The fundamentals of Christian spirituality lie in the triune God that is the center of Christian faith. In Ronald Rolheiser's book, The Holy Longing, he strives to give the reader a deeper understanding of and ability to practice this Christian spirituality and its different dimensions within the reader's life. It is the way he does this, piece by piece, without making any assumptions about any aspect of spirituality that makes his book an effective tool for spiritual growth.
             As many people often look at their lives, they will often question their spirituality and level of faith. While the insightful and spiritual pondering is, no doubt, a good thing, many people do not get very far in this mode of deliberating. The reason that the deliberation is to no avail is not because the person is not trying nor is it because they are not smart enough to identify and deal with problems. Simply many people cannot accurately identify what exactly spirituality is. Certainly if one is to ask a group of people what spirituality is, a preponderance of them are not going to be able to answer the question and will stumble over their own words with no intelligible remarks said.
             Rolheiser differs from these people, the first thing he does in this book is to define what exactly spirituality is and then further get into application of the defined spirituality. "There is within us a fundamental dis-ease, an unquenchable fire that renders us incapable, in this life, of ever coming to full peace. (Rolheiser, p.3)" This fire, which is desire in its many forms as Rolheiser explains, pushes people toward all things that are tempting. Spirituality then is how this fire is kept under control and at bay. If our "urgent longings, or Eros (p.7)" are heading in positive, single direction, we are then, according to Rolheiser saints because we are masters of our spirituality. It is the desire to experience all things and the inability to make the diffi...