God Alone Is Enough: A Spiritual Journey With St. Teresa of Avila

A very good book on introducing people (women, especially) to the steps of prayer in the mode of Teresa of Avila. I've found that most people like books of various prayers or prayer themes but instruction books are harder to get into. Most people, I've found, prefer to talk through issues of prayer with someone else or hear someone give a talk to an audience. I hope readers give this book a chance. Besides promoting the life of Teresa of Avila (Carmelite mystic, founder of women's convents, Doctor of the Church) this book gives various way to pray and succeeds in affriming all of these as valid. Burney also shows how, following Teresa, we may have made marked progress already without realizing it since we may not have told anyone show more trustworthy enough about our spiritual state of being. Burney says that she began her life of prayer as an evangelical (from which the book takes as an outlook but she now attends mass and receives the eucharist). Burney says that Teresa can be of value to all christian people. Burney assumes a fair amount of familiarity with the sacred scriptures but does not go overboard. She tries to make her applications of Teresa's principles more palatable by paraphrasing the Bible passages. I found this grating, personally, as the Catholic Church has recently gone on a 'new translation binge' when the new passages aren't always rendered superior to the previous. Others may find it appealing, as Burney seems accomplished as a writer. I had heard about this book from reviews years ago and was glad to finally find a copy.
Notes, suggestions, prayers,169 pp. The author is from Kentucky. show less

I picked up God Alone is Enough because I was interested in learning about the life and teachings of St. Teresa of Avila. I appreciate Ms. Burney's sincere enthusiasm for her subject, but found it difficult to get past the fact that rather than reading what St. Teresa said, I was reading what someone said she said.

This book redeemed St. Teresa for me. True confession.