Mark O'Keefe – författare

The Christian life is a grand journey. And like any pilgrimage along unfamiliar roads, we can benefit from having experienced guides and trustworthy companions along the way.

Through their classic spiritual texts, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross offer valuable maps of tried paths along the way. At the same time, they were both experienced and sought-after spiritual companions for many others. Their timeless insights into the qualities that should mark a good spiritual director—learned, experienced, and discerning—are the fruit of their own prayer, reflection, and rich personal experience as guides and as people guided by others.

What does it mean to live for God alone? “Prefer nothing to the love of Christ”; “My God and my all”; “God alone suffices”—these statements from the saints express the single desire that unified their hearts and gave direction to their lives. “God alone” was the constant theme of Saint Rafael Arnaiz (1911–1938), the expression of the search for God that informs any monastic vocation. Saint Rafael was profoundly and thoroughly a monk, even though ill health repeatedly forced him to leave the monastery, and he was never formally professed. With his single-hearted love for Christ and for the Blessed Virgin, he faithfully walked a path of trials and suffering that matured his faith, sharpened his longing, taught him to wait and to hope in God, and opened his heart to love. To Live for God Alone invites the reader into the compelling story of Rafael’s personal journey and into his penetrating insight into the cross and the Christian vocation.