Books by Emilie Griffin

This profoundly practical book is for businesswomen and businessmen who wish to integrate spiritual values with day-to-day decision-making, tight scheduling, and high-pressured management of multimillion-dollar responsibilities.Emilie Griffin--a veteran in the marketing field and the author of several acclaimed books on spirituality--draws on time-honored scriptural resources and management principles to unpack the spiritual meaning of executive life. Her central premise is that the spiritual imagination must be refreshed to see God's presence in the work itself--even the details. Her approach is wide-ranging, drawing on the poetic mysticism of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Teilhard de Chardin and the practical wisdom of such business thinkers as Peter Drucker and Rosabeth Moss Kanter.The Reflective Executive eschews dualism and provides spiritual insights on such themes as effectiveness, time, contribution, decision-making, setting goals and priorities, weighing failure and success, building on strength, and envisioning God as lord of the marketplace. The book also includes practical exercises and themes for reflection.

Daily Devotions for Lent"e;Griffin is a trustworthy guide . . . She writes with the unmistakable authenticity and authority of a woman steeped in prayer."e;-AmericaJoin Emilie Griffin in these daily devotions for Lent. Using ancient and modern texts as inspiration for her own reflections, Emilie Griffin nurtures and guides us into a deeper knowledge of ourselves and God. We discover that Lent is our chance for a fresh start, and an opportunity to joyfully put ourselves in God's hands. We are converted not only once in our lives but many times, and the conversion is little by little and often imperceptible. But Lent gives us a time to move the process along, intentionally, by a series of small surrenders. When we choose some exercise for Lent-daily worship, daily prayer, abstinence from one thing or another, it is not so much the practice that transforms us, but it is our willingness to change. -from Small Surrenders

William Law (1686-1761) was an Anglican priest who specialized in providing spiritual direction. This occupation led his writings to be concrete and specific, yet profound and filled with rich insights. His best known piece, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, has inspired countless generations and deeply influenced the English religious revivals. The selections here offer practical spiritual direction for those seeking a meaningful life of prayer and devotion.

Time in "the wilderness" -- solitary meditation on simplicity, prayer, and other key disciplines of faith -- is directly in keeping with Jesus' example of going apart to pray. Now, with the clarity and encouragement that distinguish the Renovaré collection of spiritual resources, this gentle guide to retreat unshrouds that historical tradition -- and so reveals marvelous opportunities for spiritual renewal in contemporary Christian practice.Helping us to create self-guided retreats -- for individuals or groups -- Emilie Griffin offers plans, encouragements, and suggestions based on her own experience and fortified by the inspiring words of contemporary Christian writers such as Eugene Peterson, Luci Shaw, and Virginia Stem Owens.A virtual primer for retreat, this volume defines the basics and provides practical tips on setting realistic expectations and on achieving the relaxation and freedom necessary for the soul to become, in the words of de Caussade, "light as a feather." A detailed one-day retreat makes an ideal model for first-timers, and several different examples illustrate how time in the wilderness can be both accessible and wonderfully illuminating -- no matter what your schedule. Wilderness Time is another balanced, practical strategy from Renovaré helping us grow closer to God.

Turning is a personal account of the author''s journey to God that eloquently demonstrates how deep and complex the process of conversion can be--and how its beauty and power can be a source of inspiration to us all. This book is unlike most others of its kind in that its focus is intellectual as well as emotional.Emilie Griffin, an accomplished advertising executive, has written a lucid series of reflections on the process of her conversion to Catholicism through the experiences of other "pilgrims" who have encouraged and challenged her. Thus the stories of C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Bede Griffiths, and Avery Dulles wove their way into her own story, and in them all she began to see a pattern emerge. She takes the reader through the battle of intellect and will, the first stirrings of desire, through the struggles of mind and heart, to the ultimate act of surrender to the will of God. In addition, she takes up the important question of continuing conversion as the normal process of the Christian life.A work of utter candor and simplicity, Turning is a twentieth-century account of the experience of conversion whose insights and applications will be universally welcomed.

Teresa of Avila, a renowned sixteenth-century Spanish mystic, received the vision for The Interior Castle one Sunday in 1577. In this signature work, Teresa uses the castle as a symbol for the interior life to describe her mystical experience of the presence of God. Her humble and straightforward treatise invites readers on a spiritual journey to enter into the deep places in their soul where they will find God. "The soul of the just person is nothing else but a paradise where the Lord says he finds his delight. So then, what do you think that abode will be like where a King so powerful, so wise, so pure, so full of all good things takes his delight? I don't find anything comparable to the magnificent beauty of a soul and its marvelous capacity." -- Teresa of Avila

Simplicity in forms of worship, opposition to violence, and the importance of compassionate living and thoughtful listening are hallmarks of the spirituality of the Quakers. From their beginnings in seventeenth-century England to today, the Friends have attempted to live out their belief in the presence of God's spirit within their hearts. This book features the writings of some of the most influential and inspirational Quaker thinkers -- George Fox, John Woolman, Caroline Stephen, Thomas Kelly, and others -- providing a vivid portrait of the beautiful, simple spirituality of the Quakers.

A rare female voice in the 12th century Christian Church, Hildegard of Bingen was a German nun, an oracle, a mystic, a prolific writer on religious subjects who practiced medicine, wrote plays, and composed music. The Ways of the Lord contains selections from Scivias, her major religious work, in which Hildegard describes amazing visions and explores the profound spiritual truths hidden within them. A HarperCollins Spiritual Classic, The Ways of the Lord includes a foreword by Homer Hickam, author of Rocket Boys, and is a glorious introduction to the genius and devotion of this extraordinary holy woman of the Middle Ages.

Bernard of Clairvaux holds a distinguished place in the history of Christian spirituality. During the twelfth century this gentle monk from France became the primary guide for those who follow the path of selfless love as well as a spokesman for a revival in monastic life. This collection of his most important writings provides a superb introduction to a man who has greatly shaped the Western monastic and mystical traditions.

Part of the HarperCollins Spiritual Classics series, The Essential Writings includes selections from The Dark Night, The Spiritual Canticle, and The Living Flame of Love, the most profoundly beautiful and insightful works of St. John of the Cross, the 16th century Spanish Carmelite monk and one of Christianity's foremost spiritual teachers. The stirring words and thoughts of a courageous Christian reformer, The Essential Writings includes a foreword by Ron Hansen, author of Atticus and Mariette in Ecstasy.

A beautiful portrait of the radical devotion of St. Antony and his call to holy living. "It was truly amazing that being alone in such a desert Antony was niether distracted by the demons who confronted him, nor was he frightened of their ferocity when so many four-legged beasts and reptiles were there. But truly he was one who, as Scripture says, having trusted in the Lord, was like Mount Zion, keeping his mind unshaken and unruffled; so instead the demons fled and the wild beasts, as it is written, made peace with him."--from The Life of Antony Athanasius (c. 295-373) was an Alexandrian whose life was committed at an early age to the Christian community growing there. He became a controversial bishop and one of the most vivid and forceful personalities in political and religious affairs. His famous account, The Life of Antony, inaugurated the genre of the lives of the saints and established the frame of Christian hagiography, quickly attaining the status of a classic and becoming one of the most influential writings in Christian history. It tells the spiritual story of St. Antony, the founder of Christian monasticism. A pioneer in spiritual experience, he marked a new epoch in the Christian experience and set the terms for the Church's ideal of the life of devotion. He transferred the center of monastic life from the periphery of established communities to the barren and isolated setting of a hermitage, away from civilization, in a location of solitude and serenity. The Life of Antony is a beautiful portrait of what a life committed to God demands and promises.