Restless in Christ: Answering the Call to Spiritual Commitment

by Sarah Stockton

Overview

In today's society, people are turning to meditation and prayer in record numbers, pursuing the promised benefits of a contemplative life-peace, quiet, tranquility, and rest. But what about grief, restlesness, and other stirrings of the soul? In Restless in Christ, Stockton speaks about her own experiences as a seeker and her training as a spiritual director. As she progressed on her path, she came to realize that restlesness belongs to the very essence of the spiritual life. Her insights into restlessness have helped the lives of countless seekers and teachers, and will help you too.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780824522537
Publisher:	Crossroad Publishing Company
Publication date:	04/28/2004
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.38(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.47(d)

About the Author

Sarah Stockton is a spiritual director, university teacher, columnist, wife, and mother of two teenagers.

Table of Contents

	A Word from the Author	9
	Christ Visits	11
	A Reluctant Detour	15
	God: A Retrospective	19
	Spiritual Direction, an Overview	22
	A Teenage Creed	26
	My Father's Faith	30
	In the Quiet	35
	Fallible Teachers	38
	Redemption: A Song and a Prayer	44
	"Because the Bible Tells Me So..."	49
	Who Am I to Talk?	51
	Trusting the Teacher	53
	The Holy Longing	57
	As a Restless Child	59
	Christ in the Margins	64
	Romancing Christ	69
	Call and Response	72
	Committed to the Journey	76
	On Choosing a Spiritual Direction Training Program	80
	On the Street Where I Find Myself	81
	Christian in the Creative Community	85
	The Practical Side of a Spiritual Life	89
	Holy Listening	93
	The Unpredictable Spirit	94
	On Writing This Book	97
	In the Night	99
	On Prayer	102
	Why This Church, This Pew, This Faith?	103
	The Church, Abuse, and Choice	110
	Accepting the Open Door of Who I Am	112
	On Finding a Director	115
	Practicing Prayer with a Moose and a Frog	117
	Singing in the Spirit	120
	Practicing Prayer, Take Two	124
	Discernment	128
	Hearing with the Heart	131
	Taking It on Faith	133
	The Communion of Spirits	136
	On Loving	139
	Answering the Call	143
	Acknowledgments	149
	About the Author	151
	Selected Readings	153

Editorial Reviews

At first glance, it's not easy to tell what this book is about. Is it a collection of reflections on spiritual restlessness, a call to faith commitment, a wisdom book for antsy Christians or perhaps a memoir? All of the above figure in Stockton's loose gathering of short essays, written while she was an intern in a three-year program on spiritual direction: "a discipline by which those who encounter God in the fabric of their daily lives act as an attentive presence for others seeking a similar encounter." The training program requires intense self-examination, and the book's 40 chapters often sound like journal entries as they explore Stockton's feelings on topics ranging as widely as insomnia, her father's spiritual journey, Harold the predatory music teacher, marginalization, Christ as a teacher who embodies the Buddha, divorce, children who can't focus, various books she has found valuable, pros and cons of being Catholic, singing, decision-making, loving, the primacy of feeling over intellect and what she is learning about herself as she prepares to be a spiritual director. Stockton, a writer, teacher and creative consultant, writes gracefully, and her home-grown illustrations are appealing. Her self-confessed restlessness is evident in the book's lack of focus, though readers already involved in giving or receiving spiritual direction may not mind her string-of-pearls approach. (July) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly