I'm reading the most fantastic book. "Finding Happiness" by Abbot Christopher Jamison is refreshing, honest and complex. The title is perhaps too reminiscent of so many cliched 'self-help' books that blight our bookshops, but no one should be put off, as a self-help book this is definitely not.
In this deeply probing book, Abbot Christopher takes us deep into the heart of Christian monastic tradition in search of the answer to that age-less question; what makes us happy?
I'm only a few chapters into this book, but I can see already just how edifying and convicting this read will be.
In those first few chapters, he writes at length about the spiritual apathy that plagues so many that live in our consumer culture. It is this, he concludes, that is at the heart of so much of our discontent. He calls for an avoidance of introspection (of looking into oneself in a selfish regard) and a return to self-awareness, whereby we examine not just our interior world, but also how that interior world causes us to engage with those around us.
It's fascinating, surprising, (I had never before considered that good deeds can be used to distract oneself from a internal spiritual struggle taking place) it's wonderfully written and I have a feeling that it is going to have a big impact on my prayer life and the everyday priorities I make.
Now I just need to find the time to finish it!
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