God Alone Is Enough: A Spirited Journey with Teresa of Avila

Immersed in her own “dark night of the soul” brought on by seasonal affective disorder and fibromyalgia, Christian novelist Burney (The Exorsistah and the Amanda Bell Brown mystery series) discovered the 16th-century mystic John of the Cross and, through him, his spiritual contemporary Teresa of Avila. In her first nonfiction book, Burney tells how Teresa taught her to pray in a way totally unlike the method she had learned from the “church mothers” in the Church of God in Christ congregation in which she grew up. She invites readers on a pilgrimage to “meet my friend Teresa” and offers a fresh take on the Spanish nun and saint. Employing humor and a chatty style, Burney gives readers a short, light course in contemplative prayer, one that is sensitive to the possible reactions of those who, like her, come from a Protestant background. Although readers with a serious interest in Teresa will need more than Burney provides here, her book is a fine introduction to the weighty realm of contemplative prayer. (July)