Wise Choices: A Spiritual Guide to Making Life's Decisions
By Margaret Silf. BlueBridge (New York, 2007). 128 pp., $14.

Spiritual Progress: Becoming the Christian You Want to Be
By Thomas D. Williams, LC. FaithWords (New York, 2007). 288 pp., $19.99.

"A Spiritual Guide to Making Life's Decisions" by Margaret Silf and "Spiritual Progress: Becoming the Christian You Want to Be" by Father Thomas D. Williams both delineate practices leading to spiritual development. The first title emphasizes the inner work of discernment and the second, intellectual assent and praxis in general.

In "Wise Choices," Silf offers a readable, concise and helpful guide for significant decision-making. However, the author makes it clear that no definitive rulebook exists, since each serious personal choice requires time to reflect on our own experience and inner wisdom, as well as traditional teachings. She suggests that we begin the process in the context of our present reality and deepest values, through attention to our genuine feelings.

The author's approach is clear, simple, and free of technical or theological language. Silf brings to her book the authenticity of her own experience as an internationally known retreat director and author of such well-known books as "Inner Compass," a more detailed and complete treatment of Ignatian discernment.

The book abounds with practical suggestions for dealing with our inner negative voices and for evaluating our choices. Silf recommends making a list of pros and cons, imagining how our decision will affect others, and remembering how our past choices affected us. Learning the art of living reflectively helps us to establish a pattern of listening attentively to both inner and outer influences with discernment, according to the author.

Silf encourages prayerful daily reflection on our personal experience and emotional reactions, giving attention to the present moment, rather than concentrating on the "what if's" of the past and future. Our best, most nourishing decisions give us peace, energy and joy, while questionable choices result in feelings of tension, worry and uneasiness. The author's ultimate criteria for wise choices point to ones that are in harmony not only with one's own deepest desires and values, but also with those of all people and all of creation.

Father Williams, author of "Spiritual Progress" and a member of the Legionaries of Christ, is the Vatican analyst for NBC and MSNBC. He is also the dean of theology at the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum University in Rome. His book reflects both the current Catholic catechism and the religious instruction predating the Second Vatican Council, which emphasized intellectual belief and external performance.

The author accurately describes his book as one for beginners. It covers most aspects of traditional Catholic teaching, including holiness, God's will, prayer, the imitation of Christ, sacraments, Mary, faith, humility, sin, the world, the flesh, the devil and apostolic action.

Although Father Williams encourages the current practice of engaging a spiritual director, the book generally does not speak to Catholics seeking greater depth and insights leading to spiritual transformation. The tone is paternalistic and the rhetoric uninspiring. The author does not deal adequately with the complexity of human discernment, the stages of development, or the insights now available from psychology, theology and biblical interpretation.

Father Williams advocates a theology of ascent, of climbing the spiritual ladder through performance to become "the Christian you want to be." His use of non-inclusive language and proclivity toward external action are exemplified in a quotation from Thomas a Kempis which appears in the book: "If every year we rooted out one defect, we should soon become perfect men."

The book presents God as primarily transcendent rather than in-dwelling or incarnational. The reality of the kingdom within is minimalized, so that life is seen as a dramatic, dualistic struggle between good and evil. However, for educational purposes, the book might well be studied as an excellent compendium of pre-Vatican II viewpoints and practices.

---CNS

Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet Mona Castelazo has taught English for many years in Los Angeles. She is the author of "Under the Skyflower Tree: Reflections of a Nun-Entity," published by iUniverse in 2005.