Gateways to the Divine: Transformative Pathways of Prayer from the Holy City of Jerusalem

Step across the threshold and enter different spiritual worlds! Discover riches from the treasury of Jerusalem’s religious traditions. Meet ordinary people of the holy city becoming extraordinary as they explore pathways to the Divine: practitioners of Kabbalah and Sufi traditions, Armenian and Syriac prayer, Franciscan and Orthodox spiritualities. Listen to those who actually live on the Via Dolorosa, the Way of the Cross—their hopes and heartaches. Experience for yourself the transformative and life-changing potential of their spiritualities in a way that will enrich and empower you in your own situation and equip you for a greater engagement with spiritual traditions. This is the invitation of this book and the lure of the gateways of Jerusalem.
This resource embraces a kaleidoscope and mosaic of nationalities and ethnicities and spiritual traditions. Chapters include a short extract from classic spiritual writers of each tradition so we can engage firsthand with their spiritual riches. Suggested prayer exercises encourage us to make this an experiential reading, while questions in each chapter trigger reflection in individual readers or in groups using this as a course. Two concluding chapters identify commonalities and shared threads amongst the tapestry of religious traditions, and help us to relate the experience of this book to our own everyday environment.

Andrew D. Mayes, Episcopal priest and Franciscan, served as Spirituality Adviser to the Diocese of Chichester and the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf. For several years he worked in Jerusalem, as a theological researcher and later as Director of Courses of St. George's College. Currently leading retreats, he is the author of seventeen spirituality books including the award-winning Learning the Language of the Soul; Beyond the Edge, and, from Wipf and Stock, Gateways to the Divine; Treasure in the Wilderness; Roads of Hurt and Hope; Another Christ.