With Open Heart: Spiritual Direction in the Alphonsian Tradition

This book presents useful parallels between the spiritual teachings of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori (1696-1787), Doctor of Prayer, and the ministry of spiritual direction in the Church of the third millennium. In drawing out these parallels, With Open Heart looks not to Alphonsuss teaching on spiritual direction itself but to his teaching on prayer. The author seeks to move the Redemptorist tradition forward so that it will speak to and meet the spiritual needs of today's believing community in more practical and relevant ways.

Dennis J. Billy, a Redemptorist of the Baltimore Province, holds a ThD in Spirituality from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas. He is a professor of the history of moral theology and Christian spirituality at the Accademia Alfonsiana in Rome. He has written numerous books and has published more than 50 articles in well-known scholarly and popular journals.