In returning to favorite quotations I choose those passages in which the authors express personal experiences of grace. Having the courage to write from the inside out reveals an authenticity which the selections that are intended to alter another's behavior do not. The last entry in the book, one of several included elsewhere by Meister Eckhart demonstrates this beautifully. "The eye in which I see God is the same eye in which God sees me. My eye and God's eye are one eye and one seeing, one knowing and one loving." In like manner the champion of little graces, Brother Lawrence confesses, "I turn over my little omelet in the frying pan for the love of God. When it is done, if I have nothing to do, I bow down to the ground and adore God from whom has come the grace to make it." Petru Dumitriu, in the chapter The Sacrament of Presence admits, "My own humble experience is not that of ecstacy. I do not levitate, I am not somewhere else, nor outside myself, not with God-nothing of that. Just a poor brute suddenly stopping halfway down the stairs, or slowly taking off his glasses. But those two or three minutes in the life of a man, are the reason why I shall not have lived in vain." And finally, Julian of Norwich ".....I was filled with an everlasting security that supported me completely, and I was without fear. This feeling was so blessed that I experienced nothing but peace and rest, and there was nothing on earth that could have disturbed me." No 'thou shalt's in those entries. Thank you Lorraine Kisly for this rich collection crammed with Ordinary Graces.

This book is beautifully conceived and executed. It is a rich collection of Christian spiritual writing rather loosely organized by general themes such as repentence and transformation. The selections are marvelous. There was nothing familiar (this is no "greatest hits") and there is astonishing breadth and quality. A constant surprise: selections that sounded very 'modern' in their psychological penetration are often from an obscure writer from the sixth century. So much hits home. I came away proud of my Christian heritage, determined to tap into it further, and inspired to take advantage of all the 'ordinary graces' available to me (and to everyone!).

This book is a true gift -- full of deep, angular passages by thoughtful Christians from a huge variety of times and places. As a pastor, I find myself going back into it while working on sermons. Not for a clever line or for a cute quote by someone famous to give credence to what I want to say. No, these passages bring me deeper into the most profound truths of the faith. They improve my own thinking and praying and preaching.

The quest to be spirit filled never ends because it is always revealed that we must continue on toward an ever moving goal. This text certianly reveals fresh,yet ancient ways, to become more aware of what lies around us and how we can incorporate it into ourselves. I have come to understand that to be so self focused is not to be "self centered," for as we beautify our spirit we bring beauty to the world.

Inspiring! I couldn't put it down.

I couldn't put the book down. I read a lot of spirituality, but this one is one of the best. It goes over major life events, ways to pray, ways to contemplate, why, how to do it in the modern world. It doesn't recommend running to a guru, but gives sound advice to use today. Highly recommended.

A near death experience is perhaps the closest that we can come, in this life, to a real foretaste of what Heaven may actually be like. Scripture remains mostly silent on what potentially awaits us.

The Book of Heaven attempts to fill this void by assembling the creative work of a wide variety of gifted and highly articulate authors.

Souls that hop, the mysterious visions of psychologist Carl Jung, Tibetan, Islamic and Christian authors all attempt to make real the deepest of hopes of humanity.

Indeed, an interesting question arises, is it we, as active participants, who work to fashion Heaven for ourselves and others, or is Heaven a passive receiving of the abundance of our creator?

The life review aspect of the near death experience, while passive for the individual, shows the possibility of the creator needing us to help provide material which can be later edited in the review process.

The Book of Heaven, likewise, does an admirable job of compiling the fascinating and substantial literature that is available on this subject.

May you find in its pages some glimpse of rest from the unedited material in which we normally find ourselves.

Whether you're planning a retreat or just want to contemplate one, this book is a quiet, smooth-flowing stream of water that will enlighten, inform, and inspire.

