The Holy Longing: Guidelines for a Christian Spirituality » (1st U.S. Edition)

Ronald Rolheiser, O.M.I., is a specialist in the fields of spirituality and systematic theology. His regular column in the Catholic Herald is featured in newspapers in five different countries. He is the author of the prizewinning The Restless Heart as well as Forgotten Amongst the Lilies, The Shattered Lantern, and An Infinite Horizon. He lives in Canada.

Ronald Rolheiser makes sense of what is frequently a misunderstood word: spirituality. In posing the question "What is spirituality?" Father Rolheiser gets quickly to the heart of common difficulties with the subject, and shows through compelling anecdotes and personal examples how to channel that restlessness, that deep desire, into a healthy spirituality.

This book is for those searching to understand what Christian spirituality means and how to apply it to their own lives.  Rolheiser explains the nonnegotiables—the importance of community worship, the imperatives surrounding social action, the centrality of the Incarnation, the sustenance of the spiritual life—and how spirituality necessarily impacts every aspect of human experience.  At the core of this readable, deeply revealing book is an explanation of God and the Church in a world that more often than not doubts the credibility of both.

Publishers Weekly

"Spirituality is about what we do with our unrest... [it] is about what we do with that incurable desire, the madness that comes from the gods, within us." Rolheiser (Restless Heart) contends that the late 20th century is marked by a kind of spiritual restlessness, even though the spiritual landscape is littered with a variety of "spiritualities." He argues that there is richness in such spiritual diversity and plurality, but that many seekers lack direction in their spiritual search. Rolheiser develops a Christian spirituality that he believes offers some definite direction for seekers. At the heart of a healthy Christian spiritual life, he says, there must be four essentials: "private prayer and private morality; social justice; mellowness of heart and spirit; and community as a constitutive element of true worship." At the base of Christian spirituality, he notes, is the Incarnation of God in human flesh. If Christians can focus on the embodied character of their theology, then the four essentials of Christian spirituality become easier to embrace. In the latter half of the book, Rolheiser develops sketches of a spirituality of community (ecclesiology), a spirituality of sexuality and a spirituality of justice and peacemaking. We can sustain ourselves in the spiritual life, he notes, by being a mystic, sinning bravely, gathering ritually around the Word and breaking the bread, and worshipping and serving the right God. Rolheiser's program for Christian spirituality is reminiscent of the best work of Henri Nouwen and Daniel Berrigan. (July) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Preface ix
PART ONE THE SITUATION What Is Spirituality? 3
The Current Struggle with Christian Spirituality 20
PART TWO THE ESSENTIAL OUTLINE FOR A CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY
The Nonnegotiable Essentials 45
PART THREE THE INCARNATION AS THE BASIS FOR A CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY
Christ as the Basis for Christian Spirituality 73
Consequences of the Incarnation for Spirituality 82
PART FOUR SOME KEY SPIRITUALITIES WITHIN A SPIRITUALITY
A Spirituality of Ecclesiology 111
A Spirituality of the Paschal Mystery 141
A Spirituality of Justice and Peacemaking 167
A Spirituality of Sexuality 192
Sustaining Ourselves in the Spiritual Life 213
Notes 243