Before the Living God

Ruth Burrows is a Carmelite nun, and the author of three outstanding books on prayer - Essence of Prayer, Guidelines for Mystical Prayer and Interior Castle Explored (all published by Continuum).

This book is her autobiography - the account of a life empty of outward incident after her early years, but rich with her own spiritual growth. She writes of the Christian's relationship with others and with God, of prayer, of the life of the Spirit.

She presents these ideals in no abstract way, but in the intimately personal terms of one individual's - her own - struggle to live them to the full.