"The most important question in the spiritual life," said Thomas Merton, "is not: 'Are you happy?' but 'Are you free?'" This beautifully written book works in a fresh way with the four major themes of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, casting them as four steps to spiritual freedom. Describing spiritual freedom as the ability to think and act without external or internal compulsions, the author makes clear through a variety of intimate stories and illustrations from his own and others' lives what each step looks like when it is lived in concrete terms. For anyone on a spiritual path in the midst of daily life and work, Four Steps to Spiritual Freedom offers carefully and lovingly delineated guideposts along the way. Book jacket.