Interior Freedom

by Jacques Philippe

Book Overview

It's not always possible to control external events. There are so many things that are outside our control: the past, what others think of us, chronic health issues, other peoples' actions, the weather, unforeseen events. This list goes on and on.

It is possible, though, to gain more control over our interior life.

In his book Interior Freedom, Fr. Jacques Phillipe shows us that we possess, each of us, inside of us a space...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594170525
• ISBN13: 9781594170522
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Scepter Publishers
• Length: 142 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Prepare for a new perspective

My Priest gave me Interior Freedom and said it would be one of the best books I ever read. My original thought was... great another fluffy faith-based book that I will read a few chapters and grow uninterested. Too many authors write 200-300 page books that could easily be 100. This book was especially powerful because the concepts are easy to read and understand, yet you will find yourself being taken very deep. I found that I could not go more than a couple sentences at a time without having to digest it's richness. I can't wait to read this again and again.

A mini-retreat for the soul

Reading Fr Philippe's book is like being in a retreat of sorts, where he is the retreat master and gives advice on how one should trust in God. I would read his words usually when I am at our small Catholic chapel in my town, where there is Perpetual Adoration. His words are very reassuring (that God loves us and will give us what we ask for if we would only ask), and also for those who may have anxieties about things that are happening around them at this time, his advice is relevant and sensible. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain a deeper trust in God, who's prayer life is perhaps at a standstill and who wishes to find solace in the thought that God loves each one of us. I like this book so much that I will read it over and over, just for the consolation that his words bring me. I look forward to reading his other books.

Everyday Holiness

Interior Freedom came to me at a time when I needed to reflect on the concept of spirituality in my everyday existence. This little book helps you to reflect on where you are with God in the details of every moment. It teaches you how to look away from yourself so that you can be centered in the Holy Spirit. It is premised on our complete trust in God no matter what happens; so eventually that "trusting relationship" does become your life. I love this book, and refer to it frequently when life hurls its casual cruelty at me with a force that overtakes my sensibility. The chapter on "Consenting to the Life You Did Not Choose," was the most illuminating for me. It brings home that everything that happens to you can be made holy, when the truth of your heart, in all things big and small, is given first and foremost to the Lord.

"Abandonment to Divine Providence" for the 21st Century

Jean-Pierre de Caussade wrote a stunning book called Abandonment to Divine Providence in the 18th Century which lays out a plan of life based upon total trust and reliance upon God. Despite the trials of life; despite tears and toil, the grace of the present moment once embraced will affect a momentous change in the believer, and all the tears of life will be like a communion with the Lord of all. This book, Interior Freedom is a brilliant successor to Caussade. It is a contemporary statement of the road to peace based upon a deep understanding of the virtue of Hope, hope in God as the source of our interior freedom that that can not be damaged regardless of the trials of life. I would be understating the greatness of this book to say that it is simply great. It is not only great to read and a source of great consolation and wonderful ideas, it is a life-changing book. This is a beautifully simply written book that is totally approachable regardless of the level of one's spirituality. Like the Caussade book it is very thin, only around a 100 pages. That is not to say that it is simple, in some ways it can be a bit challenging, challenging of our preconceived notions of interior freedom, and all freedom for that matter. I have read it four times and continue to get great insights from it. Some of the insights are immediate, others take time to sink in. Regardless, this book offers generous spiritual guidance to finding peace in a chaotic world, and not just a chaotic world but in our chaotic lives, families and our sometimes impoverished souls, which are all yearning for peace and hope. It is full of truth and inspiration and one sheds a few tears of joy and thankfulness for this book. Where the French Jesuit Caussade in his book spoke to the Catholics of the French Revolution, this book will touch more cold, cynical, frenetically torn modern hearts. There is not a false note here. This a beautifully translated book. There is a pure gift. Piilippe focuses beautifully on the virtue of hope-- practical spiritual hope which is only kind there really is. This book contains no placebos, not palliatives, this book is about the inner life of the soul in reliance upon the source of all creation and goodness. Any Christian searching for a book on hope and peace could do no better than to start here.

Will become a Christian Spiritual Classic!

This is the third book by Father Jacques Philippe that I have read, and already I wish there were more than 4 available in English. I am certain he will go down in history as one of the spiritual masters like Brother Lawrence, C.S. Lewis and others. This book is written in such simple and accessible language, yet with a message so profound any believer could grow from encountering it. Fr. Philippe's main message is that freedom, true freedom, comes from God as the source. And that interior peace sought by so many people in so many ways, yet it only truly comes from learning to be content in where God has us. Yet by learning to trust in God despite external circumstances and situations beyond our control, we can find that oft-sought-after peace. He will show you how to appreciate what you can control, which is your response to what life brings your way. This book seeks to teach us to live from a heart and mind that has been liberated and set free. But it is not the freedom that most seek. It outlines that freedom as being free to do whatever we want, but true freedom is choosing to live for others, living with our responsibilities. Fr. Jacques draws from many sources to illustrate his points: Holocaust victim Etty Hillesum, Georges Bernanos, Henri J.M. Nouwen, Catherine de Hueck Doherty and many saints from both the eastern and western traditions as well as the Jewish wisdom tradition. He draws most extensively from Hillesum's journals An Interrupted Life which is the story of her life during the year leading up to occupation and leaving for the concentration camps, and her work among the Jewish children at the holding camp. He uses her life and transformation from a secular Jew to someone in touch with God and trying to live that in the most terrible of circumstances. Fr. Philippe has written an amazing little book that will explain to you the freedom many seek in faith, and how that freedom can lead to Interior Freedom or as a title of an earlier book of his calls it Searching for and Maintaining Peace. Or as Douglas Coupland puts it "Now -- here is my secret: I tell it to you with an openness of heart I doubt I shall ever achieve again, so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. My secret is that I need God - that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem capable of giving; to help me to be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond able to love." in his book Life After God. So this is a little book by a little known author that is truly valuable for the spiritual seeker in this life. (First Published in Imprint 2007-07-13 in the book review column.)