In Intimacy with Jesus

By Louis-Marie Parent

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 2980123854
• ISBN13: 9782980123856
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Collection Volontaires de Dieu
• Length: 175 Pages

Customer Reviews

Not Just Another Book on Prayer

Father Louis-Marie Parent's books, The Present Moment, In the Footsteps of Jesus and In Intimacy with Jesus are tools designed to empower their readers to enflesh the charism of the Institutes Father Parent founded. In this book, In Intimacy with Jesus, Fr Parent shares his understanding of prayer. Father Parent divides this book into three parts. Part one, entitled To Enter into Prayer explains his unique perspective on prayer - that it is less us talking to God than it is us listening to the Spirit within us, and praying with God. He goes on to explain the process and phases of prayer and ends with practical advice on prayer. As always, his writing style is simple and clear - no theological treatise on the Seven Story Mountain here. And yet, in its simplicity and clarity, it is profound. The second part, entitled Meditations, presents 43 meditations on subjects such as the Incarnation and the Annunciation, the Present Moment, Wherever Christ Has His Rights, the Will of God, the Beatitudes, the Presence of God, the Absence of Criticism and Complaint, Being of Service and Sowing Peace. Each short meditation is less an ocean of wisdom than it is a diving board from which we may leap into whatever more God's Spirit has for us. Part Three, Prayers, then has 26 of Father Parent's prayers. But these are not prayers of petition or praise. They are Emanuel, God with us, speaking within us. Each begins, "My little children..." Father Parent explains: "There is another way of praying that nourishes the soul: that used by the author of The Imitation of Christ. The Lord establishes a dialogue with the attentive soul. He speaks through the soul, he makes his presence felt. In this language, is it really God who speaks or is it the imagination? It is possible to discern..." And we do. "My sheep know my voice" and just so, one discerns the Voice in these gems of consolation that Father Parent has penned, but another's hand has written. This book, like Father's other two spiritual classics might be mistakenly judged `quick reads' and might be dismissed as `nothing new." But that would be the judgment of a shallow soul that was looking for a quick fix. Father Parent's books do not effortlessly transform. Rather, they are tools that empower the workman to develop his/her craft. If you invest the sweat-equity, these tools will help you choose a solid foundation, and build an edifice that will withstand the storms of life. Read them as you would the Bible, often, and prayerfully.