IT TAKES LITTLE TO BE HAPPY
Many of us feel dissatisfied. Yet, the Benedictine monk Anselm Grün reminds us in this simple book, don’t we have, on reflection, a thousand and one reasons to be grateful? Drawing from intellectual disciplines – poetry, theology, philosophy, psychology… – and everyday cases, he shows us the way to satisfaction, the one that brings serenity. It starts with signing a “peace agreement” with our shadow sides, it goes through “meeting with God”. Satisfied, we can spread our inner peace in the world and help change it. GLM
A LITTLE JEWEL TO (RE)DISCOVER PRAYER
The title could suggest that the initiation to prayer or its deepening is a matter of recipes to be applied. Let there be no mistake: if the Carmelite brother Dominique Sterckx does give some practical advice, he aims above all to stir up in the reader the desire for an ever more intimate relationship with God. This “guide” is for anyone choosing to move forward in the deep waters of the inner life. Rarely has prayer been evoked with such clarity and simplicity. RM
CURE AT ALL COSTS
The pandemic context has been a boon for “healers” of all stripes. If, by prolonging the gestures of Jesus who heals, the Church also exercises a ministry of care, and if it is mostly well accompanied and adjusted, it is sometimes abandoned in the hands of so-called therapists with hypothetical gifts of healing. This little book gives a little reason and gives some keys to avoid disasters. Four theologians and a philosopher offer milestones for respectful discernment. HER
WATCHMAN, WHERE IS THE NIGHT?
With his bestseller La nuit deprived d’étoiles, the Trappist monk Thomas Merton gave the public his diary from his youth, until his conversion in 1938. Meditations with fireflies gives the most beautiful pages of the rest of his diary . We taste a sensitivity rooted in the monastic, mystical tradition, and open both to the challenges of society and to Eastern traditions. Everyone will be able to gather invigorating insights that will allow them to deepen their spiritual quest. HDST
THE TURBULENT GOSPEL
After the stripper Otherwise God, the story of a spiritual crisis, Raphaël Buyse, priest of the diocese of Lille, continues here his journey through “learned evidence”. Beginning by freeing oneself from overly literal readings of the Gospel. The path proposed to the reader will make more than one jump. The Church too, at least in its excesses, takes it for its rank. But no rant here: rather the desire to create a powerful draft, in the name of a love as faithful as it is passionate: “I’m trying to say here Who I love”, confides the author. Christ: beautiful epicenter of this stirring essay. Marie-Yvonne Buss
HAPPY THE SIMPLE
Simplicity, the mark of a unified personality, suggests a rich inner world. In luminous pages, Mariel Mazzocco first tries to define it. Like water from a spring, it escapes the grasp! How to move towards more simplicity? The spirituality teacher clears the way in the words and practices (meditation, prayer, silence) of great witnesses of Christianity, also attentive to other spiritual traditions. God is simple and simplifies those who seek him. CC
>>> Read also on Lepelerin.com: Tips for nourishing your inner life during the holidays