Customer Reviews

All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, & Witnesses for Our Time

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All Saints is truly remarkable. While there are many traditional collections honoring Catholic saints, this is the first I have seen that is truly catholic (universal) in embracing many different traditions and the best of those traditions. Ellsburg's book reminds me that saints are made, not born. Each day I am presented with the story of some man or woman who struggled to grow in relationship with God and to live well in the world around him/her. Many advocates of social justice and modern "saints" (as modern as the 90s) are included here, which is wonderful to see. I have ordered many copies for family and friends! No one who knows the value of role models should be without one.

While one could fill a bookcase with one-volume guides to the saints, this new publication both takes a refreshing, innovative approach in its choice of spiritual models and sets new standards of such writing. Over one or two of the book's large-format pages, Robert Ellsberg presents each of his 365 insightful portraits of men and women who present inspiring and challenging role models for today's Christian. His selection puts individuals traditionally celebrated as saints alongside others also recognized today as spiritual giants, including some from non-Christian faiths.

The profiles are presented one per day, often on their official feast days, if this applies. At the end of each entry, Ellsberg provides one or two well-chosen suggestions for further reading. An index makes the book a useful reference, in addition to it being rich spiritual reading.

The merits of `All Saints' were well captured by Henri Nouwen when he commented on a draft version of the book prior to his death (Nouwen himself receives an entry in the finished book): `This book is a great treasure. Though not pious it is spiritually evocative; though untraditional, it is consistent with the larger Catholic tradition. While broadening the traditional vision of sanctity it calls us to explore our own ways of becoming a saint. I consider Robert Ellsberg to be one of the most significant spiritual writers in the United States, and this book puts him right into the center of contemporary spiritual literature.'

Ellsberg is editor-in-chief of Orbis Books and has written and edited a number of award-winning books, including works on Dorothy Day and Mahatma Gandhi. In `All Saints' he has produced a compendium of holy lives that will truly speak to and inspire today's women and men. [A Selection of the John Garratt Catholic Book Club.]

Ellsberg chronicles not only expected Saints, but also Old Testament figures, writers like John Donne and George Herbert, social activists like Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, Dorothy L. Day, G.K. Chesterton, and the anti-Nazi Order of White Rose. Gandhi and Moses rub page-shoulders with Julian of Norwich, Sojourner Truth, and the Beguine martyrs. Well-documented readings feature a prefatory quote by the day's saint, a biography, and a reflective linking to other 'saints' of the day and subsequently. Have given two copies away already and am on-line to order more; like any good book, -All Saints- by Robert Ellsberg improves with every reading.

This is a wonderful book which I have already read through many times--and each time discover something new and wonderful and insightful.

The author presents profiles, one for each day of the year, of saints and holy people, but not just the traditional ones! So you have not only the old favorites (St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Therese of Lisieux), but also some welcome surprises (Gandhi, Dorothy Day, and even Mozart!).

Taken as a whole, this book is a beautiful meditation on the notion of sanctity and reminds us that all of us are called--in our own way, in our own lives, and in our own times--to become saints.

It's just a great book!

I'm just a plebe-- certainly not saintly quality, but I do want to improve my spiritual life. All Saints dropped into my life 3 weeks ago and I just can't put it down! It's a goosebump book about neat people, not just Catholic saints, but those who've stood for human goodness: ML King, Sojourner Truth, Henri Nouwen, Mollie Rogers, Stanley Rother, Simone Weil, Chief Seattle, even Van Gogh! As I read and discover about the lives and accomplishments of these spiritual giants, I am totally astounded. These people, for the most part, have been totally forgotten about (by lowly plebes anyway)and, as I slowly "rediscover" each one, I feel as if they're cheering up in the heavenlies. This book is way illuminating and could easily inspire you to gladly seek out that straight and narrow path. Like Augustine says, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee". Just get it.

I have read the daily sections of this book for over a year and find new encouragement in it every time. These people - with or without official halos - are the kind of role models we need today.

