The Inner Room: A Journey into Lay Monasticism

Rating:
Summary: Dynamic AND Simple, and Livable Too
Review: This is a book that is an easy read, but not frivolous by any means. The author uses an interesting approach of switching between autobiography (as a springboard) and teaching about lay monasticism. This is a book you can read the day you get it, but it is also a book that will invite you to underline, make notes, and return to meditate further on what God is relating through the author.

The book is refreshing in that while it is not supportive of modern, truth denying, morality denying ecumenicalism, it still recognizes true faith in more than one denomination, and, in fact, it sees Biblical teaching in previous denominations as good and necessary, the author not having abandoned it all simply because he became Catholic later on. Is he a faithful Catholic? Yes. Does he wear blinders? No.

The author speaks of many important issues to a life of prayer, and what prayer actually is-clinging to God. He speaks of work, lectio divina, meditation, and contemplation, and other things. He speaks of honestly searching for God. He is not afraid to expose churches, including the Catholic church, of overstepping their bounds, in a sense. He states that Paul did not say, "Now abides faith, hope, and the magesterium. And the greatest of these is the magesterium." I truly appreciated this statement, which he said represents much of Catholic thinking today, because it reflects a blind, nonthinking faith. In my opinion, blind Christian thinking has gone from being an oxymoron to a redundan term.

This book is truly Catholic, faithful to solid Catholic thinking, but not culticly so. Thus, it is a Biblical challenge to both Catholic and Protestant. The Protestant can gain as much from this book as the Catholic can, without becoming Catholic, for the author, in his own words, states that it's not about a way (a denomination, a magesterium, a method, a creed), but about The Way (from which creeds, etc. spring). He directs the reader to God, to Jesus Christ, not to formulas and legalism and other heartless methods. He recognizes the need for litany, liturgy, creeds, etc., but not as ends in themselves, nor as things which by their use earn anything with God. They are lenses to help us focus on the true God, but the true God is all we seek, to cling to him all day and all night long, no matter what we may be doing.

Anyone seeking a daily and continuous walk with God will find this book inspiring, challenging yet simple, encouraging, and accurate, and easy to read while yet stimulating. It's dynamic yet simple style of writing has affected me as much as what the author expressed through this style.

Rating:
Summary: Dynamic AND Simple, and Livable Too
Review: This is a book that is an easy read, but not frivolous by any means. The author uses an interesting approach of switching between autobiography (as a springboard) and teaching about lay monasticism. This is a book you can read the day you get it, but it is also a book that will invite you to underline, make notes, and return to meditate further on what God is relating through the author.

The book is refreshing in that while it is not supportive of modern, truth denying, morality denying ecumenicalism, it still recognizes true faith in more than one denomination, and, in fact, it sees Biblical teaching in previous denominations as good and necessary, the author not having abandoned it all simply because he became Catholic later on. Is he a faithful Catholic? Yes. Does he wear blinders? No.

The author speaks of many important issues to a life of prayer, and what prayer actually is-clinging to God. He speaks of work, lectio divina, meditation, and contemplation, and other things. He speaks of honestly searching for God. He is not afraid to expose churches, including the Catholic church, of overstepping their bounds, in a sense. He states that Paul did not say, "Now abides faith, hope, and the magesterium. And the greatest of these is the magesterium." I truly appreciated this statement, which he said represents much of Catholic thinking today, because it reflects a blind, nonthinking faith. In my opinion, blind Christian thinking has gone from being an oxymoron to a redundan term.

This book is truly Catholic, faithful to solid Catholic thinking, but not culticly so. Thus, it is a Biblical challenge to both Catholic and Protestant. The Protestant can gain as much from this book as the Catholic can, without becoming Catholic, for the author, in his own words, states that it's not about a way (a denomination, a magesterium, a method, a creed), but about The Way (from which creeds, etc. spring). He directs the reader to God, to Jesus Christ, not to formulas and legalism and other heartless methods. He recognizes the need for litany, liturgy, creeds, etc., but not as ends in themselves, nor as things which by their use earn anything with God. They are lenses to help us focus on the true God, but the true God is all we seek, to cling to him all day and all night long, no matter what we may be doing.

Anyone seeking a daily and continuous walk with God will find this book inspiring, challenging yet simple, encouraging, and accurate, and easy to read while yet stimulating. It's dynamic yet simple style of writing has affected me as much as what the author expressed through this style.