The Heart of Perfection by Colleen Carroll Campbell

The Heart of Perfection:
How the Saints Taught Me to Trade
My Dream of Perfection for God’s

by Colleen Carroll Campbell
Simon and Schuster, Howard Books, 2019., 245 pages.

Spiritual perfectionism is an oppressive trap, and a sin draining the energy of joy
out of what is intended to be the “glorious freedom of the children of God,” (Romans 8)

Campbell both begins and ends with Saints Jane de Chantal and Francis de Sales, but reflects also
on Saints Alphonsus Liguouri, Ignatius Loyola, Benedict of Nursia , Francis of Assisi, and Therese of Lisieux
in her personal journey of recovering from a perfectionist life style, to one of joy and surrender. She includes one
heretical movement also: the Jansenists and Angelique Arnaud.

A great modern read for today’s rat racers and culturally driven over-achievers! It is truly a Salesian crossover book,
from Simon and Schuster’s Howard Books, crossing into the mainstream spiritual life of contemporary society.
— John Graden, OSFS