By REY FLORES
Finding True Happiness — Satisfying Our Restless Hearts by Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ. Ignatius Press: 2015. Paperback; 320 pages. Available at Ignatius.com; $19.95.
“For thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee” — St. Augustine.
Summertime is almost here and one of the best things about the season is finding a good book and either taking it to the beach with you, reading it on a plane as you travel, or enjoying it while relaxing on a hammock in your backyard.
This latest offering from Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ, Ph.D., is titled Finding True Happiness — Satisfying Our Restless Hearts, and it is not a tome for the timid. This book may have a light and breezy title — but, like the canary shown on the cover, resting on some thorny branches — the book will cover some thorny issues.
In the first chapter we learn about the different types of desires that we as human beings have. There are first and foremost the kinds of desires that are external, give us pleasure, and are materialistic. The second kind of desire is more ego-comparative, and the third kind is contributive-empathetic.
We are then invited by the author to examine what it is that may make us happy, choosing those things and then determining how to go about attaining that type of happiness, once we better understand it. Subsequent chapters up the ante by asking questions on whether we are transcendent, challenging us to escape our personal hell and what we see in others that shapes how we determine our own happiness.
As far as self-help guides go, I am no fan of them, especially if they are of a secular nature, but what makes this book different is that it comes at you from a Catholic perspective. Also, because a Catholic priest wrote the book, it gave that much more value to me as a reader.
I was especially moved by Fr. Spitzer’s humble words as he wrote: “It is no exaggeration to say that I would not have had an explicit awareness of the transcendent, let alone spiritual life, were it not for the Catholic Church, and so I feel a deep gratitude, not only to the people who taught me and guided me, but also to the Church Tradition, which began with Jesus Christ.”
It is with that same spirit of love and zeal for the faith that Fr. Spitzer researched and wrote this book and it shines through in every page and in every word.
Trying to explain an intense book like this is like trying to describe an intense trip to a foreign land, where one has to experience it in order to best understand it, appreciate it, and benefit from it.
You will want to decide whom you should give this book to after you’re done reading it.
The philosophical, psychological, and theological systems of happiness are well researched and explored, so expect to find out quite a bit about yourself and how you see the world when reading this book. Consider it a practical guidebook and an instruction manual on how to live your life as God meant for you to live it, in full happiness in His truth.
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(Rey Flores is a Catholic writer and speaker and can be reached at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
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