Library

Spiritual masters and renowned authors include Ignatius, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Joyce Rupp, Barbara Fiand and many, many more.

New books and periodicals are added regularly to keep pace with current trends in theology and spirituality. We are pleased to offer the work of modern spiritual writers of various traditions as well as classic authors. Donations are welcome.

 Book review: 

“Sparks of the Divine: Finding Inspiration in Our Everyday World” by Drew Leder, Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Ind., Copyright 2004

By Syndie Eardly of Something Spiritual

A young man stopped a New Yorker on the street one day and asked, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Legend has it the New Yorker replied, “Practice, practice, practice.”

At the heart of “Sparks of the Divine: Finding Inspiration in Our Everyday World” by Drew Leder one finds this same sentiment attached to the spiritual life. In every moment, we are invited to “practice” spiritual awareness and in so doing, become what we practice all day long.

Leder invites us to take the most mundane aspects of the physical world and of our lives and infuse them with the living breath of the spiritual by focusing on them in meditation to discern what they have to teach us.

In his introduction, Leder points out that the “sheer ordinariness of things is our cataract.” That is, we become glazed over by the repetitiveness of what we see every day and lose our sense of the sacred in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the people we encounter, and the sheer beauty of our world.

Quoting Rabbi David Cooper, Leder says that every particle in our physical universe contains “sparks of holiness.”

“But these sparks remain hidden in our ordinary world,” Leder says. “Our sacred task as human beings is to uncover them, an act of cosmic restoration. This we do through acts of service, prayer, loving kindness and appreciation, whereby we attune to and celebrate the universe. We are here to heal the world by finding sparks of the divine, and in so doing to ourselves be healed.”

Leder notes that most self-help books advocate an inward journey to the psyche to heal what ails us, but Leder advocates instead “going out of your mind” to find healing in the lessons and blessings that surround us. If in the end, as all spiritual traditions tell us, it is not about “me” or the individual ego, but in truth about the connection between all beings and all things of the earth, then finding the divine spark in all things may not only be our pathway to spiritual enlightenment, but the framework for co-creating a world of peace and love in concert with God.

In the pages of his book, Leder provides 100 brief reflections on all of the “ordinary” things of our lives, and invites us to see these wonders with fresh eyes, eyes filled with wonder and enchantment and gratitude for what spiritual lesson each of these things has to impart to us.

At almost the exact center of the book, is an apt reflection on steps, stairs and escalators, and how they reflect our climb to spiritual heights.

“Whatever heights we wish to reach, we’re unlikely to soar there in a paroxysm of ecstasy or by serenely floating above life’s conflicts. No, we climb step by step, a bit forward, a bit upward, our movement barely discernible. A prayer here. An honest talk there. A little meditation. A mumbled confession. We might doubt we are making any spiritual progress at all yet, peering over the side, the view comes to look a bit different. We have a slightly broader perspective on life, a little more distance from the problems that so weighed us down.”

Leder’s entire book is a staircase, inviting us to take one step at a time along the spiritual path by letting the wind open us to new life, or see a tree as a teacher of life, or learning from flowers how to turn towards the light. He uses our senses to make us aware of beauty, joy and creation, and invites our emotions to become our teachers.

In a hundred ways, Leder makes us see that the Kingdom of Heaven really is at hand, if we but take the time to stop and savor the spark of the divine in every moment.

Book Review Archive

A Sacred Voice Calling: Personal Vocation and Social Conscience by John Neafsey

In the Stillness You Will Know by Barbara Fiand

Out of the Ordinary by Joyce Rupp

Adam by Henri Nouwen

The Art of Discernment by Stefan Kiechle

Book Review Archive

Top