PATHS TO RENEWAL
The Spirituality of Six Religious Founders

PATHS TO RENEWAL
The Spirituality of Six Religious Founders

At the beginning of 21st centry, as we embark on a new millennium, we are more and more aware of the fact that “our difficult age has a special need of prayer. In the course of history — both in the past and in the present — many men and women have borne witness to the importance of prayer by consecrating themselves to the praise of God and to the life of prayer, especially in monasteries and convents. So, too, recent years have been seeing a growth in the number of people who, in ever more widespread movements and groups, are giving first place to prayer and seeking in prayer a renewal of their spiritual life” (Dominum et vivificantem, 65). In this review of the spirituality traditions of six Roman Catholic founders of religious congregations, Zachary Grant, a Capuchin friar since 1948 and a priest since 1956, has drawn upon his experiences as a follower of St. Francis of Assisi, as a parish priest, as a missionary in Central America, and as a spiritual assistant to Secular Franciscans. His comparison of the saints whom he calls the Great Six is offered as a means to understand which reforms are called for in the Church of our present generation as it enters the third millennium. Clergy, religious, and laity who are serious in their commitment to Jesus and in their service to the People of God will find in Paths to Renewal a challenging insight, namely, that personal conversion must be the basis for Church renewal in this post-Vatican II era. Father Zachary shows how sanctity and reform were always linked in the live of Saints Augustine, Benedict, Dominic, Francis, Ignatius, and Teresa, and how these saints can serve as examples for us today.