Product Description

The fruit of two thousand years of inner experience and insight from Christians of all denominations, Ordinary Graces embodies the great themes of Christ’s teachings: will, presence, the neighbor, struggle, grace, and awakening. While each passage stands alone, the different voices call to one another across the centuries and over vast geographical and cultural divides. Some of the names will be familiar, but many of them will be new to readers. Lorraine Kisly has sought out not only unfamiliar passages by famous Christians, but also writers we may have overlooked. As each voice joins the chorus, our understanding of Christianity’s inner tradition deepens, and we can see more clearly ways of incorporating its truths into our daily lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1175643 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-25
• Released on: 2001-09-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.com Review
"I wanted to find the living core of [the Christian] tradition," the editor of this collection has said. As publisher of the excellent Buddhist periodical Tricycle, and as editor and publisher of Parabola magazine, Kisly has had her hand in shaping two of the most informative (and formative) spiritual journals of recent times, which should make her well qualified for the journey. And here she has indeed assembled a rich and challenging collection of Christian texts, with a particularly strong representation from Eastern Orthodoxy. We get not only the expected writers (Merton, Augustine, Wesley, Newman, C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, Julian of Norwich), but also Paul Evdokimov, Anthony Bloom, Nicholas Berdyaev, and Theophan the Recluse, along with passages from the great medieval mystics of the Western church: Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, Theophan the Recluse, and Catherine of Siena, among many others.

Arranged in 10 "cycles," the brief selections (ranging from a paragraph to a few pages) move from an emphasis on the natural world through discussions of loving one's neighbor and the nature of sin to concluding cycles on "Holy Fire"--the dwelling of divine in us--and the paradox of "Having Nothing, Possessing All Things." What we discover throughout is that the "ordinary graces" of the title are in fact available to all, and are indeed ordinary, even though they demand everything from us. Surrender is the book's underlying message, not a new one for a Christian audience, but one rarely expressed with such passion and depth as in the writings represented here. Readers already familiar with Kathleen Norris' The Cloister Walk and the anthologies of Stephen Mitchell, such as The Enlightened Heart, will find rich--if challenging--rewards here as well. --Doug Thorpe

From Publishers Weekly
This quirky collection, drawn from two millennia of Christian writings, deserves to become one of those nightstand favorites that readers will discover multiple times, drawing comfort from the wisdom of shared experience and being spiritually challenged by its more didactic passages. Kisly, a former publisher of Tricycle and Parabola, wants to provide readers with "ordinary graces" that can bless their lives. The 10 chapters are loosely arranged around topics such as taking joy in creation, bearing one another's annoying faults, sacrificing self-will and cultivating a spirit of contemplation. Kisly's italicized introductions are almost astonishingly sparse, leaving the reader to enjoy the fruitful spiritual work of making sense of the passages she has chosen. Each chapter takes an intricate journey from the surface to the depths, spiraling ever downward into more challenging and, at first glance abstruse, passages. The book offers some of the usual suspects of Christian spirituality (Catherine of Siena, John Donne, Augustine, Kierkegaard and the Desert Fathers), but also some relatively obscure Christian sages such as "Simeon the New Theologian" (949-1022), and other aesthetes Kisly is clearly fond of, including T.S. Eliot and Vincent Van Gogh. (Eliot's poem on desiring nothing reflects perfectly the ironic tension of Kisly's chapter on "Having Nothing, Possessing All Things.") This is a book to be savored slowly, marked up thoroughly, and made one's own. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher
Being an editor has its pluses and minuses. One of the pluses is that people occasionally send me the most glorious manuscripts to read. One of the minuses is that I rarely have time to read them slowly. When Lorraine Kisly delivered the final selection of passages for her book, I was overwhelmed at the breadth and depth of each one but I had to get on with the production. Now that it exists as a real book, I will be able to do what the rest of the world has a chance to do: immerse myself in it, savor each sentence, contemplate each idea, and dwell therein. My hope is that I will be able to listen to each of the voices in her extraordinary book and live its teaching one day at a time. This may last me (and you) a lifetime. -- Toinette Lippe, editorial director of Bell Tower

Customer Reviews

Ordinary Graces - An extraordinary collection
Ordinary Graces opens with a joyful celebration of the wonder of God's creation followed by a gradual unfolding of the Christian message that culminates in divine union. The passages are carefully selected so that each reflects upon and illuminates those that precede and follow it. As the book progresses, a path of work is traced, its demands increasing in difficultly and deepening in meaning. Kisly's thoughful selections are in an invitation to examine one's life and choose the path of truth. These selections cover 2000 years of Christianity, with remarkable passages that flow smoothly between the centuries. Highly and enthusiastically recommended

Ordinary Graces by Lorraine Kisly
With great warmth and feeling, "Ordinary Graces" brings to light timeless human need to move from self-love to love of God and of others, from doubt to faith, from despair to hope. One feels connected to an unbroken thread of believers through the centuries. The book made me newly aware that "the body of Christ" links all generations and that the fruit of "the vine and the branches" nourishes every soul.

A surprise and delight
This book is beautifully conceived and executed. It is a rich collection of Christian spiritual writing rather loosely organized by general themes such as repentence and transformation. The selections are marvelous. There was nothing familiar (this is no "greatest hits") and there is astonishing breadth and quality. A constant surprise: selections that sounded very 'modern' in their psychological penetration are often from an obscure writer from the sixth century. So much hits home. I came away proud of my Christian heritage, determined to tap into it further, and inspired to take advantage of all the 'ordinary graces' available to me (and to everyone!).