The Priest's Way to God by Dom Eugene Boylan

by Eugene Boylan

As the Christian church moved from its inception in an Eastern/Oriental culture westward across Asia Minor (Turkey) into Greco-Roman culture with primarily a Western philosophy, theology, and values, Jesus' message and Paul's teachings began to be interpreted according to those cultural norms. While Paul kept calling his churches back to their Jewish roots and Eastern values, the Jewish voice was lost when the Jerusalem church dispersed as Israel fell during the Jewish Revolt of 66-73 AD. The temple was destroyed, its clergy silenced, and Judaism seemed irrelevant to the growing Christian church. The church had become primarily Gentile in theology and philosophy and its Hebrew foundation was largely forgotten and lost. In Beyond Christian Folk Religion, Beckstrom, brings the reader back to Jesus' roots (Romans 11:17-23) and to the core of Paul's message. ""In a style both engaging and conversational, Beyond Christian Folk Religion attempts to show us there is a lot more going on with the story of Jesus than we generally imagine. . . . Beckstrom admits his observations and interpretations may be new and shocking to some readers. But the goal of the work is to give us all a fuller, richer, and--Beckstrom would argue--truer picture of Jesus Christ."" --Michael L. Rhyne, Pastor, Geeseytown-Newry Lutheran Parish ""In his thought-provoking new work, Ed Beckstrom maintains that the message of the early Christian movement has been profoundly redefined by the culture, values, and logic of the Hellenistic world. Drawing especially on late twentieth-century biblical studies and archeology, he encourages us to look behind Christian culture, of which we are inheritors, to the heart of the early church's proclamation of the crucified One."" --H. Julian Gordy, Bishop, ELCA Southeastern Synod ""In this book you will meet the Jesus of the first century, a man whom many have never encountered. The Jesus Beckstrom reveals will be for most people a very odd and foreign man who looks nothing like the Jesus they presently know. He will provoke you and he will surprise you, but in the end he is the man who gave his life for the sake of the world. I recommend this book to anyone who is a follower of Jesus; you will be challenged and you will come away with a new understanding of our Lord Jesus who is the Messiah."" --Randy Jones, Pastor, Messiah Lutheran Church About the Contributor(s): Edward A. Beckstrom is a retired minister and Air Force Chaplain. He is the author of Toward a Ministry of Families (1981) and King of the Jesus and the Messianic Age (2001). He has also authored numerous articles for the Pulpit Digest, Minister's Annual, and most recently the Biblical Theology Bulletin (2012).

Paperback

First published February 19, 2013

About the author

Dom Mary Eugene Boylan, O.C.R. (1904-1964), was an Irish priest, Trappist monk, and spiritual writer. He entered the Cistercian order in 1931 and was ordained in 1937. Drawing from his experience as a confessor, spiritual director, and retreat master, he published This Tremendous Lover in 1946, which was translated into several languages and became an international bestseller. Dom Boylan lectured extensively in the United States. He taught theology and philosophy at Mount Saint Joseph Abbey in Rosecrea, Ireland, and was elected as its fourth abbot in 1962, where he served until his untimely death in an auto accident in 1964.

Reviews

[Michael Vidrine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hesitated to pick up this book, given that it's intended as something of a follow-up to Boylan’s previous work, “The Spiritual Life of the Priest,” which was incredibly disappointing—poorly written, lacking in substance, and ultimately not worth the read. But I'm really glad I gave Boylan another chance. This follow-up represents a mind-boggling improvement in quality that that is hard to believe. It's an excellent book, written by a priest for priests, yet it is valuable for anyone striving to live the Christian life. Five stars.

