Reviews: By Way of Grace

“After we’ve recognized and received God’s grace in our lives, then what? How does holiness happen? Through the life-lenses of the doctors of the church, Paula Huston leads us in pursuit of virtues that transform us into Christ-likeness. . . . The great benediction of this book is its authenticity—that Paula has fully lived what she writes.”
(Luci Shaw, author of Water My Soul and What the Light Was Like)

“An amazing, lovely, important book. Artful, wise, full of wonderful quotations from holy sages as well as intimate, meaningful portraits of Paula’s own life on the spiritual journey. I admire it very much and wish her great success with a book that may become a classic.”
(Ron Hansen, author of A Stay Against Confusion, Mariette in Ecstasy and Exiles)

“I love Paula Huston’s new book . . . . a book which can’t be rushed any more than the Spirit can, and which has offered me insights and consolations every bit of the way. It has been a journey by way of grace, and Paula is surely on her way to becoming an indispensable guide and vade mecum for the complex, wondrous, and marvelous journey—alpha point to omega—that we find ourselves on. . . . Paula is already one of those seasoned souls one comes to depend on, both for her well of refreshing knowledge, and for the wisdom that comes with such knowledge.”
(Paul Mariani, author of Deaths and Transfigurations, God and the Imagination, and Thirty Days: On Retreat with the Exercises of St.Ignatius)

“In this provocative examination of conscience, Paula Huston gives us a telling eyewitness account of a contemporary soul reconnecting with the best in the Western spiritual tradition.”
(Robert Inchausti, author of Subversive Orthodoxy,Thomas Merton’s American Prophecy, and The Ignorant Perfection of Ordinary People)

"In her earlier book, The Holy Way: Practices for a Simple Life, Paula Huston mapped the landscape of a profound conversion. From her first longings for solitude and silence through her struggles for a more integrated Christian life, she charted her way—and illumined ours—with honesty, intelligence, and self-deprecating wit. In By Way of Grace: Moving From Faithfulness to Holiness, Huston shares her continuing journey, inviting us to join her as she delves deeper, climbs higher. Some of this . . . leads inevitably over steep and stony ground, as Paula freely (and disarmingly) admits. Moving from simple faithfulness to bone-deep transformation is not easy. But she makes it seem both possible and irresistible. For those of us who are in our own lives of faith seeking a way across these inner mountains and deserts, Huston is an invaluable guide . . . . Her weaving together of personal experience with traditional ethics and the wisdom of the saints seems effortless, and is so riveting I could hardly put the book down. She has . . . reclaimed the virtues as powerful practices for our lives toward God, and reintroduced some of the giants of the faith as luminous companions on the way."
(Deborah Smith Douglas, author of Pilgrims in the Kingdom and The Praying Life)

In her new book, By Way of Grace, Paula Huston takes a sober look at relationships, work, community, and her ongoing conversion and invites the reader to consider the virtues as a source of spiritual strength on the path to holiness. She makes original connections between the virtues and some of the great personalities in the history of the church whose individual experiences were as a fire in which a particular virtue was purified. . . . It is refreshing to be introduced or reacquainted with these eight holy men and women, seven of whom are doctors of the church. She weaves the writings of these saints with ancient and modern authors and Scripture in a seamless, deft prose. The only thing keeping this book from being a page turner is the tendency in each chapter to want to put the book down and pray.
(The Observer, Diocese of Monterey)

“By Way of Grace is a unique book dealing with the virtues from a personal viewpoint. Each of them is more acutely discovered by Paula Huston in certain circumstances of her life. These incidents occur in chronological order as this pilgrim makes progress in spiritual awareness. Besides telling her own story in an engaging manner, she provides biographies of saints who are models of the particular virtue being examined.”
(Br. Benet Tvedten, O.S.B., author of How to Be a Monastic and Not Leave Your Day Job and The View from a Monastery)

“This grace-filled work explores, through the lives and writings of major saints, eight key virtues, culminating in Christian charity. The whole work is transformative, with the power of love, the power of Christ.”
(Rev. Robert Hale, O.S.B. Cam., Professor of Spirituality, Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley)