For Lovers of God Everywhere: Poems of the Christian Mystics by Roger Housden

Product Details

Synopsis

               Roger Housden, author of the best-selling Ten Poems to Change Your Life, celebrates the growing popularity of mystical poetry with this beautiful compilation from the Christian  contemplative tradition. Although the writings of the Sufi mystics (Rumi and Hafez) and the Indian mystics (Mirabai and Kabir) have reached a wide audience in recent years, the poetry of the Christian mystics has yet to be discovered by a general audience. For Lovers of God Everywhere, a collection of nearly 100 poems from both historic and contemporary writers,  heralds the reemergence of the great spiritual voices of the Christian tradition—a tradition with its own love songs to God, cries of longing, and bliss of union.

                In this collection, Roger introduces us to some of the foremost poets of both the Eastern and Western Christian traditions. He takes us from the wisdom of the Desert Fathers to the passion of St. Augustine, through the medieval ecstasies of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Siena, to the subtleties of St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila; and on to contemporary voices such as Rainer Maria Rilke, T.S. Eliot, and Mary Oliver. Roger’s insightful commentary on each poem inspires us to take its words more deeply into our souls and shows how the mystical tradition transcends sectarian divides and speaks to the heart of humanity.

Biography

Roger Housden is the author of seventeen books including the Ten Poems series, as well as Seven Sins for a Life Worth Living, Dancing with Joy, Risking Everything, How Rembrandt Reveals Your Beautiful, Imperfect Self, Chasing Rumi, and Sacred Journeys in a Modern World. Housden is a respected lecturer who presents in both the private and corporate arenas on the transformational power of poetry and living a life of meaning. His work has been featured many times in O, The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. He has written feature articles for The Guardian newspaper and has been an interviewer for BBC radio.  Roger resides in Marin County, California.