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Summary: Invitation to Quest
Review: Although Dennis Slattery's Grace in the Desert is a moving account of one man's spiritual pilgrimege, we are able to recognize ourselves in his personal heroics. Grace in the Desert invites the reader into the author's most intimate and thoughtful meditations on soul, spirit and the consequences of life's occurences. It is a relief to hear of one's humanity in spiritual endeavors, to witness the struggle, fear, insecurities, vulnerability, revelations, and love of family and spirit. The author's willingnes to share his ambivalence, memories and epiphanies invites other's to do the same. We, too, feel permission to be messy, uncertain, lost, and filled with grace in our spiritual search. Slattery's eloquent contemplations are supported and deepened by a host of spiritual writers. The reader is sure to be moved by how profoundly he considers life, the human soul and the Divine. With Ishmael-like courage, Dennis Slattery has traveled to the depths and heights of human spirituality, looked toward the face of God, and returned to tell his story so that we, too, may be altered by his experience. Grace in the Desert is a gift to all who are questing for a deeper existence.
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Summary: Grace with a Human Face
Review: Mr. Slattery is a spiritual seeker who has the grace to include stories of his "failures." Rather than becoming enlightened, he remains very human, which comes as a great relief to this reader. Slattery fidgets and has a hard time meditating. He gets anxious, homesick and really has to work at sticking to the agenda he sets for himself. He becomes aroused at the sight of a "lovely young woman," a fellow retreatant, and both celebrates and mourns the 16-yr-old nature of his arousal. In contrast to sentimental reports of transcendent experiences in nature, Slattery wishes at first that he were not alone in his campsite, and then is surprised by the contentment he finds in such solitude. This writer also enjoys his encounters with human nature. Mr. Slattery's portraits of the people he meets are as poignant as his portrayal of Big Ears, the mouse who thrives on poisoned food, or Rusty the dog, or the grape arbor he hikes through on a hot summer afternoon. This pilgrim is a retreatant, but he is no recluse. I recommend this book to readers who are curious about the nature of spirit, but who need to discover it in ways that are human and recognizable.
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Summary: The Making of a Pilgrimage
Review: Not only does each one of us have a story within us that cries to be told; each of us has a pilgrimage in us waiting to be lived. Joseph Campbell's constant refrain in his work on mythology is: HEED THE CALL. Grace in the Desert is a story of one soul who was called to travel to a dozen monasteries and retreat centers in the Western United States and to enter into the monastic life, the life of the spirit, but not divorced from the material or natural worlds, to explore the dark corners of the soul and the gifts of ordinary life. This is my story; I hope that your urge, your desire to retreat into the wilderness of your own spiritual woods, is supported and encouraged by reading my story--Dennis Patrick Slattery, author.
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