Martin - My Life with the Saints

For me to be a saint means to be myself.

Thomas Merton

3441 N. Ashland Avenue

Chicago, Illinois 60657

(800) 621-1008

www.loyolapress.com

2016, 2006 James Martin, SJ

All rights reserved.

Imprimi Potest: Very Rev. Thomas J. Regan, SJ

Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover art credit: From John Navas Communion of the Saints tapestries for the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles, California. On the cover, from left to right: Paul, Peter, Charles Lwanga, Maria Goretti, Agatha, Miguel Pro, Lawrence, Louis Ibaraki, Paul Miki, and Thrse of Lisieux. Used by permission, 2003 John Nava/Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-8294-4453-7

Based on the print edition: 978-0-8294-4452-0

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016943245

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An outstanding and often hilarious memoir of one mans interaction with the saints of the Roman Catholic tradition.

For books that affirm the highest values of the human spirit

In a cross between Holden Caulfield and Thomas Merton, James Martin has written one of the best spiritual memoirs in years. With help from the saints who have inspired and guided his way, he recounts a journey that is as entertaining as it is profound.

Robert Ellsberg, author of All Saints

It isnt often that a new and noteworthy book comes along in this genre, but we have reason to celebrate My Life with the Saints. It is earmarked for longevity. It will endure as an important and uncommon contribution to religious writing.

Doris Donnelly, America

In a volume that is part spiritual memoir, part inspirational guide, Martin, a Jesuit priest and associate editor at America, applies the teachings of great saints to everyday life. Martin is interested in holding up the saints not as paragons but as exemplars of holy struggle. All the saints, he writes, struggled in one way or another.... Martins final word for us is as Jungian as it is Catholic: God does not want us to be like Mother Teresa or Dorothy Day. God wants us to be most fully ourselves.

The Washington Post Book World

Martin takes a splendid idea and develops it masterfully by weaving stories from his life into those of his favorite saints. Martins animated style and wide-ranging experiences will make this a book readers of diverse backgrounds will enjoy.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The saints are given to us as patrons and companions. James Martin tells us how they have been resources for him in every time of need. In delightful prose he recounts incidents, both perilous and funny, that have prompted him to turn to the saints, and in doing so shows us a new way of living out a devotion that is as old and universal as the church.

Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ, Fordham University

Intriguing.... Throughout his book, Martin shows how the saints have accompanied and been companions to him.... The result is an enlightening overview of the familiar... and the relatively unknown.... There are many interesting and occasionally unusual bits of new information... and his warm style invites readers to get to know the saints as people.

The Christian Century

In this warm, conversational book, James Martin shows us how the saintseven the ones not yet canonizedchallenge us, lead us, shape us, and help us to deal with our worst failings. I think he is our new Thomas Merton, helping us to wrestle with our humanity.

Emilie Griffin, author of Simple Ways to Pray

This wonderfully written volume interweaves the spiritual pilgrimage of a young Jesuit and his discovery of the saints of the Catholic tradition. Readers of this book will receive both the abundant gift of good writing and the more abundant grace that flows from the witness of the saints. Enthusiastically recommended.

Lawrence S. Cunningham, author of A Brief History of the Saints

The saints stories and their relevance to Martins own spiritual journey form the spine of this remarkably engaging book. A mix of history, memoir, social commentary, and spiritual exercise, My Life with the Saints reveals the familiar and not familiar stories of a handful of holy people.

U.S. Catholic

James Martin has written an engaging, honest memoir.

The Dallas Morning News

A wonderful new book... both deeply spiritual and profoundly human.... Whats delightful about this book is its sheer unpredictability. You never know where Fr. Martins journey will take you, and what saints, icons, and plain old human beings youll meet along the way.... [And] there are places in the book where you will laugh out loud.

Terry Golway, The Irish Echo

What a wonderful book this is! Charming, enthralling, intimate, full of wisdom and self-effacing humor, it supplies not just a biographical overview of a wide variety of holy women and men throughout history, but in their powerfully affective influence on Martins life we see how useful it is to continually turn to the saints for encouragement and guidance.

Ron Hansen, author of Mariette in Ecstasy

With wit and candor, Martin brings [the saints] and his other seemingly distant role models down to earth, citing instances from their biographies and, with deepest effectiveness, revealing his personal connection to each and how each has assisted with his life.

Booklist

An account of spiritual peregrination that is as delightful as it is instructive.... He succeeds in making the cloud of witnesses persuasively present.

First Things

This new account by Jesuit Fr. James Martin stands out because it weaves the authors personal struggles and doubts together with colorful portraits of the holy people who have inspired him.... This splendid book might prompt readers to look deeper into the lives of the saints whose stories speak to them.

National Catholic Reporter

Perhaps the most significant contribution Martins memoir offers is the multiple examples of how to appropriate the wisdom of the saints into ones own life.... Martins accessible writing fuels the imagination such that one is inspired to give the saints a second look.

Renee LaReau, Bustedhalo.com

L ike countless numbers of people, I was captivated by Fr. James Martins My Life with the Saints when it appeared ten years ago. I was reasonably familiar with the usual sorts of hagiography, but this was the most human, honest, warm, and even humorous treatment of the stories of the saints I had ever encountered. A reviewer once described the book as an invitation to friendship not only with the saints, but with the author, and I can report from personal experience that thats true. I first met Jim in person a few years after the books publication, but I told him I felt we had been friends for a long time because I got to know him, and to cherish him, through the book.