First, an admission: I have a guilty pleasure in costume dramas, especially the kind that show up on PBS. From Downton Abbey to Lark Rise to Candleford to Victoria to the endless adaptations…
Category: Reviews
Why I Still Recommend Verbum Software for Catholics… and for all Contemplatives
Two years ago this week, I wrote a glowing review of a Bible Software program called Verbum. Click here to read that review. Among other things, I said… I use…
Do Contemplatives Need Bible Software?
Is the Bible a textbook, or a legal code, or a love letter? I suppose one could argue that it is all three. But it seems that, for much of…
Three Wonderful Books for Exploring Julian of Norwich
I’m not sure why the fall of 2013 belongs to Julian of Norwich (except to the extent that any time is a good time for reading and reflecting on Julian’s…
Praying with St. John of the Cross
A friend of mine suggested I read Wayne Simsic’s Seeking the Beloved: A Prayer Journey with St. John of the Cross, offering the book pretty high praise: “I never ‘got’…
Journey to the Heart: Christian Contemplation Through the Centuries
This beautifully illustrated and informative title from Orbis Books in the USA (Canterbury Press in the UK) provides a very nice overview of the history of contemplative spirituality within Christianity….
Some Things Last (Benjamin Button, Contemplation, and Impermanence)
Fran and I went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Everyone is comparing it to Forrest Gump, but I think it’s more like what would happen if you…
The Book of My Life
The Book of My Life By Teresa of Àvila Translated by Mirabai Starr Boston: New Seeds, 2007 One of the challenges of being a reviewer is learning the discipline of…
Box of Fairies
The softly romantic cover illustration of Gwen Knighton’s Box of Fairies, replete with a half-dozen or so cute diminutive naked fairies frolicking about Gwen Knighton and her harp in a…
"The More We Are Protected, The More We’re Trapped Within"
Last night I saw Peter Gabriel and Sevara Nezarkhan at Chastain Park Amphitheatre here in Atlanta. The set list: Red Rain More Than This Secret World Games Without Frontiers Mercy…
David and the Phoenix: A Gentle Masterpiece of the Mythic Imagination
David and the Phoenix, gentle masterpiece of children’s literature first appeared in the late 1950s, bringing a dimension of magic and wonder to young baby boomers growing up in a…
Evelyn Underhill: Mysticism
Ultimately, mysticism is not found in a book, but in the lived process of relating to the Divine. It’s ironic that this message needs to be passed down in books, and yet, Underhill’s wonderful study of the subject does just that.