"I think, that we need to detach ourselves from fashions and fads, that we should work with one eye on the earth and the other on heaven, that we must return regularly to silence" (p. xiv), editor Philip Zaleski writes in the Preface to this collection in The Best Spiritual Writing series, which he introduced in 1998. Although his latest edition lacks many of the compelling voices of previous years--Natalie Goldberg, Anne Lamott, Barry Lopez, Annie Dillard, and Philip Levine, for instance--Zaleski once again provides his reader with an adventure for the soul.

Based on his experience hearing the secrets of confession, Lorenzo Albacete, a Roman Catholic priest, observes that the "language of the inner life is a serene silence, a deep hurt, a boundless desire, and occasionally, a little laughter" (p. 3). In his "Sabbath" poem, Wendell Berry dreams "of a quiet man/ who explains nothing and defends nothing but only knows/ where the rarest wildflowers/ are blooming, and who goes/ where they are and stands still" (p. 16). In another memorable poem collected here, "Clear Night," Charles Wright wants "to be bruised by God" (p. 277), while gazing up at the stars. In his essay, "Bear Butte Diary," John Landretti introduces us to a shaman with an appreciation for coffee and cigarettes (p. 66). In perhaps the most moving essay here, "Stillbirth," Leah Kuncelik Lebec learns from the heart, through her seven-month-old stillborn baby, that God loves us all, "yes, loves us, all six billion--whatever--of us, teeming over the earth" (p. 104). Brian Doyle contemplates "grace" in "Grace Notes," and David James Duncan contemplates "strategic withdrawal" in his essay. While Thomas Moore examines the "in-between places" of transition that make life worth living (p. 184), Valerie Martin meditates upon Saint Francis, and Terry Tempest Williams ponders Saint Teresa in Spain, a place that looks much like her home in the American southwest: "Little excess. Nothing wasted" (p. 260). Joan D. Stamm considers "the way of flowers."

In short, this 277-page collection will not disappoint those readers interested in experiencing spiritual perspectives that have one eye on "the dusty world" and the other on heaven.

G. Merritt

Philip Zaleski has done a masterful job of seeking out and commending the work of some eighty writers who live for "making sentences," as Joseph Epstein confesses. And because they do, they tell with great beauty of the particular struggles and joys which have brought them along a spiritual path. Some of these writers make us comfortable, some disturb. The reading becomes an opportunity to accept the challenges of the particular life I have chosen. In doing that, I, too, see a blessing within the day Today! Your heart will be softer and your mind more open after exposure to these adventurers. Where other spiritual writers offer us helpings of chicken soup, here is spread the finest of feasts. Paella for the literate soul! (Even if you're nearer the North Pole or a Zen Community than you imagined.)

An excellent collection and variety of essays and poems. Best among them for me are Jonathan Rosen's "The Talmud and the Internet" from Parabola; Phil Levine's "After Leviticus" from Image; (Roshi) Bernie Glassman's two-page "My Wife Died Unexpectedly Last March" from Tikkun; Pico Iyer on why we travel; Max Apple's "Max and Mottele" from Pakn Treger; and Eliezer Shore's "A Single Glance" from Bas Ayin.

This wonderful collection should be read over a period of many days, to allow the stories to soak into your consciousness and enrich your soul! You are sure to laugh, cry, and give thanks for what you hold in your hands.

In his Preface to this collection of forty essays and poems, Zaleski
writes, "we see that certain themes remain constant" in the
Best Spritual Writing series, "as if hard-wired into the soul:
the struggle with evil; the quest for God; nature as the ophany; the
sense that we inhabit two worlds, one divine, the other human--all
too human" (p. xvi). Although I found his five-star, 1999
collection more compelling overall, the contributions here both stir
the soul and move the mind. Or, in the words of Thomas Moore's
Introduction, these writings "should help us get through life
rather than above or around it, . . . should turn us inside out,
peeling back our skin of literalism, and remind us to hear the divine
and angelic music that sounds through in any good piece of
writing" (p. xviii).

