i was very chuffed to find a review of fringe dweller in the latest newsletter of the spiritual directors forum uk. it’s a short review but melissa totally gets what we have tried to do with the book.

i said at the launch that there are several audiences for the book and it is no more for one of those audiences than another. but spiritual directors makes perfect sense. i have recently trained as a spiritual director and was writing some of the book during that training and while i was doing the spiritual exercises of ignatius. melissa has kindly said we can share her review so here it is

A refreshing series of forty reflections, practices and liturgies that frame Jesus as ‘Fringe Dweller’ (similar to Edge Walker, perhaps?) – One who reached out and advocated for those ‘outside the gate’ or who experienced a form of exclusion, and who experienced something of this in his own life on earth. The reflections are fruits of Ignatian ways of praying with the Scripture passages and they also  draw on biblical scholarship and modern psychology. Each reflection is followed by an imaginative exercise or practice that looks either outwards or inwards and a short liturgy that is simple yet poetic and profound. They could be useful to support your own prayer life or to add to your toolkit of resources you may wish to share with your directees.

I find the reflections invite me to stand in a different place as I contemplate a well-known passage, and so I encounter Christ in a new way. I think they help to exercise my spiritual director’s “muscle” by drawing me to experience different perspectives and journey beyond the familiar. Perhaps they will do the same for you?

Melissa Pearce

you can find her on instagram at rhythms of grace

and the first review to land i think apart from lovely feedback on social media was in the baptist times last week. it was written by simon hall. i am tempted to add the whole of that review here but it’s a bit longer so i’ll leave you with the quotes above. but do go and have a read.

it’s available to buy at gestsidetracked.co