Two millennia of Christianity have yielded a tremendous number of brilliant, holy, and insightful men and women. Many of these men and women penned works of staggering beauty and spiritual insight, which have become widely acknowledged as classics. The Christian spiritual tradition is replete with such works.
This tradition is explored and illuminated in the new book Spiritual Masters: Living and Praying in the Catholic Tradition (Ignatius Press, 2024), by Archbishop Emeritus Alfred C. Hughes. This is his second book to be published by Ignatius Press, following 2021’s Priests in Love with God and Eager to Witness to the Gospel. In Spiritual Masters, Archbishop Hughes looks at works from St. Augustine, St. Anthony of the Desert, St. Aelred of Rievaulx, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Benedict, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Francis de Sales, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and others.
Archbishop Emeritus Alfred Hughes has been a priest since 1957. He was ordained as an auxiliary bishop for his home Archdiocese of Boston in 1981, was appointed Bishop of Baton Rouge in 1993, and Archbishop of New Orleans in 2002, leading the archdiocese until his retirement in 2009. Since that time, he has continued to serve the Church in many capacities, including serving on committees for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and as an instructor at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans.
Archbishop Hughes recently spoke with Catholic World Report about his new book and the powerful example of the masters of the Catholic spiritual tradition.
Catholic World Report: How did the book come about?
Archbishop Alfred Hughes: When I served as Bishop of Baton Rouge, I decided to offer a series of public presentations on the spiritual life. I took that opportunity to offer an extended series of talks in the fall and the spring, treating the ordinary steps in living the Christian spiritual journey. When I presented these talks, I thought it helpful to draw on the spiritual classics in order to offer more experiential treatment to supplement the spiritual teaching.
This was received very well. I was encouraged to consider publishing them. I took that suggestion seriously, and that resulted in the first edition of Spiritual Masters in the late ‘90s. Subsequently, when it was time for a second printing, I did a revision to reflect the circumstances the Church was facing as I assumed the role as Archbishop of New Orleans.
This third edition, which Ignatius Press is publishing, is updated to reflect the developments taking place in the Church in our own time.
CWR: You’ve been a priest for more than 65 years, a bishop for over 40. How has your own priesthood been influenced by the figures in this book?
Hughes: I personally find the reading of the spiritual classics to be very nourishing and inspiring. As a matter of fact, I find it the best way to experience restorative leisure. When I read the Christian spiritual classics, I find myself inspired, challenged and also invited to a more prayerful reflection on the inter-relationship between revelation and the living of my daily human life. So, this is what has led me to read more and more of the Christian spiritual classics.
CWR: And how did your decades of pastoral experience play a role in its writing?
Hughes: As I mentioned above, it was my preaching as Bishop of Baton Rouge and the response to that preaching that encouraged me to write the original edition of the book. I was inspired by the example of St. Francis de Sales, who, as Bishop of Geneva, used to visit the parishes offering mini-retreats to the parishioners in order to encourage them to experience the call to holiness in their lives. The content of his preaching is preserved in his Introduction to the Devout Life.
CWR: The works you examine in the book are classics, which have really stood the test of time: the Rule of St. Benedict, The Imitation of Christ, Introduction to the Devout Life, the Spiritual Exercises, etc. Why have these works become such timeless classics?
Hughes: A book is considered a classic when it treats universal human experience, is recognized in many different generations as speaking the truth and addresses not just the theory but also the implications for human living. Christian classics obviously focus on the living of the Christian life. A Christian classic is rooted in Gospel teaching, offers a deeper understanding of that teaching and provides both inspiration and guidance for the Christian spiritual journey.
CWR: Are there other individuals or works that you wanted to include, but chose not to? If so, why didn’t they make the cut?
Hughes: I organized the book to address the sequential steps in the spiritual journey which most people experience. I selected readings from the classics that helped to exemplify the teaching that I was presenting in each chapter. So my selection of the particular classic depended on its relevance and helpfulness in offering experiential application of the teaching for each step of the journey.
Obviously, there are many other Christian spiritual classics that could also have been chosen. I personally found the selected readings, which I referred to in each of the chosen classics, to be particularly helpful in exemplifying each step of the journey.
CWR: Are there more modern/contemporary writers or works that you think will eventually be included in the pantheon of spiritual classics?
Hughes: I certainly consider the work of Dom Marmion, Christ in His Mysteries, Christ the Ideal of the Priest, Christ the Ideal of the Monk, to be more recent spiritual classics. I consider some of the early work of Thomas Merton, for instance, his Seven Storey Mountain and Seeds of Contemplation, to be potentially lasting Christian classics. Although his work is more evangelizing than spiritual, I believe that Bishop Robert Barron today is doing some pioneering work that will provide some materials that will be of universal and helpful long-term significance, especially as he addresses in the digital world the living of the Christian spiritual life. Matthew Kelly has also offered some helpful treatises that I think are going to provide long-term help to people, particularly his Rediscover Jesus and Rediscover Catholicism. At the present time, Jacques Philippe is offering some substantial writings in the spiritual area, some of which may come to be regarded as classic in the future.
CWR: What do you hope people will take away from the book?
Hughes: First of all, I hope that people will read the book slowly and ponder its contents. In some ways, it’s a very compact book. I consider it very readable, but there is a depth in teaching summarized in each of the chapters that needs to be pondered and then practiced.
Anyone who is serious about pursuing the Christian spiritual journey I would hope could profit from the reading of this book. I know a number of laypeople who have been helped by previous editions. I also know that it’s been used in some lay ecclesial ministry programs, some permanent diaconate formation programs and in at least two seminaries in the fundamental formation of candidates in the Christian spiritual life.
CWR: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Hughes: I simply offer the book in the hope that it may lead some few people to encounter Christ in a transforming way and experience lasting fruitfulness in the living of their own lives. If that goal is realized, thanks be to God!
• Related at CWR: “Archbishop draws on 60 years of service in his new book on priesthood” (Dec 8, 2021) by Paul Senz
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Unsuprisingly, I see no mention of the best spiritual direction in the English language, one of which was used heavily by St. John of the Cross, that work being The Cloud Of Unknowing from circa 1200s England, the other work from the 1600s by Father Augustin Baker titled Sancta Sophia/Holy Wisdom, the most comprehensive text in the English language on the subject. Excerpts from The Cloud Of Unknowing appear in The Liturgy Of The Hours, and the The Cloud a true how-to manual of intimate and short nature, and among the very best.
The minor tone register of St. Francis of Sales was maintained until the end by Blessed John Paul I (his motto was Humility), and was based on a choice of naked essentiality, of which, since the forties, he had traced the models: St. Francis, François de Sales, and Charles de Foucauld, above all. To sanctify oneself through the “tragic everyday,” as he would say in June 1978, shortly before being elected pope.