CBB Review: Finding God Through Meditation

Daniel Burke has been steadily assembling a very impressive list of books under the series title Navigating the Interior Life Series. This review I will be focusing on the second offering from the series Finding God Through Meditation: St. Peter of Alcantara by St. Peter of Alcantara and edited by Daniel Burke.

To be honest, prior to reading this book, I had little knowledge of who Peter of Alcantara was. St. Peter was a spiritual director of St. Teresa of Avila. It was through this relationship that St. Teresa used St. Peters thought on contemplative prayer as the foundation for the fourth mansion in her book Interior Castle. This book, Finding God Through Meditation, was the text St. Teresa used to ensure her viewpoint on prayer was correct.

So what is so deeply profound about this text that led it to be used in the Interior Castle, a book that would eventually be considered a classic? Daniel Burke tells us in the introduction. “St. Peter’s insights on prayer are far more profound and far reaching than the size of this text might suggest. The reader will find not only help in satisfying the short-term need for insight on how to grow in prayer, but also a window into perspectives on prayer that should challenge and enrich the reader for years to come.”

Upon reading this book I whole-heartedly agree. This is not just a once and done book. There is so much spiritual fruit here that you will be returning to it time and time again to either refresh what you have learned or discover new things within its pages. So you may be asking, what this book contains that makes it so special….read on.

St. Peter opens with a chapter on Perspective on Meditation and Devotion. In this opening chapter he discusses among other things two key ingredients. Six things necessary to prayer and the preparation necessary to prayer. He continues building upon these themes by reviewing how to meditate including reading, oblation and petition. I found Chapter IV to be of great interest. St. Peter tells the reader nine means to acquire devotion which are: completion of the exercise, custody of the heart, custody of the senses, solitude, reading of spiritual books, continual memory of God, perseverance, corporal austerities, and works of mercy. He follows these with nine impediments to devotion: venial sins, remorse of conscience, anxiety of heart, cares of the mind, a multitude of affairs, delights and pleasures of the senses, inordinate eating and drinking, curiosity of senses and understanding, and intermission of exercises.

The one thing I am frequently told by my spiritual director is I should spend more time with original texts so I can read and discern the material for myself, unfiltered by someone else. Daniel Burke has provided myself and many others this opportunity by presenting this little known text to us. This book will provide the reader with new approaches to prayer, ones that influenced none other than St Teresa of Avila. In my mind if St. Peter of Alcantara’s thoughts on prayer were enough to influence a Doctor of the Church, then we would be wise to explore them and this book in particular. A fine addition to the Navigating the Interior Series….bravo Daniel Burke.

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