Pilgrimage of a Soul: Contemplative Spirituality for the Active Life [Paperback]

Phileena Heuertz (Author), Phyllis Tickle (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 2010

You can only go so far for so long before you find the limits of yourself. For Phileena Heuertz that moment arrived, mercifully, around the same time as a sabbatical to mark her twelfth year of service with Word Made Flesh, a ministry to some of the poorest people in the world. With six months' respite from the daily task of serving those who have nothing, Phileena rediscovered the genius of contemplative spirituality. Activists often see contemplation as a luxury, the sort of thing that must necessarily be laid aside in the quest to see the world set aright. But in Pilgrimage of a Soul we see that contemplation is essential--not only to a life of sustained commitment to the justice and righteousness of God, but to the growth in faith and discipleship that the Holy Spirit beckons each of us to. Tracing seven movements from a kind of sleepfulness to a kind of wakefulness, Heuertz shows us that life is a journey that repeats itself as we are led by Christ deeper and deeper into our true selves and a truer knowledge of God.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"For some reason we imagined that just the 'thinking life' would elicit and feed the Christian spirit. The soul is fed much more by the 'symbolic life' too, where action and contemplation meet, where the inner and the outer learn to operate as one, where words become flesh, where God is no longer just an idea but the heartbeat of life itself. This marvelous book gives you many avenues by which to live such a full and enfleshed life. Phileena tells you to stop 'thinking about it' and to try it! That is when it works." (Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M., Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, New Mexico )

"A courageous and groundbreaking effort to build a bridge between those two communities of Christians, still largely unknown to each other, where the heart of Christ burns so brightly: the evangelical and the contemplative." (The Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, Ph.D., Episcopal priest, author and retreat leader )

"Pilgrimage of a Soul is a delightful book that engaged me every step of the way. I was engrossed with Phileena's journey as she entwined her personal story with the account of a pilgrimage in Spain and theological insights she gained along the way. I heartily recommend it to all who are searching for a deeper commitment to God and to the contemplative way of life." (Christine Sine, author, contemplative, activist and executive director of Mustard Seed Associates )

"Part memoir, part guidebook for the contemplative activist, Pilgrimage of a Soul reads like a good conversation with an old friend. Heuertz's honesty about her own struggles created a space for me to see how wisdom from a host of spiritual guides speaks to my life. It's a gift to all of us, but especially to a guy like me who needs the graciousness of prophetic women like Phileena. I finished the book and felt refreshed, eager to enjoy a walk around my neighborhood." (Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, author of New Monasticism and God's Economy )

"In Pilgrimage of a Soul, Phileena Heuertz does something quite countercultural: she goes on pilgrimage to the tomb of St. James in Spain and then on sabbatical in Durham, North Carolina. However, this is a travelogue like no other. Her journey becomes ours as she accompanies us through important landmarks of the spiritual journey: awakening, darkness, transformation, union and points in-between. In doing so, she provides a wise and helpful guidebook for the spiritual life. I've heard it said that the best writing is so individual that it has a universal appeal. And Phileena's book has just that!" (Albert Haase, O.F.M., author of Coming Home to Your True Self and Living the Lord's Prayer )

"Weakness, inferiority, absence and death are turned upside down in these pages, as Phileena Heuertz engages the reader's holy imagination with Christ's good gifts of strength, mutuality, presence and life. Prepare to be transformed." (Margot Starbuck, author of The Girl in the Orange Dress and Unsqueezed )

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: IVP Books (May 25, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830836152
• ISBN-13: 978-0830836154
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #358,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Phileena is a contemplative activist bearing witness to a better world through the global community Word Made Flesh (WMF)www.wordmadeflesh.org--an international community serving Christ among the most vulnerable of the world's poor.

Over the years, Phileena has traveled through nearly 70 countries working with marginalized and oppressed people-abandoned children, victims of HIV and AIDS, sexually exploited women and children, people recovering from drug addictions, children who live on the streets, refugees and children of combat and war.

Since 1995, Phileena has served WMF through child advocacy, community care and leadership development. In 2004 she founded the Community Care Center-one of the internal support offices for the international movement. Phileena believes that union of action and contemplation is crucial to ongoing personal growth, healthy community life, and sustainable, authentic social justice efforts. Phileena's responsibilities require her attention in the international office in Omaha, Nebraska, as well as in WMF communities across the globe.

