Listening for the Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality

As I read this book, over and over again I was thinking of Saint Francis de Sales. Here are just five of the numerous connections I made: 1)Remembering his (SFS) insistence on the goodness in creation and in the human person; 2) recalling the influence of John Scotus (9th centruy) at the University of Paris where Francis spent so many years; 3) learning that Francis’s homeland of Savoy (today S.E. France and NW Italy) had very early on been settled by Celtic Allobroges people who later became a part of the Roman Empire; 4) the Celtic and Salesian image of John leaning on the breast of the Lord at the Last Supper and listening in sacred repose to the heartbeat of God; 5) the notion that the cathedral of God is the whole of creation. I very much enjoyed this short book (107 pages) by Rev. Dr. J. Philip Newell who is Warden of Spirituality for the Anglican Diocese of Portsmouth, and a Church of Scotland minister. His other books include The Iona Community Worship Book, An Earthful of Glory and Celtic Prayers from Iona. I am betting that there is much you would enjoy in the little inspiring volume. —Reviewed by John Graden, OSFS