Customer Reviews

Be Gentle, Be Faithful: Daily Meditations for Busy Christians

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This gentle, faithful little book is full of wonders to be read, and re-read -- personal insights, quick asides, random thoughts, elegant sermonettes on life and living. James Stephen Behrens doesn't waste words; these quick essays are like Cistercian chapels, with no unnecessary adornment, nothing to distract the mind from the matter at hand. This makes you savor each word, contemplate each story. Sometimes, in this book, the simplest notions are the most moving -- why he thinks, for example, that the most eloquent prayer is one word, "Stay." When I started leafing through this book, I folded over the corners of pages I liked. Bad idea. Now, nearly all the pages are dog-eared. But the best news is that discovering this book has simplified my Christmas shopping. Now I know what to get people who seem to have everything: this little package of wisdom, a book that looks at commonplace things with uncommon grace.

I have just come to know James Stephen Behrens and it is a fortunate discovery! Although I have read comments comparing him to Thomas Merton, also a Trappist priest-writer,I find his bill of fare served differently. There is a profound simplicity in the reflections as presented in this book. One must chew the words slowly to savor the delicacy of the banquet Behrens puts before the reader. He has taken the common place and elevated it to the supernatural where it belongs. I cannot look at my everyday world with the same eyes since feasting on "GraceIs Everywhere."

This book contains a daily dose of wisdom to go along with that morning coffee, toast and multi vitamin. It's easy to digest and helps nourish the mind and soul throughout the day. The snippets of scripture and Fr. Behrens life stories, cause us to slow down and take another, deeper look into ourselves and our past.

Daily life is a challenge that does not often offer anyone the opportunity to reflect and see the beauty in common people or things. The author has provided a simple examples of how meaningful our lives and the people who surround us can be. This book is well written and easy enough to read time and again.

This is a book that you can keep on your night table, your breakfast table or your desk drawer. Fr.Behrens uses his experience from the Monastery, from growing up, from his life as a parish priest and using a verse from scripture provides you the spiritual food that so many of us need to start the day. If you are pressed for time this small treat maybe just what you're looking for.

Beginning each day with Fr. Behrens' meditations lifts my spirits and helps me find the humor, joy and love of God in seemingly ordinary things. His personal experiences and thoughts shine a fresh light on each day's Scripture passage. I also find that his vignettes of the daily lives of the monks demystify holiness and help me pursue it in my daily life.

This book is full of "story sparks" that only take seconds to read but open the doors to considerable wisdom and hope - with humor as a bonus. The deft way that each is connected to a few lines of well-chosen scriptures breaks open that medium as well, connecting it unforgettably to lived experience.