God of Surprises

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This book took apart what I thought I knew, challenged my apathy, correctly anticipated most of my doubts and areas of weakness, and gave me a new way to explore my faith. The remainder of his thesis is essentially a guide to a personalised and internalised adaptation of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises as a way of `finding' this hidden treasure. It is a book for all versions of Christianity ,and although written by a Jesuit Priest , it does not infringe into other Branches of Christian Belief. But he is careful to define that treasure as experienced unity with Christ, a goal any Christian ought to hold. We move towards the field and dig towards the treasure through the decisions we make in everyday life.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. The exercises were very useful though they felt unevenly spread throughout the book with some chapters having several large meaty exercises and some having none at all. I was particularly taken with a simple yet profound definition of sin - the refusal to let God be God in my life. God of Surprises is characterised throughout by practical wisdom and humanity, deep thoughts and light touches, and a very sympathetic style of teaching . We may fight against finding him there because it means we are not our own since everything we are or have comes from God and has to be given back to him.

It is a pity that Hughes never mentions the great value of asking others for help and companionship in one's spiritual journey. I'm sure some of the more conservative Catholics would say he is way off, but, well, he's a priest too and views like his will do a lot more to help people and the Church.

The exercises given at the end of each chapter helps to interiorize and work on the insights gained. At the end of most chapters, he provided exercises that related to the thoughts he had discussed in that chapter. The developmental stages of spirituality: the institutional stage, the the critical stage, and the mystical stage. As such, any reader whose interest is piqued by this book may well wish to attend an Ignatian Spiritual Exercises retreat, and then use the book as a guide to their on-going reflections.

As a baptized Catholic who seeks meaning in life and spirituality, yet feels alienated by organized religion, I found this book to be a great comfort.