God of Surprises

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That wherever there is love, joy, and peace, that is where God is, regardless of your background and beliefs. It is simply but eloquently written and the author's goodness and love for all of us, Christian or not, is abundantly evident.

It is a pity that Hughes never mentions the great value of asking others for help and companionship in one's spiritual journey. In the Seventh Chapter, the author gives some exercises that will help us recognize the action of God in our lives and give him praise, thanks and glory for it. If Gerard Hughes had expressed during the Inquisition what he'd written here, he would surely have been branded a heretic.At the end of the chapter, he presents some biblical texts which could be useful for imaginative contemplation. I think that Gerard Hughes' railing against the church in which he serves, a little intriguing as I wonder what else he would have done. It's not a spiritual method of which I am a great fan but this book undoubtedly introduces it well and with great care. As such the book might be particularly attractive to those of a more studious or introspective bent. Hughes openly challenges many of the most commonly-observed pillars of organized religion but productively offers solutions for churches progressing with the times to serve modern humanity.

A fantastic little book about prayer, our inner lives, and how we grow (taking steps forward and backward) in interacting with God.Other than that I would recommend the book but be prepared to read it quite slowly and really take the time to dig into the exercises if you want the full benefits. I am now going to work my way through more slowly looking up the scriptural passages as well as the exercises. Gerard Hughes goes back to the basics on how faith/our relationship with God and our spirituality should be. We move towards the field and dig towards the treasure through the decisions we make in everyday life. Ignatios Loyola using the parable of the treasure found in a field for which a man sells everything to aquire.

Chapter Five shows how the journey is not only made with our minds and with the religious part of ourselves, but involves our whole being and affects every aspect of it, our relations to other people, our attitude to health, wealth, reputation, power, and our reactions to the economic, social and political structures in which we live.The purpose of this book is to suggest ways of finding the treasure in what we may consider an unlikely field--ourselves. It's a great book for people who dismiss spirituality out of hand because of prominent religious extremists and lumping most of the world in with them. This book aims to suggest some ways of detecting the hidden treasure in what may be considered a most unlikely field, oneself. It is a book for all versions of Christianity ,and although written by a Jesuit Priest , it does not infringe into other Branches of Christian Belief. God of Surprises is characterised throughout by practical wisdom and humanity, deep thoughts and light touches, and a very sympathetic style of teaching .

As a baptized Catholic who seeks meaning in life and spirituality, yet feels alienated by organized religion, I found this book to be a great comfort. Yet, the degree of personal objectivity and ability required to judge one's own emotions and progress as suggested in this book is in reality very hard to even begin achieving. The developmental stages of spirituality: the institutional stage, the the critical stage, and the mystical stage. Written for ‘bewildered, confused and disillusioned Christians’ as a guide for the inner spiritual journey in which we are all engaged, God of Surprises has much to say to those who have a love/hate relationship with the Church to which they belong or once belonged. Hughes found human beings complicated "with layers upon layers of consciousness", most of which we never break through.

The Final Chapter applies the insights of the book to a very real situation- the threat of nuclear war. If I have got the wrong end of the stick, perhaps someone would enlighten me or direct me to another book that might have a better chance of starting me on a journey. In terms of content and presentation the book is very good and will give you an awful lot to think about, it certainly changed my view on a lot of topics, especially the seeking guidance chapters.