Title: The Mystic: From Charismatic to Mystical Prayer  Author: David Torkington  ISBN: 0-8189-0852-1  Paperback: vii + 123 pp.  Price: $7.95 + shipping  To Order call:  1 800-343-ALBA (2522)  Please have your Master  or Visa card ready To order online click here.

This third volume concludes David Torkington's very popular trilogy on prayer. Here he draws upon the writings and experiences of Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa of Avila to illustrate the various stages of the spiritual life from charismatic prayer to the mystical prayer of union with God. Using the lives of the parents of Peter Calvay, the protagonist of the first two volumes, he likens the various stages in our search for God to those found in a successful marriage, revealing clearly how mystical prayer is meant for all. Torkington shows how mysticism is at the heart of each and every Christian life and gives a wealth of practical help and encouragement to support those interested in deepening their life of prayer as they pursue their spiritual odyssey to union with the Lord. As with his earlier books, The Mystic is a rich and compelling tale that reveals great perennial truths to aid readers in their daily prayer time with God.

 

David Torkington is a popular columnist for the Catholic Herald in the United Kingdom and for Our Sunday Visitor in the States. He is also the author of several other highly acclaimed works on prayer published by ST PAULS / Alba House: The Hermit, The Prophet, How to Pray: A Practical Guide, and Inner Life.  Reviews "One gains the immediate impression on taking up these books that they are not some glib response to an editorial suggestion but rather something carefully meditated. Torkington writes about prayer and one feels that he writes from experience, with the authority of one who has prayed. The hermit in question is Peter Calvay, who lives off the island of Barra in the Hebrides. The narrator is in pursuit of Peter and his knowledge of prayer. When the two meet, various conversations ensue and, with Peter as our guide, we are taken on a tour from the depths of semi-Pelagianism to the heights of mystical experience, encountering some serious spiritual theology on the way. Torkington has the happy knack of marrying style and content. At no time do we think this is a prayer manual dressed up as a novel, the novelistic trappings being the honey to snare the flies. Rather, we realize that prayer isn't simply a matter of theory, but something to be lived -- and these books succeed in presenting theology as lived experience. In an age such as ours where faith and life are so dangerously divergent, this is a considerable achievement. Torkington's books may well end up on the shelf marked "Popular Theology." This is a little unjust as these books are far from simplistic; indeed, they are a welcome antidote to modern ignorance. But St. Francis de Sales wrote "popular" works too, and if these books end up next to Introduction to the Devout Life, they will be in fitting company." --David McLaurin, winner of the "Daily Express Book of the Year Award" for his novel Bishop of San Fernando, in the Catholic Herald, Sept. 6, 1998  "I would like to thank David McLaurin for his excellent review of David Torkington's Trilogy on Prayer (Catholic Herald, 6 September). I am sure that there will be many others who, like myself, will be grateful to him for drawing attention to what is true gold, amidst so much spiritual dross published today. Would that I could send a copy to every Catholic family for, though it contains so much profound spirituality, the author has the knack of making it available to all. David McLaurin is right to put this Trilogy side by side with St. Francis de Sales' popular masterpiece." --Sr. Margarita Schwind, O.P., Southampton "A rich and compelling tale that likens the various stages in our search for God to those of a successful marriage." --Raven's Bread: Food for Those in Solitude, August 1999 Top of Page