Charles J. Healey is an adjunct professor at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts, and chaplain to the alumni at Boston College High School. He is the author of several books, including The Ignatian Way. In this rounded survey of the devotional lives of Jesuits for the past 570 years, Healey covers a wide range of material. He begins with the writings of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of this illustrious order and his Spiritual Exercises, described as "a manual for a four-week retreat based on the life of Jesus Christ." This is followed by letters by Jesuits united in mutual prayer.
There is a great surge of energy in the next chapter which includes poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins, thoughts about God by the maverick priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, theologian Karl Rahner, peace-activist Daniel Berrigan, and others. Next come a series of devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to Our Lady, and the Novena in honor of St. Francis Xavier. The last chapter contains prayers based on Ignatius of Loyola's "way of proceeding."