I have always been attracted to books of "lives of the saints" but have always been disappointed by the author's "collection". Often the "saint" makes the collection because they were undeniably orthodox or their passion was plastered over to make them presentable. The collections were eurocentric, patriarchal, & pious reflecting a narrow, self-satisfied god. Ellsberg's "All Asaints" is happily all-inclusive, revealing the myriad facets of God, the Lover of Creation. The sole standard which the author seems to use is how the individual manifested his/her relationship with God by pursuing agape between desperate communities via prayer, mysticism, ecumenism, interfaith dialogue, social justice, political empowerment, education, gender equity, environmentalism, healthcare, journalism, communication, and good ol'-fashion "Speaking to the Truth". Ellsberg's "all saints" are people of passion & compassion--flesh & blood & spirit. The book is intelligently written, with suggestions for further reading. I unreservedly recommend this book. Seldom has a book so resonated with me--I read it before my evening devotions & it draws me into the heart of prayer. Kudos!

I picked this up in a used bookstore because it looked interesting, but I should have looked at it more closely.

Some of the entries are touching, thought-provoking mini-bios of truly inspirational people, some of whom are not well-known enough.

But Mr. Ellsberg's own politics are too intrusive, both implicitly in the people he chose to profile, and explicitly in the way he profiled them. I could not find an instance in which "orthodox" (as an adjective for someone faithful to Christian teachings, not "Orthodox" as it describes Eastern Christians) was not used as a synonym for narrow-mindedness or outright ignorance.

I also could not find a flattering portrayal of a person who defended Christian teaching against heresy. Instead, people are championed who believe that "Christians [have] greater need of the spirit of the Gospels and should put less emphasis on laws, prohibitions and dogmas." Of course, the idea that the "spirit" of the Gospels compels followers to obey laws, prohibitions and dogmas is sniffed at.

Pacifisim is championed again and again in the entries. There are times and situations in which pacifisim is a heroic and correct choice. But to refer to "priests and bishops who casually gave their blessing to war" is terribly offensive. It is especially true in that this phrase comes in the entry on an American who opposed U.S. involvement in World War II. Should the Allies have chosen pacifism over liberating millions of Europeans, Asians and Africans from Nazi and Imperial Japanese tyranny and genocide?

Meanwhile, the entry on St. Therese of Lisieux refers in a condescending manner to the "somewhat cloying and sentimental style of her provincial piety." St. Therese, a Doctor of the Church and who evinced a theology far deeper than that of most people of far more education and worldly experience, is dismissed as "provincial." How absurd!

If you are looking for a guide to help you develop your faith and spirituality, in fact, I would recommend reading Therese's The Story of a Soul over this very PC, politically tilted book.

I have bookcases filled with books and guides on the lives of the saints. It was reading the lives of the saints that led me on my journey home to the Roman Catholic Church --- yes by choice! I was a Baptist. So true to the way of Light in their words and actions and in the mystical understanding of God with us and the merits of redemptive suffering ALL THE SAINTS draw us closer to a higher place. I found this book refreshing, new, insightful filled with hopeful commentary. I loved the authors selection of holy peopple on non-canonized yet still holy or wholey-striving people as great models for a modern age. There are 365 vivid examples of saints that I now read over and over again. While I may not pray to Ghandi, yes he is in the book, his life is an example for all. A must for any fond reader of great people, holy people, or who have yet to find someone they admire and need hope in humanity.

ALL SAINTS is similar in style to well known collection of saints biographies such as BUTLER'S LIVES OF THE SAINTS. His book, like Butler's, designates a saint for each day and has a biography that follows, but set up is where the similarity ends. The people in Ellsberg's collection of short biographies are not all canonized saints. While he includes many familiar saints such as Mary the Mother of God, St. Anthony of Egypt, St. Agnes, St. Patrick, St. Monica, and St. Augustine, he also includes non canonized people such as Dorothy Day, Dom Helder Camera, and Thomas Merton. Some of the people included are from religious traditions other than Christianity. Ellsberg includes them because their exceptional lives teach us virtue. Each biography gives the reader something to think about and can be a tool for both teaching and prayer.