Book on practical spirituality

By Brian T. Olszewski

When the words “practical guide” appear in a title, one is naturally wary. Be it financial planning, home improvement or prayer, no one writes an “impractical guide,” yet what is practical for the author isn’t always for the reader.

In “Five Pillars of the Spiritual Life,” Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer does, in fact, present a practical guide to prayer. Those pillars—the Eucharist, spontaneous prayer, the Beatitudes, a six-part partnership with the Holy Spirit, and the contemplative life, to which he devotes three chapters—are practical.

Blending his life experiences with reflections on Scripture and steps to enhancing one’s spiritual life, Father Spitzer, president of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., provides a hands-on volume that will welcome the strokes of a Hi-Liter as one anticipates returning to various pages for direction and encouragement.
An example is the section devoted to the Holy Spirit and its work in the author’s life and those of the readers. As though he were helping readers write an invitation for the Holy Spirit to enter their lives, Father Spitzer suggests that readers write a “brief sacred history of how the Holy Spirit has worked through a variety of people, circumstances, joys, sufferings, talents, deficits, successes and failures in our lives.”

He writes “to” readers in a manner that is a combination of instructional and conversational, resulting in a useful guide for spiritual development.