Asking the Fathers: (SPCK Classics) Paperback – January 18, 2010

The reader should have passed through various stages of self-education during adulthood. Feeling that his/her faith is anaemic or not connecting with reality, with or without a local Bible study to visit, this book is very close to that experience and will fire any genuine seeker to find out the connection to places and people. Almost anyone will know by this book beyond a shadow of doubt, that for their daily surrender to God, they are loved and sought by Him who will lead them through phases of greater intimacy with Him. They will see that they have found something priceless as they follow the author's leading, and can yet look forward to further challenges and answers and welcomed into greater faith, despite trials, taking in all that a person is and all that they may be.

Today we enjoy numerous books recounting the spiritual teaching of the Church Fathers, but Aelred Squire was a pioneer of his time, writing as the devastating changes of Vatican II got underway.Densely written, the book details the timeless teaching of the Church on numerous subjects. Of course, the secular sources which he quotes are a bit dated -- a sobering reminder of the gradual worsening of many societal issues which Squire could not have imagined.You have to get halfway through the book to get to the best part, when he starts to tackle the subject of prayer. It's a delight to see St. Francis de Sales and St. Theophan the Recluse quoted in the same chapter! This book is an optional read but one which pointed the way to many further studies.

A fantastic book, full of wisdom, a must for understanding oneself and the relation between spirit and body.