Insane for the Light

As the shadows lengthen and we find ourselves no longer in the morning or noon of life, but face its approaching dusk, we discover a new spiritual task: to give away the final years of our lives and our deaths.

So argues beloved author Ronald Rolheiser. During life's first years, we embark on a search for meaning and discover in ourselves a profound, unquenchable thirst for the Divine. And when we reach adulthood, we find that we are called to give our lives away―to our spouses, children, careers, friends and neighbors in need. But in the end, we must learn to let it all go.

In this highly anticipated conclusion to his trilogy the spiritual classics, The Holy Longing and Sacred Fire, and with characteristic attentiveness and care, Rolheiser accompanies readers on a spiritual journey through life's final years and its "mellowing of souls." In these years, bitterness can give way to forgiveness, mere imagination to profound and subtle faith, wishful optimism to virtuous hope, and control to surrender. Readers will learn see in Jesus a model for a spirituality of passivity, and find in him the courage to overcome the darkest nights of faith.

Drawing on the work of John of the Cross and Henri Nouwen, Rolheiser outlines a spirituality capable of giving away one's death―and therefore a spirituality of truly living.