Ronald Rolheiser: Essential Spiritual Writings

Selected with an Introduction by Alicia von Stamwitz

If you buy this book, as I hope you will, do your best to resist drinking it down in one gulp.Sip it slowly instead, as you would sip the finest wine, because that is the flavor of these essential writings.Ron Rolheiser, a priest for two-thirds of his life, is able to write about everything from sex to social justice to death with comfort and grace. Nothing human is foreign to him.Like the God he serves, he sees all and seals it with a kiss.Barbara Brown Taylor, author,An Altar in the WorldandLearning to Walk in the Dark

Ron Rolheisers unique contribution is his ability to make sometimes difficult spiritual concepts and goals crystal clear.I’ve read hisSacred Firethree times bynow. It’s simply the best book I know on what it means to live a mature faith.He is a real spiritual master.”James Martin, SJ, author,Learning to Pray

We do not wake up in this world calm and serene, having the luxury of choosing to act or not act. We wake up crying, on fire with desire, with madness. What we do with that madness is our spirituality.Ronald Rolheiser

Ronald Rolheiser, a Catholic priest and theologian, is one of the most popular and influential spiritual writers today. Through such bestselling books asThe Holy LongingandSacred Fire,as well as his syndicated column, In Exile, he has shown an ability to outline a healthy Christian spirituality that relates to the deep desires, anxieties, and hopes of ordinary people living in the world.

This collection of his essential writings, which draws in large part on his columns, first outlines the holy longing that underlies all spirituality. He then outlines the elements of a generative, or fruitful spiritual life, including prayer, suffering and death, love and justice, faith and doubt.