Brian O’Leary SJ, Radical and Free—Musings on the Religious Life

This book is the result of two preached retreats given to mark the recent Year of Consecrated Life (2015). However, the origin of the material goes much further back, drawing on Fr O’ Leary’s teaching experience both at Manresa Centre of Spirituality and at Milltown Institute (covering a period of thirty years). In both places held taught courses on religious life—its history, theology, and most of all its underlying spirituality. Indeed, he has always used history and theology (and other disciplines such as psychology and anthropology) in service of exploring and renewing the spirituality of religious life.

After an initial chapter on the origins of religious life, the author devotes two chapters each to poverty, chastity, and obedience. This emphasis is not on the vows as such (dealing with questions that Canon Law might raise) but on the motivating values that the vows express. Only these values can explain why people enter and flourish in religious life. All religious, without distinction, are called to be ’radical and free‘.

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