| Author: | Wendy M Wright |
|---|---|
| Published By: | Darton, Longman and Todd (London) |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Price: | £10.95 |
| ISBN: | 0 2325 2642 7 |
The best thing about this book, a new edition of a ‘classic’ from the late 1980s, is that Wendy M Wright writes honestly from where she finds herself, as a doctoral student in Christian spirituality in the midst of modern family life: “We learn to love with a little bit of the spaciousness of divine love by being stretched and prodded and broken open by our children. We grow wise as we have our foolishness exposed by the spouses that bear with us through it all.”
As a husband and father of two young children, I think the last thing we need is over-piety and whitewashing of how things really are (this probably applies to being a parish priest as well!). Wright offers us not that, but lucid, reflective and Christian honesty, borne out of struggle: ‘A Spirituality of Family Life.’
The other key gift of this book is its offering of a radical challenge to the deep-rooted bias in Christian spirituality towards journeying away as the ideal spiritual motif, from Andrew and Peter leaving their nets onwards: “God IS with us. Our spiritual longings are realized not only in journeying but also in dwelling, on the already as well as the not yet.”
Though many churches might be practically family-oriented, our spiritual tradition has tended to lean the opposite way. Wendy Wright gives St Jerome short shrift, and takes us on an enriching contemplative walk through a home. This structure works well, though its neatness combined with a style that is American, Roman Catholic and profoundly middle class in its assumptions will be a bit much for some. But still this is a book deserving of its classic status, offering truth, relief and encouragement to those in the messiness and chaos of family life, and valuable insight to all who seek to minister to them. It is luminous in its call to affirm the intrinsically sacramental quality of all life, and to discern the call of Christ, the face of God in the often opaque fabric of our ordinary routine.You are reading Issue 41 of Ministry Today, published in November 2007.
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