The Saints' Guide to Happiness: Everyday Wisdom from the Lives of the Saints

This book offers a series of "lessons" in the life of the spirit: the struggle to feel fully alive in a frenzied society; the search for meaningful work, real friendship, and enduring love; the encounter with suffering and death; and the yearning to grasp the ultimate significance of our lives. In these "lessons," our guides are the saints: historical figures like Augustine, Francis of Assisi, and Teresa of Avila, and moderns such as Dorothy Day, Flannery O'Connor, and Henri J. Nouwen. In the course of the book, figures familiar from stained-glass windows become exemplars not just of holy piety but of "life in abundance," the quality in which happiness and holiness converge.