and deserving of love. He hopes also to remove some of the shame and misunderstanding still attached to mental illness.
Book Excerpt
From Chapter 4: Climbing Out of the Abyss
"The little boy was lost, the consecrated man is found./
He blesses those whose lives his love surrounds./
In sorrow and in joy, in pleasure and in pain
With all that he was and is and will become/
He brings the wholeness of a life now changed by Love."