Inner Compass: An Invitation to Ignatian Spirituality [Paperback]

Ms. Margaret Silf (Author), Gerald W. Hughes (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2007

10th Anniversary Edition

 

Whatever path you’re on, God is there to guide you . . .

Anyone seeking to deepen his or her relationship with God will greatly benefit from Inner Compass, Margaret Silf’s dynamic presentation of the profound insights of St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. While reflective, the work exudes a congenial, practical outlook and a thoroughly modern sensibility. As Silf points out, the book “grew out of questions rather than certainty, discovery rather than doctrine, the experience of everyday living rather than academic study.”
This tenth-anniversary edition of the acclaimed Inner Compass features a new introduction and personal invitation to the reader, plus a significantly expanded resource section. Devoted followers of Ignatian spirituality and spiritual seekers alike will find that wherever life has led them, Inner Compass offers renewed direction and purpose and helps them recognize the will of God within their own hearts.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

This refurbished edition of Inner Compass is being published as a celebration of the tenth anniversary of the acclaimed English-language primer on Ignatian spirituality. The new edition features a new introduction and personal invitation to the reader, a greatly expanded resource section, and a new design aimed at a new generation of spiritual readers.
Silf brings to the book both a laywoman’s perspective and a gifted writer’s literary skill. The entire work exudes a congenial, practical outlook and a thoroughly modern sensibility. As Silf says, the book “grew out of questions rather than certainty, discovery rather than doctrine, the experience of everyday living rather than academic study.”
All readers seeking to deepen their relationship with God will benefit from Silf’s dynamic presentation of Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises.

From the Back Cover

Whatever path you’re on, God is there to guide you . . .

Anyone seeking to deepen his or her relationship with God will greatly benefit from Inner Compass, Margaret Silf’s dynamic presentation of the profound insights of St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. While reflective, the work exudes a congenial, practical outlook and a thoroughly modern sensibility. As Silf points out, the book “grew out of questions rather than certainty, discovery rather than doctrine, the experience of everyday living rather than academic study.”

This tenth-anniversary edition of the acclaimed Inner Compass features a new introduction and personal invitation to the reader, plus a significantly expanded resource section. Devoted followers of Ignatian spirituality and spiritual seekers alike will find that wherever life has led them, Inner Compass offers renewed direction and purpose and helps them recognize the will of God within their own hearts.
 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Loyola Press; 10th Anniversary edition (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0829426450
• ISBN-13: 978-0829426458
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More 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(Loyola Press) and The Gift of Prayer: Embracing the Sacred in the Everyday (Bluebridge). She lives in England.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Ever Presentation of Ignatian Spirtuality, May 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Inner Compass: An Invitation to Ignatian Spirituality (Paperback)

With all due respect to the many fine Jesuit Fathers I have known in my life, it took a non-Jesuit named Margaret Silf to deliver the finest explanation of Ignatian Spirituality I have ever read. Silf delivers first a touching and thorough biography of Ignatius, then uses it as a backdrop for how he came to understand God. She leads us through the Exercises with genuine faith, terse explanation, and wonderful anecdotes that rate her as a superb spiritual director. Every spriritual person, not to mention Jesuits themselves, would be well advised to own their own copy of this masterpiece. A must read for all!

72 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended reading for truth seekers in search of God., March 4, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inner Compass: An Invitation to Ignatian Spirituality (Paperback)

In today's often confusing secular society, men and women look for enduring, practical, and insightful spiritual guidance. Margaret Silf's Inner Compass is an introduction and invitation to Ignatian spirituality as practiced and taught by the Jesuits these past four hundred years. St. Ignatius of Loyola taught that paying attention to the deepest desire burning within us will enable us to discover God, and how God has gifted us for our life in the world. Inner Compass presents the magnificent possibility of self-trust. By learning to trust ourselves, we learn to trust God. Inner Compass offers the reader an abundance of practical examples and methods to find true self-knowledge and build just such a trust, thereby discovering a genuine meaning to our lives. Inner Compass is highly recommended reading for students of religion and seekers of a personal spirituality and relationship with God.

61 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Start to Discernment, May 9, 2001

By 

wvano "wvano" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Inner Compass: An Invitation to Ignatian Spirituality (Paperback)

This beautifully written book is a series of personal reflections and imaginative meditations that focus on the "First Week" (i.e., section) of St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises, during which retreatants traditionally focus on the workings of sin and grace in their lives. As such it serves as a good, practical introduction to many basic concepts of Ignatian spirituality such as consolation and desolation, detachment, and our deepest desire.

The strengths of the book are its lovely style, the honesty of the author's personal examples, and the creativity and depth of "Suggestions for Prayer and Discussion" that are posed at the end of each chapter. The latter clearly come from a wealth of retreat experience.

In the introduction, Silf modestly writes that her book "is not a way of actually making the Exercises." While that is technically true, many readers may feel they have begun to do so.