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marryd's review
4.0
This book is worth buying purely for the introduction which is the story of the author's knowledge of Pope Francis. I found it rivetting. And fortunately for me, it reinforced all I've previously heard about the Pope's spirituality. The book title speaks for itself: to be a good Christian, a follower of the Christ, first you must belong to God ie your primary relationship must be with God. Therefore your prayer and scriptural life takes precedence over everything else. Pope Francis was a noted retreat leader before he became pope and this book sets out a week long retreat programme.
The rest of the book is charts laying out a routine to follow to create your own retreat. I had two problems with these. One was that I read this on an ebook where the layout did not work but I could have opened it online and printed everything out. I've no experience with buying this as a hard copy but I do wonder how well that would work. I guess it depends if you have access to a scanner or photocopier and how tightly the book is bound.
My second problem was even more practical. Who among the laiety can take this amount of time out to read the scriptures, pray and meditate? I'm 64, retired and often do have that time now but I certainly didn't as a young woman caring for my sick mother, younger siblings and attending school. Nor when I was married, bringing up four children and working. There was no time that I could take a week out of my life.
I would recommend this book with the proviso that the reader not be discouraged. If you can take a week for a retreat - great! This book is specifically for you. If not - we'd all like to feast but most of us cannot. But we must still eat. Take what you can from this book to provide food for the journey. Add one single thing to your daily routine. When the opportunity arises, add another.
Thank you to the publisher and author for the Advanced Copy of this book and the opportunity to review.
Recommended with the above provisos.
4 stars.
The rest of the book is charts laying out a routine to follow to create your own retreat. I had two problems with these. One was that I read this on an ebook where the layout did not work but I could have opened it online and printed everything out. I've no experience with buying this as a hard copy but I do wonder how well that would work. I guess it depends if you have access to a scanner or photocopier and how tightly the book is bound.
My second problem was even more practical. Who among the laiety can take this amount of time out to read the scriptures, pray and meditate? I'm 64, retired and often do have that time now but I certainly didn't as a young woman caring for my sick mother, younger siblings and attending school. Nor when I was married, bringing up four children and working. There was no time that I could take a week out of my life.
I would recommend this book with the proviso that the reader not be discouraged. If you can take a week for a retreat - great! This book is specifically for you. If not - we'd all like to feast but most of us cannot. But we must still eat. Take what you can from this book to provide food for the journey. Add one single thing to your daily routine. When the opportunity arises, add another.
Thank you to the publisher and author for the Advanced Copy of this book and the opportunity to review.
Recommended with the above provisos.
4 stars.