Her first book, Pilgrimage of a Soul, is a provocative theological narrative, steeped in contemplative spirituality.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The marriage of activism and contemplation, June 9, 2010

By 

Chad D. Brooks "ChadBrooks" (Nicholasville, Ky) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pilgrimage of a Soul: Contemplative Spirituality for the Active Life (Paperback)

This book is about a journey. It doesn't serve as a handbook for contemplative faith, but instead tells the story of a sabbatical that Phileena took several years back and how it affected her forever. During this time, Phileena and her husband took a month long pilgrimage trek to El Camino de Santiago. They also spent an extended stay at Duke University directly afterwards. During this time Phileena went through what St. John of the Cross called the "Dark Night of the Soul". The story of pilgrimage and sabbatical takes us through a deep personal journey.

Pilgrimage of a Soul is a personal book. It is a book about one person interacting with the Creator of the universe. While the praxis side of contemplative spirituality is in the book, if you are expecting a paint by numbers by a famous "justice'er", it's not going to happen. In the end, Phileena shows us that this is a long and arduous process. It is worth it, but it takes a willingness to rethink just about everything and allow Christ into the very inner workings of the heart and mind.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sustaining Christian Spirituality, August 11, 2010

By 

David Swanson (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pilgrimage of a Soul: Contemplative Spirituality for the Active Life (Paperback)

One of the encouraging things to me about our church is how many folks are structuring their lives in direct response to their faith in Jesus. There is a genuine desire to journey along the narrow way of discipleship despite hardships and sacrifices. Careers, housing, education and neighborhood involvement are all issues I observe people wrestling with in light of their allegiance to Jesus.

Given the age of many in our church an outside observer could mistake this zeal for youthful idealism though I think something deeper is at play. Even so, I sometimes wonder how a young person's wide-eyed devotion to Christ can be sustained over the long haul. In other words, what are the practices and rhythms that can breath life into the Christian as adrenaline and naivete fade?

This is the type of question, born from years of experience, that weave throughout Phileena Heuertz's first book. Huertz has spent the past fifteen years with Word Made Flesh, "an international community serving Christ among the most vulnerable of the world's poor." After many years of service she and her husband took a five month sabbatical; the first month was spent on a pilgrimage along El Camino de Santiago and the remaining time was spent at a retreat cottage in North Carolina.

Heuertz organizes her book along seven movements of the contemplative spirituality that have come to sustain her work among the poor. These movements are described within the narrative of the author's pilgrimage and sabbatical as she experiences the dark night of the soul known by so many Christians in the past. (I'm sure the dark night is still experienced by many Christians, we simply don't understand or acknowledge this painful aspect of discipleship to Jesus.) Pilgrimage of a Soul isn't quite a memoir though Heuertz includes enough personal stories to give the seven movements tangible context. Less a prescription for the young and passionate Christian, the book is a description of the process- sometimes painful- of being reborn to greater union with God.

The world needs more devoted people dedicated to pursuing the mission of God wherever it takes them. Even more, our world needs women and men whose lives are caught up in ongoing transformation in Christ. This alone will sustain the Christian for a life of service. Pilgrimage of a Soul is a gift both to the wide-eyed novice on this journey and the weathered pilgrim in the midst of a dark night.

_______________________

A review copy of this book was sent to me upon request by IVP Books.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you dare..., June 22, 2010

By 

David Kuo (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pilgrimage of a Soul: Contemplative Spirituality for the Active Life (Paperback)

If you dare to follow in Phileena Heuertz's footsteps you will be following in the footsteps of countless Christian pilgrims over the many centuries that date back to Christ.

The question she poses - implicitly, gently - in this forthright, disarming, humble and thoroughly rich book is whether we are up to the task of pilgrimage, whether we are up to tasks of following Christ wherever he might lead. Because to follow Christ, as Phileena learned during her two pilgrimmages - one in the quiet of a cottage and the other on the Camino de Santiago - is to follow one who will most likely do violence to the preconceived notions of your life... especially religious ones.

Phileena's struggles, so bluntly stated in this memoir/confession/exhortation/spiritual guide, are many. They are born of societal, cultural, and religious influences. They are born of the human condition. But what Phileena, along with her husband Chris, does is to be discontent in her discontentedness. She refuses to sweep questions and pain and uncertainty and faith under the rug or into the subconscious or off until tomorrow. She sets off on pilgrimage. And as she writes, a pilgrimage is not a round trip. So we get the privilege of joining her on her journey and as she wrestles with her questions she ever so gently encourages us to wrestle with ours.

This is not a book to be read quickly. It is best absorbed bit by bit. Step by step even. As if on pilgrimage because, in fact, that is what we are on when we sign up to follow Jesus.

The great news, the joyful news is that our journey with him is rich and rewarding and if we have just that itty bitty smidge of faith wonders can happen. Or at least it seems to this reader that is one of the things that Phileena learned.