Inner Life Written in David Torkington's inimitably direct and popular style,
Inner Life
is a personal reflection on the experiences that have shaped his own spiritual life. In turns both amusing and moving, it draws together many simple reminiscences which contributed to his life-changing discovery of the mystery of prayer. He shares with us the lessons of his spiritual heroes from the Desert Fathers to Dom John Chapman, from Bernard Bassett, S.J. to Padre Pio and others and urges us to think of prayer as a way into Christ's dimension outside space and time. He gives practical advice and details regarding new and traditional methods of prayer, leading us on through meditation to contemplation. As Sister Wendy Beckett says in her Foreword, This book should be
mandatory reading!
It's so easy to read spirituality and in the reading to deceive ourselves into thinking that we live it. This book leaves us no bolt hole for self-deception. David Torkington is concerned with the reality of love, its failures, its desires, its need to trust and let Jesus take possession. He is absolutely certain that we cannot do it, but that God can, and in communicating that certainty, so humbly and so surely, he gives us confidence to turn the floating desire for God into prayer and acts of goodness. This book should be mandatory reading.
Anyone serious about prayer ought to read Inner Life. It is a compendium on prayer framed in the author's experiences from youth through adolescence to adulthood. Torkington shares with us the lessons he gleaned in his own spiritual life. Inner Life is not a theological treatise on prayer; it is a compilation of 52 pieces which appeared in the British Catholic Herald,
written in a witty, popular style with some deep implications for everyday living. Torkington's views on prayer and spirituality are based on the thoughts of the Desert Fathers, Dom John Chapman, Bernard Basset, SJ., St. Augustine, Martin Buber and others. Torkington is a master of prayer, having previously written a trilogy on the subject. His engrossing style masks the depth of his practical advice and specifics about many forms of prayer from the traditional to the new. Inner Life will be particularly appreciated by busy people on the run with the 2 to 3 page chapters. It deserves a wide readership. In the Foreword, Sr. Wendy Beckett of Public TV fame, gives the best recommendation for the work: All this book will torpedo is our complacency, our lethargy and our reluctance to let God love us and make us loving in return. It should be mandatory reading.