Dear Master: Letters on Spiritual Direction Inspired by Saint John of the Cross

By Susan Muto

Book Overview

Saint John of the Cross has been a source of inspiration to faith seekers, both religious and lay, for over 400 years. Profound and timeless, the works penned by this Spanish Doctor contain clear and precise spiritual directives that will help anyone in their attempts to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.Susan Muto, a gifted interpreter of John of the Cross, has written a valuable guidebook to one of his classic works. The Living Flame of Love. Muto captures the spirit of Saint John of the Cross with an imaginative series of letters that might have been exchanged between John of the Cross and Dona Ana de Penalosa, the spiritual directee for whom he wrote perhaps his most personal and passionate work.A wealth of tested advice on methods of spiritual direction based on one of the Church's finest spiritual mentors, Dear Master is a book for both beginners in search of advice on spiritual direction and for those at more advanced stages of contemplation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0764805002
• ISBN13: 9780764805004
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Liguori Publications
• Length: 118 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

spiritual direction through correspondence of a true spiritual master

This book provides an example of how to act as a spiritual director in a one-on-one situation through correspondence. The directee has made progress and is interested in how to proceed in the more advanced or deeper stages of the spiritual journey. The director, St. John of the Cross admits that he is trying to "explain things ultimately unexplainable." 2 The topic under discussion is about how to achieve union with God that is part of the purgation, illumination and transformation experience. Some of the language and terms that both writers used to describe their experience differ considerably from my own experience (such as our intellect "becomes a mind-divine" 50). I was very challenged by intimate experiences of God's love that Ana and St. John experienced. Speaking of God's love that one experiences in the deeper stages, John describes the intensity of it as unable to be contained by one's heart (2), as a "wound of love" that "is not distasteful but delightful" (35) , as the enjoyment of God that overflows "into every one of your faculties and senses." (39) The most encouraging and yet sobering statement in the book was the following about what spiritual directors need not be: Not "highly educated but inexperienced, or one full of clever answers but indiscreet, not a listener but a controller, not a humble person but one proud of being so accomplished, not an experienced guide in spiritual matters but a counselor mainly trained in psychological techniques and personality analysis." 90