Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation (Transforming Resources) - Hardcover

Barton, Ruth Haley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0830833331 ISBN 13: 9780830833337

Publisher: IVP, 2006

Synopsis

Logos Book Award Winner

Align the Rhythms of Your Life with God’s Presence and Purpose

Do you long for a deep, fundamental change in your life with God? Do you desire a greater intimacy with God? Do you wonder how you might truly live your life as God created you to live it?

Sacred Rhythms invites you into a spiritual journey that nurtures your soul while aligning your daily life with the presence of God. Drawing from the monastic tradition of creating a rule of life, this book equips readers to integrate spiritual disciplines into their everyday routines, paving the way for authentic spiritual transformation that can only be brought about by God.

In Sacred Rhythms, Ruth Haley Barton takes you more deeply into understanding seven key disciplines along with practical ideas for incorporating them into everyday life. Each chapter features practical exercises designed to help you integrate the practices, whether on your own or in a group setting. The final chapter weaves everything together, helping you structure your life for meaningful spiritual transformation.

In Sacred Rhythms, you will

• Understand seven key spiritual disciplines: solitude, Scripture, prayer, honoring the body, self-examination, discernment, and Sabbath.
• Learn to integrate these disciplines into your daily life, with practical exercises for both individuals and groups.
• Create a rule of life that makes space for God’s presence in your daily life.
• Reflect on principles and practices for living a life of spiritual growth and transformation.

Sacred Rhythms invites you to deepen your relationship with God through establishing your own sacred rhythm of life with God. Begin transforming the rhythms of your life today!

About this title

About the Author

Ruth Haley Barton is founder of the Transforming Center and a seasoned spiritual director. She is the author of many books including Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, Sacred Rhythms, and Invitation to Solitude and Silence.

Reviews

Christian spiritual disciplines are all the rage, and joining the legions of "how-to" books reintroducing contemporary Christians to ancient practices is this offering by Barton, a spiritual director and retreat leader (Invitation to Solitude and Silence). With elegant writing and a personal touch, she covers the basics handily—the role of desire and longing in relationship with God, praying with scripture, and the need for solitude, self-examination, discernment and Sabbath. She concludes with an exercise that helps one develop a "rule of life," or commitment to "structure and space for our growing." What makes Barton's handbook different from the rest is her personality; she describes the practices with the gentle touch of an understanding and knowing mystic, telling her own stories along the way. Barton recounts the time she and her bicycle were run over by a minivan (miraculously, she was not seriously hurt) and as she recuperated, she pondered whether this accident was a time to reconsider her need for Sabbath: "I did not want to acknowledge the possibility that it was that hard for God to get my attention." This book is a wonderful starting point for Christians eager to more deeply explore the life of the Spirit. (Mar. 30)
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Edition details

• Publisher: IVP
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0830833331
• ISBN 13: 9780830833337
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192