William E. Reiser

My appreciation for this book waxed and waned throughout my reading. So little did it hold my attention that while I had been reading it weekly, I put it down for for several months without even realizing it.

First of all, I was delighted with the treasure-trove of titles of other great books for one's spiritual journey found in Reiser's footnotes (and I so appreciated footnotes rather than endnotes!).

Reiser makes his case for Spiritual Direction right up front, quoting from Jeremiah 29:13-14:
"When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the LORD."

Much of my resistance to the book, I will admit, is it's Christian focus, for I do not agree that only Christians can give Spiritual Direction (SD). But actually, I don't think Reiser believes that, either. In his conclusion, he even treats gently those who may find their path to God is easiest through a different faith, and advises "the wise director" to "not intrude on the way the mystery of God is unfolding in the other person's life."

Instead of focusing then, on the passages that roused my ire, I would like to pull out a few of the gems that Reiser planted in my mind along the way.

"Where is God in your life?...Where are God's people?"
"What is God like for you?...Who exactly are the people you allow to step into your soul?"

"Jesus did not invent religion and thus Christians have no biblical warrant to preempt the religious potential of the human race.... human beings find themselves at the mercy of a light that absolutely transcends us, even to the point of blinding our most ambitious efforts to grasp what God is like."

"A monk [and Reiser says he thinks the monk was Thomas Merton, but cannot find the source] once replied to a woman seeking advice about which spiritual path she ought to take by indicating a field blanketed with snow. Just follow the path, he said, to the other side. Seeing no footsteps in the snow she asked where the path was. 'Exactly,' he answered. 'You have to create your own' " (p 17).

Reiser makes this wonderful observation (which I know I have heard before, somewhere): "Hence the often repeated observation that for those without faith no amount of argument will be sufficient while for those with faith nor argument is necessary" (60).

My favorite quotes comes from a footnote on page 112:
"Thomas Merton once compared the great traditions to spokes on a wheel that all lead to the same hub," quoted from Winifred Gallagher, [Working on God], Doubleday 1966, p 165.… (més)