"The Shattered Lantern, Rediscovering a Felt Presence of God," by Ronald Rolheiser

The title of this book is taken from an ancient tale of a mad man who comes to a town, goes into the town square, faces the crowd of townspeople, shatters the lighted lantern and shouts loudly, “God is dead!  And we have killed Him!

The majority of us, followers of one of the world’s great  religions that believe in the one God…Jewish, Islam and Christianity…know that God is not dead but very much alive, in the universe, in heaven on earth, all around us and within us.  But the problem, says the author, is that at times we cannot find God.

Those of us who live in the western part of the word, particularly in Europe and the U.S.,  have several traits, Rolheiser claims, that militate against our finding God.  He lists these as narcissism, pragmatism, unbridled restlessness, and the loss of the ancient instinct for astonishment.  We are too caught up in ourselves, in our own welfare, needs and wants, too full of ourselves to have room for any other, even God.

We are too caught up with busy-ness, efficiency, sensibleness and practicality. We see what is good and true as what works.  Science alone is trustworthy and believable.  We all believe there is an atom, although none of us has seen it.  We cannot see God, and therefore we secretly doubt that God exists, even though we say we are believers.  We are a restless people, not restful.  We are greedy for experience of all kinds, are dissatisfied if our expectations are not fully met, see all tension as tragic. We are impatient. We feel as always behind schedule, that our work is never done. We have lost the wonder of a child, who sees beauty as more important than usefulness

Rolheiser says the only way to find God is to be a contemplative.  We can theologize, know about, speak of God, but we do not speak to God nor listen to God, nor truly know God as a person, the One who is of the most importance in our lives.  In the course of history there have been many contemplatives…St. John of the Cross, St Francis, St. Therese, and countless others.  On reading this book and following Rolheiser as he enfleshes his convictions, we can ask ourselves if all this can be ours, if we can find God as others have.  We may well be inspired to search, to try.  It could change our lives!