A Guide to Christian Meditation: A Book Review

My first impression of this book when I received it in the mail and opened the package containing it was: "Wow! This book is small!" At 75 pages, and the size of my hand, it really is a small book. A Guide to Christian Meditation, I discovered, is actually derived from a much larger book, The Better Part - A Christ Centered Resource for Personal Prayer, both written by John Bartunek, LC.

Fr. Bartunek is a Legion of Christ priest. This didn't scare me away, despite the issues surrounding their order. I have met a few Legionaries and all of them are wonderful, holy men. Despite it's size, this book packs a powerful punch. It is chock full of wonderful advice on how to focus and enter into a deep meditative prayer with God. It uses a four step approach to meditation: Concentrate, Consider, Converse, and Commit. If you are looking for a good book on Christian meditation, I highly recommend this one. Take your time with it. Just because you can read this book in an hour, it doesn't mean you should. Spend a few days with it and really focus on what Fr. Bartunek is trying to say.

If I had to say anything negative about this book, its that it seems to be written specifically as a primer for the members of Regnum Christi (RC), the lay apostolate of the Legion of Christ. I only know this because I spent some time with RC a few years back. There are a few references to things that are specific to RC, their spirituality, and their apostolates. If this book is meant to be written to a wider audience than just members of RC, then these references should not be present. With that being said, the references to RC and their ministry does not distract from the overall message of the book.

(I receive this book for free from catholiccompany.com in return for giving an honest review of it.)