The introduction was superb, and the inserts I found especially helpful; they are themselves a small compendium of wisdom for us today. What a clever way to make Kempis’s words relevant for the modern reader! Midrash will never grow old as a way of opening up a text.
Griffin’s helpful asides, scattered throughout the text, as well as in the afterword, provide illuminating background for someone wanting to go even deeper in reclaiming the old but far-from-musty insights of Kempis. A delight to read and ponder!
William Griffin’s translations are spiritual in the best sense of the word: they blow the dust off devotional classics by breathing fresh air into lively English paraphrases. Like his masters, Griffin knows that the Christian pilgrimage is serious play, a strange but exhilarating pas de deux between sacred and profane, and a reverence for holy things and the joyful irreverence that only true holiness can inspire.
“[A] clear, concise resource for presenting the freedom inherent in the structure of Ignatian prayer.”