Integrating Money and Meaning: Practices for a Heart-Centered Life

by Maggie Kulyk, Liz McGeachy

We all exist inside society’s complex, all-encompassing money system, but we rarely talk about it in an honest, self-reflective way. Is it possible to live within this system with integrity and meaning – to find a deeper connection to the “heart”? The answer is YES, and Integrating Money and Meaning is the guide. Using her own story and the stories of others she has met during her many years doing “pastoral care with money” for both individuals and spiritual communities, Maggie Kulyk offers a deeply personal and honest look at the influence of money on her own life as well as the broader society. She then provides practices for bringing money out of the shadows, healing its wounds, and creating a new relationship with money based on our true “heart.” Seeing our relationship with money as central to the spiritual path helps create a more balanced, healthy life for ourselves, our families, our communities, and the planet.

164 pages, Paperback

Published March 12, 2019

Reviews

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book! Money impacts every aspect of our lives, individually and as a society. Maggie Kulyk brings her own life history, a deep knowledge of spirituality, and training and long experience as a financial planner ("doing pastoral care with money), to this thoughtful book. Including stories, helpful exercises, and cultural as well as personal insights, her work offers guidance on creating a new relationship with money as part of our spiritual path.

Kulyk asserts that "Spiritual practice is a way of being in the world that contributes not just to personal peace and equanimity but also to community healing and health through love, compassion, and mercy, In fact, you can't really have one without the other." She successfully integrates this with reflections on money, concluding with calling readers to a "Courageous Vision" for the future, and clarity about the roles of money within it.

I anticipate working themes from this book into my congregation's stewardship emphasis, this fall and through the coming year. Others might use it in small groups and as a resource for individuals.

[Jeff Garrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was okay. It’s easy to read, but i found it was less about how I related to money than it was Kulyk’s memoir/spiritual journey with some helpful exercise that could help the reader find a path to making their lives more spiritual. I found the concept of our money system as a whale to be a bit vague. I appreciated how she used the movie, “A Wonderful Life” as archetypes of ways we deal with money, but that was only in the chapter relating to “looking back.” She spends far less time on “looking in,” and ”looking out,” than looking back. I felt that these chapters could be more developed.

I do think the exercises were helpful and for that reason I gave the book three stars. While it is billed as a spiritual book, it is not “Christian book.” The author appears more “spiritual” than religious. She doesn’t develop any “money theology,” but encourages each of us to come to terms with how we use money (which isn’t a bad idea.). While there are some Christian thoughts in the book, she also quotes Gnostic and non-Christian thinkers (which is okay as long as you realize what you’re getting).