The Mystical Way In Everyday Life: Sermons, Prayers, and Essays

by Karl Rahner, Annemarie S. Kidder (Editor), Karl Lehmann (Foreword)

Karl Rahner, a Jesuit Priest who died in 1984, is widely regarded as one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th century. His writings played an enormous role in shaping the documents of Vatican II. But while he is best known for his academic theology, his deepest goal was to help ordinary Christians to recognize and respond to the presence of grace in their everyday lives. Rahner famously observed that the Christians of the future will be mystics or there will be no Christianity. With readings for Advent, Lent, and the other liturgical seasons, these sermons, prayers, and reflections offer spiritual nourishment for the whole year.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Theology, Mysticism

199 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Karl Rahner, SJ (March 5, 1904 — March 30, 1984) was a German Jesuit and theologian who, alongside Bernard Lonergan and Hans Urs von Balthasar, is considered one of the most influential Roman Catholic theologians of the 20th century.

He was born in Freiburg, Germany, and died in Innsbruck, Austria.

Before the Second Vatican Council, Rahner had worked alongside Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac and Marie-Dominique Chenu, theologians associated with an emerging school of thought called the Nouvelle Théologie, elements of which had been criticized in the encyclical Humani Generis of Pope Pius XII.

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent selection, translation, and organization of passages by Annemarie Kidder! The book powerfully develops the case for mysticism not being limited to special other-worldly experiences but instead reaches throughout the wholeness of life. Special emphasis in the text explains how the cross opens access further into the mystery. As example of the everyday opportunity, one of the closing sections focuses on the simple act of "Sitting Down" as an invitation to stillness. The mundane offers the liminal edge to the mystical: sitting down translates to stillness and stillness to the beyond. "Ultimately, however, there is only one type of stillness that enables a person to be at peace with himself or herself: prayer (regardless of the term one may use for it). Only in the loving being-at-oneness with the infinite mystery we call God can one arrive in such a way that one does not have to go any farther. . ." (p. 178)

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am savouring this book and rereading sections daily. Principles and imperatives and how they influence everyone, each in its own place.