Review: The Road to Eternal Life

I didn’t want to read this book.  The preface noted that the book consisted of fifty reflections on “The Prologue of the Rule of Saint Benedict” --- just the prologue, not the Rule (?) --- reflections on one sentence of the Prologue at a time.  Reflections on one sentence??  Boring!

How wrong I was.

I guess I could quote some of the many startling insights the author provides on how monastic life, as referenced by Saint Benedict, widens “the narrow path” to eternal life; I often use quotes in book reviews to demonstrate a book’s value, but I think I’ll just give you my reflections here on the author’s last reflection.

Mr. Casey notes how “we die to self and to the world’” in order to live for God: We are born in this world; we live to die from it. 

If I may use my own analogy, it’s like when we are born in the uterus of a woman.  It’s a small simple world we live in, but it is all that we want or need --- and there, we know we are loved.  We don’t realize it, but our life there is just a start.  Some think that’s all there is to life, but some can hear the voice of their creator from without, and know they are not alone.  If we live a healthy life in the womb of this world, fed by the creator who put us here, we grow.  And at some point, we realize there is no more growing for us in the world we live in.  It’s time to leave, but we are most reluctant to leave; being born again is hard and scary work, but with our Creator’s help we can be born into so much more --- into His world.  That’s the road to eternal life this book’s insights leave you to consider.

For those serious in hearing our Creator’s call from outside of our little womb --- the Creator who we WILL meet some day --- this is a great book to read, and pray over.  It will help you grow comfortably in this life, and yet yearn for the next.