Catalyst for Renewal

Wendy M Wright, The Essential Spirituality Handbook, Missouri, Ligouri Press, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-7648-1786-1,278 pages, endnotes and further reading at each chapter’s end, $26.95.

This is a worthwhile book for anyone who is seeking further information and/or inspiration. The book is a “handbook” in every sense of the word. It deals with understandings of “spirituality” within the Catholic tradition, favouring the sense of God (the Holy Spirit) as the end and the process of our lives. Wright provides exemplary depth to aid the understanding of the Catholic tradition of the Church’s long list of great and devout spiritual writers and thinkers, references for the reader to follow up with in-depth study of these writers, and a way that makes their insights relevant today. She devotes an extensive treatment of the many ways people throughout the centuries have found their preferred means for spiritual growth, all ways that could be used by the modern reader. The reader would come away from this excellent and relatively cheap book with a sound understanding of the Catholic tradition of prayer, ways of considering what spirituality means within a Catholic context, what the relation is between spirituality and action, multiple ways of praying, and loads of further reading to follow up on the many writers and saints that she refers to in the main body of the text. This is an important book for individuals who might be unsure of  the wealth of spiritual thinking within our tradition; for those who might want to have a sound reference for further thinking; for libraries; and for all who profess to know something about spirituality, whether in the pub or elsewhere.