Touched by God: The Way to Contemplative Prayer, Paperback

Luigi Gioia's Say it to God was chosen for the 2018 Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book--no mean feat for a first time author. In this new book, Gioia moves on to show the art of contemplation. But he points out from the start that contemplation is not a more advanced way of praying but a greater awareness of the presence of God. The defining mark of this awareness is that we become more and more aware of God's presence, a unique kind of inner peace and joy which has been described by spiritual authors with a variety of arresting and often poetic images.

What Gioia describes is not some kind of spiritual wonderland; for it does not dispense us from struggles and doubts and often the non-evidence of God. It brings a peace which coexists with doubt, a peace which can flourish in the middle of struggles, a joy that we can discover even in suffering.

Luigi Gioia is Professor of Systematic Theology at the Pontifical University of Sant'Anselmo in Rome and Research Associate of the Von Hügel Institute (Cambridge). In the past four years he has preached spiritual retreats in the UK, France, USA, Canada, Australia, Korea, China and the Philippines and he has published widely in scholarly reviews. He is currently Visiting Scholar of the Divinity Faculty at Cambridge University.