Compass Points: Meeting God Every Day at Every Turn

Product Description

You can find God as easily at the car wash as you can at the cathedral.

For many Christians, it’s relatively effortless to experience God in special places, such as a church or a mountaintop; or at special times, such as the birth of a child or the wedding of two people deeply in love. But it can be quite a challenge for us to meet God in the most ordinary of places, in the most ordinary of times. God in the magnificent? No problem. God in the mundane? That’s a bit harder.
In
Compass Points, best-selling Ignatian spirituality author and beloved speaker Margaret Silf leads us to discover God beyond the grandiose and to find the Divine in our daily lives. Through short but powerful meditations and vignettes based on her own authentic spiritual experiences, Silf reveals the interior process of Ignatian mindfulness—of which a core tenet is that God can be found in all things.
By joining Silf on her journey through real life in the real world, readers will have their own eyes, minds, and hearts opened to the Divine experience and will come to more fully recognize God’s active, abiding presence in everything that they see and do.

From Publishers Weekly

A collection of short-form meditations, anecdotes and nuggets of insight gleaned from Silf’s work, travels, family and spiritual life, this volume aims to highlight God’s appearances in ordinary life. A British retreat director specializing in the spirituality of Ignatius of Loyola, Silf (
Close to the Heart) asserts, God isn’t as elusive as we think. Her meditations are sparked by events as diverse as travel through the American West, Wales and South Africa; pastry made by a old friend; or even an Internet story about a race for children with special needs. Wherever we journey, she says, we will discover that God awaits us through every point of the compass. Some of the illustrations she uses are compelling. Some are, frankly, rather dull. This is not her richest or most reflective book. But Silf fans will find the writer they know and have come to depend on for grounded ideas on how to incarnate one’s faith in daily life.
(Apr. 1)
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From the Back Cover

You can find God as easily at the car wash as you can at the cathedral.
For many Christians, it’s relatively effortless to experience God in special places, such as a church or a mountaintop; or at special times, such as the birth of a child or the wedding of two people deeply in love. But it can be quite a challenge for us to meet God in the most ordinary of places, in the most ordinary of times. God in the magnificent? No problem. God in the mundane? That’s a bit harder.In Compass Points, best-selling Ignatian spirituality author and beloved speaker Margaret Silf leads us to discover God beyond the grandiose and to find the Divine in our daily lives. Through short but powerful meditations and vignettes based on her own authentic spiritual experiences, Silf reveals the interior process of Ignatian mindfulness—of which a core tenet is that God can be found in all things. By joining Silf on her journey through real life in the real world, readers will have their own eyes, minds, and hearts opened to the Divine experience and will come to more fully recognize God’s active, abiding presence in everything that they see and do.

About the Author

Margaret Silf travels widely in her work as a retreat director and speaker on Ignatian spirituality. Her books include
Compass Points,
Inner Compass,
Close to the Heart and
Going on Retreat. She lives in Scotland.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

God has escaped from the sanctuary.
Is that bad news or good news? For some people it might be a terrifying thought, because if God isn’t confined to our holy places, how will we know where to find God? Will we ever be able to find God at all? For others it is a liberating tho