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Book Review: The Daily Reader for Contemplative Living

By: Father Thomas Keating Compiled by: S. Stephanie Iachetta

Publisher: Continuum Int’l Publishing Group ISBN: 9780826433541

The Daily Reader for Contemplative Living is one of the devotional tools I selected for my reading this year. It is a collection of excerpts from the works of Father Thomas Keating. I have spent almost fifty days with it now and although I have not completed it, feel confident to voice my support for it and offer my recommendations.

I mentioned the book is a collection of excerpts; it is actually excerpts from at least ten published works of Keating. While I am familiar with Fr. Keating, I count this a great opportunity to become more familiar through some of his other writings. I freely admit that I have grown to appreciate his thinking and writing style as I’ve enjoyed this daily reader for the past few weeks. The structure of the devotional readings is as follows (this from the book’s back cover and Forward by George W. Hunt, S.J.):

“The book’s structure is both simple and elegant. Each day’s text begins with a line of prayer, a ‘prayer sentence’ that acts as both a theme and an invitation. Each closes with an appropriate, longer citation from Scripture that is a biblically based recapitulation of the theme. In between lies a brief reflection to inspire meditation, each an excerpt from the writings of the Cistercian monk, Father Thomas Keating…”

In as much as the book is described by Hunt, it is a success, at least to my thinking. While not every single meditation captures me with inspiration and thought provocation, there have been many that do. I look forward to the remainder of the year I will spend with this devotional piece and the introduction to more of the writing of Fr. Thomas Keating.