BOOK OF DIVINE INTIMACY - 5400

Divine Intimacy by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D., is a book of daily meditations on the interior life for every day of the liturgical year, rooted in Carmelite spirituality and the teaching of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. Each day offers two meditations arranged by the liturgical calendar, each followed by a colloquy: a prayer of praise, love, petition, and thanksgiving that ends with a resolution. This edition reproduces the 1964 English translation by the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Boston, bound in a flexible black leather cover. It is suited to Catholics who want a structured daily practice of mental prayer, and to those drawn to Carmelite spirituality, including Secular Carmelites and religious.

Father Gabriel was a Discalced Carmelite priest and a specialist in the spiritual doctrine of St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross. For ten years he served as confessor and spiritual director to the Discalced Carmelite nuns of the Monastery of St. Joseph in Rome. The nuns helped him arrange his material to follow both the liturgical year and the soul's progress toward union with God. Each meditation begins by placing the reader in God's presence and reflecting on the day's theme. The colloquy then turns that reflection into personal conversation with God, which makes the book a practical guide for daily mental prayer as well as spiritual reading. The work was first published in Italian as Intimità Divina. This English edition is published under licence from the Monastero S. Giuseppe and has been re-typeset from the 1964 Desclée edition. At 1,216 pages and 5½ by 8? inches, it is meant to be used every day for a full year and then begun again.

Use & care: Suited to a daily period of mental prayer, whether in the morning, before the Blessed Sacrament, or during a Holy Hour, and for spiritual reading through the liturgical year. Condition the leather cover occasionally with a leather-safe product and keep the book away from heat and moisture.