"The practice of contemplation is one of the great spiritual arts," writes Martin Laird in A Sunlit Absence. "Not a technique but a skill, it harnesses the winds of grace that lead us out into the liberating sea of silence." In this companion volume to his bestselling Into the Silent Land, Laird focuses on a quality often overlooked by books on Christian meditation: a vast and flowing spaciousness that embraces both silence and sound, and transcends all subject/object dualisms. Drawing on the wisdom of great contemplatives from St. Augustine and St. Teresa of Avila to St. Hesychios, Simone Weil, and many others, Laird shows how we can uncover the deeper levels of awareness that rest within us like buried treasure waiting to be found. The key insight of the book is that as our practice matures, so will our experience of life's ordeals, sorrows, and joys expand into generous, receptive maturity. We learn to see whatever difficulties we experience in meditation--boredom, lethargy, arrogance, depression, grief, anxiety--not as obstacles to be overcome but as opportunities to practice surrender to what is. With clarity and grace Laird shows how we can move away from identifying with our turbulent, ever-changing thoughts and emotions to the cultivation of a "sunlit absence"--the luminous awareness in which God's presence can most profoundly be felt. Addressed to both beginners and intermediates on the pathless path of still prayer, A Sunlit Absence offers wise guidance on the specifics of contemplative practice as well as an inspiring vision of the purpose of such practice and the central role it can play in our spiritual lives.

About the Author
Martin Laird is Associate Professor of Theology at Villanova University. He has extensive training in contemplative disciplines and gives retreats throughout the United States and Great Britain. He is the author of Gregory of Nyssa and the Grasp of Faith and Into the Silent Land (both by OUP).

Reviews
filled with sympathy, grace, and encouragement for those who have taken up the practice of contemplative prayer but are experiencing its inevitable challenges of boredom, distractions and racing thoughts... Laird's writing is refreshingly concise, occasionally amusing and vividly memorable. Both beginning and longtime contemplatives will discover treasures in this little gem of a book. * Tod Freisen, Christian Century *
Books that talk about "contemplation" often seem to have been written on Jupiter. This one is a sterling exception. "Books are largely written in solitude," Martin Laird writes, "and like all fruitful solitude, it is essentially ecclesial, grounded in community." That gives you a sense of Laird: a man alert to paradox and mystery, yet in no way isolated from the everyday. * Wilson's Bookmarks, Christianity Today *
If you have read Into the Silent Land, you will enjoy this sequel; if you haven't, read it now. * Nicholas Alan, Franciscan *



Book Information
ISBN 9780195378726
Author Martin Laird
Format Hardback
Page Count 208
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 266g
Dimensions(mm) 181mm * 142mm * 21mm