Growing into God

A call to reflect on the profound spirituality of God's presence being broken open for everyday life.

You are being called to union with God. Not someday, not after a long list of spiritual achievements, but now, in the ordinary moments of your life. In Growing into God, Michael Sanem does not simply present a book of spiritual techniques or moral checklists, but instead, extends an invitation to recognize what God has already been doing in you—in the birdsong at evening, the hand held at hospice, the quiet of a Friday afternoon, the drop of water poured into the wine at Mass. For anyone who has ever glimpsed something holy just beneath the surface of ordinary life, Growing into God offers a name for what they have seen—and an ancient, living tradition to walk home by.

Growing into God is an introduction to theosis, the ancient and orthodox Christian teaching that we are made not merely to worship God from a distance, but to participate in the very life of God. Drawing on the riches of Catholic and Orthodox mystical tradition—from Athanasius and Aquinas to Dante, Merton, and Teilhard de Chardin—and grounded in the honest, searching experience of an ordinary life, this book traces seven sacramental doorways to divine union hidden in plain sight: in love and embodiment, in suffering and solidarity, in the cosmos, and ultimately, in surrender.

Michael J. Sanem is a managing editor at Liturgical Press in Collegeville, Minnesota. He is a former Bernardin Scholar at Catholic Theological Union, and most recently served as director of mission and ministry at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Kansas City, as well as executive director of the Ignatian Spirituality Center in Kansas City. He is the author of Becoming the Good News: A New Approach to Parish Evangelization and Your Church Wants to Hear from You: What Is the Synod on Synodality? He is also a regular contributor to Give Us This Day.