Quotes:

“We pray not in order to achieve divine union - we achieved that in baptism - but to develop it.”
- Dom Eugene Boylin, The Priest’s Way to God

“Let us again refer to our Lord's words at the Last Supper; they must never be forgotten by the priest. ‘Abide in me … without me you can do nothing? That is the secret of how to pray; it is the secret of how to preach; it is the secret of how to be apostles; it is the secret of how to be saints.
And there is no other”
- Dom Eugene Boylin, The Priest’s Way to God

“Our attempts, then, to turn our reflections into a discussion with Christ can be the beginning of a life of close union with him.
And it is not at all necessary that we should always be talking to him of high and holy things. He who created everything is surely interested in all that he has made and we may therefore comment to him on all that comes under our observation. The conversation of two friends may be of quite trivial things, yet it serves as an expression of friendship and helps to develop it. Our Lord himself insisted that we are his friends. We can surely pay him the compliment of taking him at his word.”
- Don Eugene Boylan, the Priest’s Way to God

“If we achieved nothing else in half an hour’s prayer than that one look into the face of Jesus, our time would be well spent and its fruit immeasurable. Such an experience, if it comes to us every day, will produce a great effect on our spiritual life and have a considerable influence on our prayer.”
- Don Eugene Boylan, the Priest’s Way to God

“Aridity does not necessarily mean progress, but progress does definitely mean aridity.”
- Don Eugene Boylan, the Priest’s Way to God

"When our Lord was ordaining the apostles and giving them his last testament before his death, all his words were of love and union rather than of works and fruit-bearing. It is true they were being made apostles; it is true they were being sent forth to bear fruit.
But their apostolate and their fruitfulness were to be the result of their union with Jesus."
- Don Eugene Boylan, the Priest’s Way to God

"It is our nothingness that he wants. The only foundation for his work in our souls is our incapacity, our misery, our futility. He will even accept our sins, for he is our Saviour, come to save us from our sins. Even our future sins will be no barrier to our present intimacy as long as they are not willed here and now. "
- Don Eugene Boylan, the Priest’s Way to God

“Too many of us regard divine union and friendship with Jesus as something remote, something only to be achieved after a long laborious struggle in the spiritual life, something which is the reward for our fidelity and merit, the crown of our strength and virtue. Nothing could be more misleading!”
- Don Eugene Boylan, the Priest’s Way to God

"St. Thomas' doctrine on attention at prayer is well known: we may attend to the saying of our prayer, we may attend to the words we say, or we may attend to him to whom they are said."
- Don Eugene Boylan, the Priest’s Way to God

“Self-abnegation is still the foundation of sanctity, and in the source of much of a priests fruitfulness. To be swayed by ambition, by honors, by success, by pleasure, is to depart from the rule laid down by our Lord: ‘if any man will come after me, let him deny himself’.”
- Pope St Leo XIII

‘To be a priest is to be bound to fatigue—the two are synonymous’ - Pope St. Pius X

“Prayer, reflection and reading are essential foundations. No priest dare neglect them. He who does, even on the plea of devoting more time to the apostolate, is fooling himself and separating himself from God.”
- Don Eugene Boylan, the Priest’s Way to God

“To mock a fellow-priest is to mock at Christ, and no eutrapelia can justify that.”
- Don Eugene Boylan, the Priest’s Way to God

“Discouragement is one of the most dangerous diseases of the soul and one which can occur at any period in the spiritual life. Yet it is nearly always due to the same cause: too much regard of ourselves and too little regard of Jesus.”
- Don Eugene Boylan, the Priest’s Way to God

“The leases we have to learn is that we cannot set our own hearts on fire: this is a grace that God must give.”
- Don Eugene Boylan, the Priest’s Way to God

“We must never forget that sanctification is not so much a question of the development and perfecting of ourselves, as of the denying of self and our replacement by Christ. We must diminish and he must increase.”
-Don Eugene Boylan, the Priest’s Way to God

[Dcn. Benj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excels in every way!

[Friar Dismas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good refresher spirituality for priests.

[Fr. John Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful reflection on the priesthood. Emphasizes the importance of abiding in Christ as the central aspect of priestly spirituality. Includes good practical advice.