THE SILENT SPIRE SPEAKS

Father Raymond is the author of such well known books as The Man Who Got Even With God and The Mysteries in Your Life. In this new work, he discusses the modern significance and importance of the contemplative -- i.e., religious -- life in the Church and the world. The book is cast in the form of a dialogue between the author and a young college student who is visiting the monastery, and, in the course of the discussion, the author develops the thesis that the life of the contemplative, since its sole purpose is to give glory to God, fulfills pre-eminently well man's purpose in life. Father Raymond defends the importance of the contemplative life at a time when the values of such a life -- indeed, the validity of that life in the twentieth-century -- are under heavy attack within the Catholic Church. His well reasoned position -- as well as his reputation -- will win the book a large following among the members of religious orders, despite the disappointing clumsiness of style and the rather old-fashioned rhetoric.