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God is waiting. Our hearts are wanting. What must we do? F?r. William Barry, SJ, believes that God wants an intimate relationship with each one of us—and that the deepest desire of our own hearts is to have an intimate relationship with God. Yet while we pursue this desire and long for its satisfaction, we also resist it—which can lead to a painful stagnancy. How can we move forward? In God’s Passionate Desire, Fr. Barry serves as our spiritual director, leading us on a series of brief “retreats” to help us understand the foundations of our relationship with God, what threatens it, and how we can continuously move forward into a closer and more meaningful relationship with God. In his warm, conversational style, Barry offers meditations, poses questions, and gently encourages us to respond to God’s immeasurable love by following what is truly in each of our hearts—a longing to love him in return.
Live in the love of a God who desires a relationship with you. Throughout A Friendship Like No Other, renowned spiritual director William A. Barry, SJ, explores the premise that God wants to relate to us as a close friend. Barry has contemplated this idea—radical for many Christians—throughout his lifetime, and he explains that it actually traces back to the “developing revelation of God contained in the Bible.” A Friendship Like No Other offers three well-supported and practical sections: prayerful exercises to help lead you to the conviction that God wants your friendship; a close look at objections to this idea; and reflections on experiencing the presence of God and discerning those experiences. Brief, personal meditations are woven throughout. Grounded in biblical tradition and with a clear focus on Ignatian spirituality, this book offers a fresh, heart-changing approach to living joyfully in the freedom of the divine embrace.
We don't question our desire to be open with our close friends about our feelings, even if those feelings are difficult to express. We recognize that being honest with our loved ones will only deepen our bonds and help us feel peace in being able to express our innermost thoughts. Why then is it so challenging for us to come as we are, however we are, when approaching God in prayer? In Praying the Truth: Deepening Your Friendship with God through Honest Prayer, William A. Barry, SJ, helps us deepen our friendship with God by examining how to approach God, at any time and with any problem, in complete honesty. Fr. Barry reflects on how secrecy can hurt families, the Church, and ourselves and how what we are keeping secret can get in the way of our connection with God. He acknowledges that we may fear God’s reaction when revealing our most intimate truths; but just like with friendships, we risk not developing our relationship with God if we are dishonest about who we are and how we feel. Praying the Truth helps us realize that if we do not approach God in complete honesty, we may be holding back a part of ourselves that needs to be healed. By learning how to communicate honestly with God, our friendship with God and our faith in God’s promise to love us unconditionally will be strengthened. "Thanks to Praying the Truth, I am beginning to understand that prayer is simply hanging out with God! As I read this book, I felt as if the author seemed to be sitting beside me, just talking to me as I read." -- Anonymous reader
The Classic Work on Helping People Become Closer to God Fathers Barry and Connolly see the work of spiritual direction as helping people to develop their relationship with God. In thinking and practice they have absorbed the insights of modern psychotherapy, but have not been absorbed by them. This highly practical book reflects the authors' experience at the Center for Religious Development in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where spiritual direction is available and where directors are trained.
2021 Illumination Book Awards, Silver Medal: Theology God’s presence is not “out there” but right here. We tend to look for God in dramatic or miraculous moments, but such expectations can blind us to God’s ongoing presence. What if God is already with us, in the life we have this moment? When we experience ordinary but meaningful events, such as our first love or a favorite novel, we are in fact encountering God’s presence. As we learn to notice spiritual movement within and around us, we can recognize the many facets of God’s love that touch us daily. “As a priest and spiritual director of many decades, my driving desire is for people to experience God’s limitless love for them and to recognize it when it emerges in what they consider just ordinary life happenings and conversations.” —William A. Barry, SJ Whether we are in pain or crisis, questioning if we are really worthy of God’s attention, or are simply wondering why God would be in the mundane details of our lives, Experiencing God in the Ordinary can nurture our hope—that God is always present and can be found in an ordinary day. Complete with personal stories and various suggestions for prayer and meditation, this book is perfect for devotional reading, retreat, or small-group discussion.
2020 International Book Awards, Finalist: Spirituality—Inspirational 2019 Independent Press Awards, Winner: Spirituality 2019 Association of Catholic Publishers, Second Place: Prayer 2019 Best Book Awards, Finalist: Spirituality—Inspirational Every person needs a retreat sometime—to replenish the soul and renew life’s focus. But what if you can’t spend time away from home? What if, instead, you could go on a personal at-home prayer retreat with one of the most experienced and best-loved spiritual directors of our day? An Invitation to Love provides a practical and adaptable sequence of prayer sessions on the great commandment of the Christian faith: to love God and love our neighbor. All other aspects of a healthy and hopeful life grow from our practices of love. When we experience God’s love for us, we can respond with a growing love for God. Loving God will transform us into people who can love our neighbors, too, whoever they are. The voice that speaks in these pages so personally and warmly is that of William A. Barry, SJ, who for decades has gently accompanied people in their prayer. His understanding of Scripture, expertise in nurturing spiritual growth, and joyful confidence in God’s desire for our friendship prepares a welcoming and walkable path to conversation with God and renewal in our hearts.
In this book Father William Barry, an experienced spiritual guide, has given names to some of the desires people bring to prayer. All of them in some way have to do with relationship. People say 'I want to know God better, ' or 'I want to be certain God loves me.' In short chapters that follow a sequential pattern, Barry explores fifteen such desires.
Barry Lyndon—far from the best known, but by some critics acclaimed as the finest, of Thackeray's works—appeared originally as a serial a few years before VANITY FAIR was written; yet it was not published in book form, and then not by itself, until after the publication of VANITY FAIR, PENDENNIS, ESMOND and THE NEWCOMES had placed its author in the forefront of the literary men of the day. So many years after the event we cannot help wondering why the story was not earlier put in book form; for in its delineation of the character of an adventurer it is as great as VANITY FAIR, while for the local colour of history, if I may put it so, it is no undistinguished precursor of ESMOND.
Is what we call "the encounter with God" merely a depth experience of the psyche or does it have a specific theological character? In this revised edition of his best selling book, William Barry shows how it it possible to understand an encounter with the Triune God in this world, and how that process can be interpreted and aided by a spiritual director. Using the insights of John Macmurray and John Smith, Barry describes how a relationship with God develops and how one can discern whether a particular experience is from God or not. This understanding of religious experience comes from a theology of community, communal discernment and ministry in the church. This book will be helpful to spiritual directors, educators and theologians, as well as all educated seekers desiring a deeper relationship with God. In this revised edition, the author has added reflections on God's presence to suffering and evil and to evildoers, updated the bibliography, and freshened his examples for the 21st-century reader. +
In Flying High, William F. Buckley Jr. offers his lyrical remembrance of a singular era in American politics, and a tribute to the modern Conservative movement's first presidential standard-bearer, Barry Goldwater. Goldwater was in many ways the perfect candidate: self-reliant, unpretentious, unshakably honest, and dashingly handsome. And although he lost the election, he electrified millions of voters with his integrity and a sense of decency - qualities that made him a natural spokesman for Conservative ideals and an inspiration for decades to come. In an era when Republicans are looking for a leader, Flying High is a reminder of how real political visionaries inspire devotion.
Prayer is first and foremost a personal relationship and that the most fruitful prayer is that builds upon and enhances relationship. It shows us how we can develop an intimate relationship with God.
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