{James Martin. The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life. HarperOne 2010. 432 pages.  $26.99}

Reviewed by Elizabeth Scalia

As Bill Creed, a Jesuit spiritual director, once told me, “In the bright sunshine of God’s love, your shadows begin to emerge.”
— James Martin, The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything; A Spirituality for Real Life

Boy, does that resonate with me, and with everyone I know who is serious about deepening their relationship with Christ. Face-to-face with the All-in-all, one eventually comes face-to-face with oneself, in all one’s glaring inadequacy; the soul is planed down through prayer and examination of conscience, and every flaw and burr seems magnified.

The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything is a rather surprising book. Did you know that 35 craters on the moon have been named after Jesuit scientists? Or that Jesuits discovered quinine (the modern anti-malarial called “Jesuit bark” in the 16th century)? Or that they invented the trap door, without which the Wicked Witch of the West might never make her timely exit, and Falstaff might never fall?

Well, that’s not what this book is about, not really. Not remotely. Given those little tidbits, a trivia-freak like me might rub her hands together in delight, anticipating a giddy read.

The Jesuit Guide is a fun read. Fun in the way that sitting with a pal and discussing the exciting, ever-evolving way -the always beginning way- of prayer, and acquaintance and friendship with God can be fun, but also a little humbling and challenging, and ultimately quietening.

Fr. James Martin is a friend, but that’s not why I love his newest book. I love it because what he is writing is true, and warm and genially helpful to the seeker who perhaps has been reading scripture and practicing prayer for a little while -or who hasn’t been practicing at all, but feels a nameless tug for “something more”, and is suddenly feeling like there are too many forks in the road. If you need a bit of centering, this book will help. In it Fr. Martin, who clearly loves being a Jesuit and a priest, shares the Ignatian pathway; the spiritual exercises, practices and perspectives devised by St. Ignatius Loyola and still used today by Catholics and non-Catholics, alike. [Read more...]