William Barry, SJ, is considered one of the great spiritual directors. A retired Jesuit living at the Campion Center in Weston, Massachusetts, he still gives retreats, provides spiritual direction, and writes. This book brings God into ordinary life in very practical ways, never unduly idealizing what can sometimes be a very painful journey into closer relationship with God.

After reading this book, I sat for many weeks with the idea of God's crazy, all-encompassing love -- an "unwise" love, even, insofar as God's love pays no attention to basically anything except for LOVE. Fr. Barry gets this, has experienced this, and writes about it in this lovely little book.

Audience: Like the Robert Wicks book "Prayerfulness," this book is for those who have a faith life but wish to deepen, expand, and explore it. Fr. Barry's gentle approach is especially ideal for persons who may have experienced hurt, betrayal, or even disgust within their church communities, by bringing the narrative always back and back again to the God Who Loves. ( )

A Friendship Like No Other offers three well-supported and practical sections: prayerful exercises to help lead you to the conviction that God wants your friendship; a close look at objections to this idea; and reflections on experiencing the presence of God and discerning those experiences. Brief, personal meditations are woven throughout.

Live in the love of a God who desires a relationship with you. Throughout A Friendship Like No Other, renowned spiritual director William A. Barry, SJ, explores the premise that God wants to relate to us as a close friend. Barry has contemplated this idea—radical for many Christians—throughout his lifetime, and he explains that it actually traces back to the "developing revelation of God contained in the Bible." A Friendship Like No Other offers three well-supported and practical sections: prayerful exercises to help lead you to the conviction that God wants your friendship; a close look at objections to this idea; and reflections on experiencing the presence of God and discerning those experiences. Brief, personal meditations are woven throughout. Grounded in biblical tradition and with a clear focus on Ignatian spirituality, this book offers a fresh, heart-changing approach to living joyfully in the freedom of the divine embrace.