Three Ages of the Interior Life

The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life (Volume One) by Rev Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange OP, translated by Sister M Timothea Doyle OP, 470 pages

This book is an adaptation of a course Father Garrigou-Lagrange taught for over twenty years at the Pontifical College of St Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome.  The subject is mystical and ascetic theology, subjects which are sometimes treated as distinct but which the author demonstrates form a unity.  More importantly, he explains that these are not the concern merely of great saints and spiritual athletes, but are the heart of the universal call to holiness.  The interior life in which the soul ascends to God is both a foretaste of and a necessary preparation for that heaven which is true life in His presence.

The first volume treats of some foundational matters as well as the first of the three stages described by the great mystical writers, the purgative way.  Given the origin of the book, Garrigou-Lagrange's intended audience is current and future priests and spiritual directors, but despite occasional digressions into theological complexities, the work itself is imbued with a deep love of God and a concern for the souls of the faithful, so that it is pastoral in the best sense of the word.  A lay reader is likely to find himself both enlightened and inspired, though there is danger in reading beyond one's level.