“What is your greatest hope for this book?” This question came to me the other day from my friend Colette Lafia, a spiritual director and the author of Comfort and Joy and Seeking…
Category: Books
Howard Thurman: With Head and Heart
So in reading Howard Thurman’s autobiography, I expected to bask in his deeply authentic humility, his compassionate heart, and his keen sense of God’s presence, justice and mercy. But what truly blew me away about the autobiography was the evidence of just how deep a mystic he was — and the continual delight of enjoying his rhetorical skill as a writer.
Remembering the Monk Who Wrote About Grace
Last week Father James Behrens, OCSO died suddenly. He was 71 years old. Father James had been a Catholic priest for 45 years and a Trappist monk for 25 years….
Advance Praise for “Unteachable Lessons”
One of the scariest moments for me, as an author, is when my editor and I have finished working on a book, and we then send the manuscript out to…
What Inspired Me to Write About Christian Mysticism
This month marks nine years since The Big Book of Christian Mysticism was published. Hard to believe it’s been that long! To mark this anniversary, I’m reposting here an “author’s statement” about the book that…
Celebrating Evelyn Underhill
It was forty years ago this summer — the summer of 1979 — that I first discovered Evelyn Underhill, the British spiritual author whose writings introduced me to the beauty…
Eight Pagan Books (by a Christian Author)
In my book Unteachable Lessons I tell how I spent a period of time estranged from Christianity — the faith I was brought up in, and the faith I adhere to now….
Unteachable Lessons: Why Wisdom Can’t Be Taught (and Why That’s Okay)
My dear friends, it’s time to announce a new book that’s coming out this fall. It’s called Unteachable Lessons: Why Spirituality Can’t Be Taught… And Why That’s Okay. It will be published in September. To pre-order it now, click here. I’m very excited about this book for several reasons. Unlike my…… Read more at Patheos
Great Mystical Book Covers
The other day I wrote a post about a dream I had back in the 1980s. I mentioned in that post that I used to shop at an old Catholic Bookstore that used to carry the old Image Books editions of the mystics. That was back when you could buy…… Read more at Patheos
Twelve Contemplative Books for Spiritual Transformation
A reader named Andrew wrote to me and asked this question: What do you think the key books are in the Christian tradition on spiritual transformation? How about a top ten? Another reason for asking is that church leaders might find the story interesting as the main goal, or one…… Read more at Patheos
Walking in Wonder: This Book of Conversations with John O’Donohue is Everything You Hope It Would Be
“So the spiritual life is about the liberation of God from our images of him,” said John O’Donohue. This is just one of the many nuggets of wisdom that await you when you read this wonderful new anthology of interviews with the late Irish poet and mystic John O’Donohue. Walking…… Read more at Patheos
Devotional Reading for the Three Celtic Lents
Previously I have written about how, in ancient times, Celtic monks observed three “Lents” — which is to say, three forty-day periods of fasting, prayer, and sacrifice, in preparation for three sacred moments in the year: The actual season of Lent (forty days prior to Easter) A summertime “Lent” (forty…… Read more at Patheos