Préface by Timothy Radcliffe op.

Timothy Radcliffe is the former Master of the Order of Preachers.

This is a passionate, tender, joyful book that it is impossible to read without a smile. It is not a book about God, as if God were an invisible person about whom we might discuss, like Napoleon or Julius Caesar. This is because the central thesis of the book is that God is relationship: God is "The" relation. "And the invitation is extended to us to enter into a relationship as one enters into a dance; to enter into that relation which He is". We discover God by being in this relationship, which transforms who we are and how we are. In the Temple, God revealed Himself in the empty space between the wings of the Cherubim. Now God is discovered present in the space between the words "liberty" and "fidelity". And so God is made visible in our own transformed liberty, lived in true fidelity to each other, and to the gospel invitation.

The book is a series of reflections, which one may either read all the way through in one go or else take as a daily glass of champagne. It is a book that is profoundly refreshing, and that renews old and used words, such as love, freedom and forgiveness, with the vigour of new youth. It is filled with phrases and insights that make one pause with their unexpectedness "Man cannot live nor breathe but by emptiness, by the hollow part of his lungs."(n°8); the Holy Spirit is "the gift of self-giving." (23); "the saint is one who knows that God does not wish to be happy on His own."(39) And I will not tell you why in paradise "it is necessary to be on one's guard against pickpockets."

This is a book written by a man who is passionate and filled with unquenchable desire. He lives this desire by deepening it rather than by suppressing it. "...I place my affections, my passions, my power of loving into this gigantic frame which embraces history and humanity. A love the dimensions of which are space and time, the dimensions of creation itself, a love whose measure is to love without measure!" (35)

These words can only be truly written by the contemplative which frère Michel is. The genesis of this book is the prolonged, gentle attentiveness to the transforming word that is addressed to him and to us. One of the mottoes of the Order of Preachers is "Contemplari et contemplata aliis tradere". That discribes this book.

For all its passion, this work is marked by a deep sense of God's "sovereign discretion". God is so respectful for those whom he loves, that he tiptoes into our lives, without blowing trumpets. Even his resurrection from the dead does not disturb the sleep of the great of this world, who notice nothing. "Let the one who so wishes, receive by silent contagion." (6)

The final words of the book will remain with me for a long time: "A burning question remains in my mind as I conclude: why then is it so difficult to throw oneself totally into the fire of the living God?" Yes, why is it so hard? But having read this book we may find it a little easier, knowing that we do not do so alone.