The Saints' Guide to Happiness: Practical Lessons in the Life of the Spirit

An excellent book on the saints that looks at their lives as everyday people. Was used for study in my spiritual direction class.

Ellsberg delivers much more than the title would suggest. Not just another 'happiness is' book, it is a profound though understandable description of holiness as lived by many saints but available to any modern seeker. One meets many saints - some well-known, some not - learns something about their lives in a very human way, then gleans some wisdom useful in the 21st century. The sub-title, Practical Lessons in the Life of the Spirit, probably tells more about the book but wouldn't get the attention of "The Saints' Guide to Happiness." Here's a real gem that makes growth in holiness a real possibility.

It is not so much the great amount of interesting information about some very special (but also very normal) people that makes this book worthwhile, but rather the slow and patient vision of true happiness that it weaves. The chapters of the book are structured as lessons to be learned not in order to reach some eventual place of happiness but to lay hold of it now: Learning to Be Still; Learning to Relinquish; Learning to Work; Learning to Suffer; Learning to Die... What is so life affirming about this book is the overwhelming assent to happiness and to its pursuit embodied in persons whom we usually take to be super human in their efforts at self-renunciation. Yes, these were disciplined men and women, but they were also driven by and in pursuit of a Joy that they discovered as the true essence of their human lot. I like the way the book slowly and engagingly transforms our usual, narrow, paltry, notion of a happiness dependent on comfort to one founded on that inner certitude (which can exist even amidst suffering) that we are traveling, slowly but surely, on the path we were meant to travel. And along the way we meet some pretty inspiring fellow travelers not as different from you or me as you would first think.

Robert Ellsberg deserves sainthood himself, for putting this wonderful material within easy reach of the lay public -- without losing the depth and nobility of his subject. This is GOOD reading -- inspiring as well as educational. What a delightful surprise to find a book that gives us a new spin on some very old names, and a fresh look at what it means to live a life of depth, devotion, and reverence. I really could NOT put it down until finished it.

Robert Ellsberg's ALL SAINTS was well received by many Catholic readers and deservedly so. The biographies found in the first book are well researched and his selection of famous and not so famous Christians (and in a few cases non-Christians) is interesting. Ellsberg once again turns to the well known figures in Christian history in his newest work THE SAINTS' GUIDE TO HAPPINESS. In Billy Joel's song "Only the Good Die Young" he has the famous line `I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints; the sinners have much more fun.' Joel's assessment is a somewhat popular misconception of the saints. In many cases we view saints as long suffering men and women who hardly see the joy in life. Ellsberg would not agree with this misconception. Using the writings of many of the traditional saints of Christian history, as well as leading religious figures who are not officially recognized as saints, Ellsberg shows that many of the saints strove to love full and vital lives while on earth and were not simply concerned with enduring life on earth to merit the joys of everlasting life. Ellsberg uses Aristotle's definition of happiness as a springboard, that happiness is not merely a feeling of joy, but rather the fullness of life. Saints lived lives to the full, whether it was through their ministry, their interactions with others, the ways in which they endured hardship and suffering, or the way that they died. Throughout the book the reader sees that Ellsberg has great admiration for his subjects and sees their lives as examples of how we can live our lives.The book appears to be a self help book, but it is not a book that gives the reader answers. Rather, it presents the significant aspects of our lives: being alive, work, loving others, suffering, and death, and presents the saints as guides who can assist us as we navigate our own lives. The book is a rather easy read. Ellsberg's writing has a nice flow to it and the book is well organized. Readers can easily sit and read an entire chapter, or read the book slowly in a reflective manner. The hardcover edition of the book has a ribbon which serves as a bookmark, which makes it easy to use as a devotional tool.