This collection takes us on spiritual
journeys both literally and figuratively. With her "rucksack on
a cold March morning," Gretel Ehrlich follows the 800-year-old
footsteps of St. Francis, "wanderer, seeker, ultimately
saint" (p. 101). On her pilgrimage, she discovers "walking
and giving, walking and singing, walking and praying: the path was a
proving ground for sainthood, and walking was ambulation for heart
and mind" (p. 107). We also travel with Natalie Goldberg to
Kitada, Japan, where she visits the grave of her Zen teacher,
Katagiri Roshiin a downpour. She writes, "I prostrate three
times on the wet earth and I kneel in front of his stone. Pushing
the dripping hair from my face, the rain running down my cheeks, I
speak to my teacher: 'I am here. It took me a while, but I made
it'" (p.139).

Through the death of his wife, Christopher
Bamford discovers the meaning of life, that "each person's life
is a spiritual journey" (p. 8), and that "time, each
moment" is" a gift, a grace" (p. 4). Anita Mathias
learns that "domesticity, marriage, and motherhood are smiths in
which the soul can be forged as painfully, as beautifully, as amid
the splendid virginal solitudes of the convent" (p. 218). In
the most humourous essay in the book, John Price describes his
near-death experience with a pheasant while driving through Iowa.
"It made me wake up, become more observant of what's lurking in
the margins," he writes. "What's lurking there, despite
the rumors, is the possibility of surprise, of accident, of death.
And if it's possible in this over determined landscape for a pheasant
to kill a man, then why not, too, the possibility of restoration,
renewal, and, at last, hope?" (p. 264).

I was pleased to find
several of my favorite writers here, and discovered a few new writers
I am eager to read beyond this anthology. While Wendell Berry
questions "the hopeless paradox of making peace by making
war"(p. 37), Annie Dillard finds "sparks of holiness"
in the depths of "our bleak world" (p. 86). In her essay
(excerpted from her excellent book, FOR THE TIME BEING), she
observes, God "does not give as the world gives; he leads
invisibly over many years, or he wallops for 30 seconds at a time.
He may touch a mind, too, making a loud sound, or a mind may feel the
rim of his mind as he nears" (pp. 96-7). Linda Hogan writes
that the cure for "soul sickness" is "not in books.
It is written in the bark of a tree, in the moonlit silence of night,
in the bank of a river and the water's motion" (p. 153). Bill
McKibben compares the secret of Gandhi's life, "renounce and
enjoy" (p. 225), to the spread of the voluntary simplicity
movement. "Here is the secret reason," he writes,
"that some people in the rich world have begun to get rid of
some of their stuff, move to smaller houses, eat lower on the food
chain, ride bikes, reduce their expenses and scale back their
careers: if you can simplify your life, and it requires a certain
minimal affluence to do so, then you can have more fun than your
neighbors" (p. 232).

I have rated this collection with four
stars only when measured against Zaleski's five-star BEST SPIRITUAL
WRITING, 1999. However, it is likely other readers will give this
book their five-star approval. It may interest some readers that
Zaleski also includes a list of the 100 best spiritual books of the
century in this volume.

G. Merritt

This is a beautifully crafted collection of spiritual writing, comparable to looking at a finely woven piece of sacred tapestry. Writers Kimberly Snow, "Rearranging the Clouds", John Updike, "Religious Consolation", James Van Tholen, "Surprised by Death", Jacques Lusseyran, "What One Sees Without Eyes", Natalie Goldberg, "The Rain and the Temple", and Ann Hood, "In Search of Miracles", are among those selected by Philip Zaleski and a panel of distinguished writers and thinkers to perpetuate this ongoing series of books honoring great spiritual writers. The aim of the 2000 series was to capture the spiritual pulse of this century, not of the earlier ones. More than two hundred books were nominated by the panel. This collection represents a wide spectrum of religious traditions. I liked that it embraced the everyday aspects of spirituality in our lives. Highly recommended reading! Hopefully, the 2001 series will include James Davis, "Rosetta Stone of God", Philip Morimitsu, "The Seeker", or Harold Klemp, "Child In The Wilderness".These three authors offer similar stunning insights and soul searing reminders of our ability to connect with Divine Spirit daily.