Spero News has published my review of Cynthia Bourgeault’s Centering Prayer and Inner Healing. (For reasons beyond my understanding of computers, Spero's link to Amazon doesn't work. If you want to support this site by buying the book through Amazon, you can do it here.)
The review reflects a conversation I had with my wife after she returned from her Teresa of Avila study group. The group had struggled a bit with the challenge of adapting Teresa to their working and family lives. Teresa, after all was writing for cloistered nuns. Our conversation reinforced my opinion that the institutional church is missing the boat on the topics of lay spirituality and workplace spirituality.
As I see it, there are two problems. First, the church tends to interpret the Martha and Mary story as an indication that the contemplative life is a "better part" than the active life of service. Second, those who can see that a life of service is a valid path, assume that service can only be done when working for the church - or maybe a non profit. One of the reasons I keep linking to Gregory Pierce's book is that he sees business as a service and creative. We need a spirituality that helps us to find God where we spend most of our lives.
One of the nice things about having a blog is that I get to put forth my own opinions at a low cost. If you agree with my opinions about the way to connect the active and contemplative life,please support this blog by buying Bourgeault, Pierce or one of the other books linked on the right.
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