Interior Life

Interior Life is a collection of short reflections by Father John Welch, meant to be dipped into at will for spiritual nourishment and sound counsel. The pieces first appeared as articles in Christ is our Hope, a monthly publication of the Catholic Diocese of Joliet that exists to evangelize and educate.

Father Welch holds that having an interior life means living from a single center, one source of identity and meaning. That one center, he argues, puts every other center in order, those that divide our attention and feed our anxieties, and so brings calm. The writings include short biographies, bits of theology, discussions of prayer and comments on faith.

Throughout the book, prayer, community and service are described as the soil in which the seeds of an interior life take root. The reflections do not urge readers to withdraw from daily life. They call Christians to give their best gifts to the world and to live out, in action, the eternal stirrings that make up the spiritual life.