In his new book, Saints As They Really Are, priest and scholar Michael Plekon traces the spiritual journeys of several American Christians, using their memoirs and other writings. These "saints-in-the-making" show all their doubts and imperfections as they reflect on their search for God and their efforts to lead holy lives. They are gifted yet ordinary women and men trying to follow Christ within their flawed and broken humanity--"saints as they really are," as Dorothy Day put it. Saints As They Really Are is the third book in Plekon's critically acclaimed series on saints and holiness in our time. He draws on the autobiographical work of Dorothy Day, Peter Berger, Thomas Merton, Kathleen Norris, and Barbara Brown Taylor, among others, as well as from his own experiences as a Carmelite seminarian and brother. Plekon shares the power of these individuals' stories as they unfold. The book offers a strong argument that our failings and weaknesses are not disqualifications to holiness. Plekon further confronts the institutional church and its relationship to individuals seeking God, focusing on some of the challenges to this search--the destructive potential of religion and religious institutions, as well as our personal tendencies to extremism, overwork, pious obsessions, and legalism. But he also underscores the healing qualities of faith and the spiritual life. Plekon's insights will help readers better understand their own spiritual pilgrimages as they learn how others have dealt with the trials and joys of their path to everyday holiness. "This is the third in a progression of books by Michael Plekon that have served to expand our understanding of saints and holiness. In this new book, he has taken yet a further step in relating holiness to ordinary or everyday life by showing the contours of grace, or the harmonics of holiness, revealed in the Christian journey of a number of contemporary Christian memoirists. He shows how the gospel story of death-resurrection is written in the journey of ordinary Christians." --Robert Ellsberg, author of All Saints

A collection of commentaries on the meaning of holiness.

What is Holiness? Is it a title we give to religious leaders or special religious movements? Is it an expression to describe the extreme righteousness and purity of God and people? Or is it simply a vague, ethereal term we use to express the nature of someone or something? The Bible states that because God is holy, people must be holy, and without holiness, no one will see God. Such statements should compel us to explore this topic and give it a high priority in our lives. In this book, the author attempts to provide us with a working definition of holiness and how it applies to our lives. He explains holiness as a relational term as opposed to a behavioral term such as righteousness and shows how it should characterize not only our relationship with God but all relationships in God’s creation. Finally, the author explores the various characteristics of holiness, such as its beauty, power, discipline, and peacefulness.

In his new book, Saints As They Really Are, priest and scholar Michael Plekon traces the spiritual journeys of several American Christians, using their memoirs and other writings. These “saints-in-the-making” show all their doubts and imperfections as they reflect on their search for God and their efforts to lead holy lives. They are gifted yet ordinary women and men trying to follow Christ within their flawed and broken humanity—“saints as they really are,” as Dorothy Day put it. Saints As They Really Are is the third book in Plekon’s critically acclaimed series on saints and holiness in our time. He draws on the autobiographical work of Dorothy Day, Peter Berger, Thomas Merton, Kathleen Norris, and Barbara Brown Taylor, among others, as well as from his own experiences as a Carmelite seminarian and brother. Plekon shares the power of these individuals’ stories as they unfold. The book offers a strong argument that our failings and weaknesses are not disqualifications to holiness. Plekon further confronts the institutional church and its relationship to individuals seeking God, focusing on some of the challenges to this search—the destructive potential of religion and religious institutions, as well as our personal tendencies to extremism, overwork, pious obsessions, and legalism. But he also underscores the healing qualities of faith and the spiritual life. Plekon's insights will help readers better understand their own spiritual pilgrimages as they learn how others have dealt with the trials and joys of their path to everyday holiness.

Find inspiration for a satisfying spiritual life of practice through the combination of contemporary mindfulness meditation and classical Hasidic spirituality. The soul yearns to feel connected to something greater and to know happiness despite personal suffering and seemingly endless need. Surprisingly, the perspectives of the late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Hasidic spiritual teachers offer a radically different Jewish theology that speaks directly to today’s spiritual seekers whose faith has been shattered by both modernity and the Holocaust. These masters taught of interdependence, interconnectedness, selflessness, service and joy, anticipating the insights of contemporary science and twenty-first-century spirituality. Bringing together the teachings of beloved Hasidic master Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev (1740–1809) and the practice of mindfulness meditation, Rabbi Jonathan P. Slater reveals a new entrance into Jewish spiritual life. Covering the Five Books of Moses, these two volumes present accessible translations of selections from Kedushat Levi, R. Levi Yitzhak’s Hasidic Torah commentary, which emphasizes our spiritual capacity to transform consciousness and so our life experience. The selections are paired with Rabbi Slater’s commentaries to illuminate their message. “The lessons in Kedushat Levi were not originally intended as intellectual curiosities or as demonstrations of R. Levi Yitzhak’s brilliance. They were meant to inspire religious passion and deeper spiritual practice. I believe that these teachings will come to life in us when we bring them into our lives in practice.” —from the Introduction