Hidden in God

We recently finished Bonnie Thurston’s Hidden in God: Discovering the Desert Vision of Charles de Foucauld.  The book provided quality spiritual reflection on the life and thought of this singular man whose uncompromising response to God has inspired and challenged many.  Thurston provides adequate biographical information to frame her own reflections.  Her basic divisions are geographical, rather than chronological: the hidden life of Nazareth; the spiritual struggle of the desert; and the public life of ministry and service.  She obviously parallels the life of Charles with that of Christ.  The book ends with a chapter on The Cross and Christ with some insightful reflections on the failures and sufferings of life.  Throughout her writing, she calls on the observations of other spiritual writers, most notably Thomas Merton.  A prolific author and Scripture scholar, she writes with the accessible and understandable style of someone who has taught and communicated well.  The book is even suggested as one that a person could use in making a personal retreat.