Grace Through Simplicity
The Practical Spirituality of Evelyn Underhill
Great Spiritual Teachers
John J. Kirvan
ISBN 9781594710261
ISBN 1594710260
This is the nineteenth volume in the Great Spiritual Teachers series I have read, it is also the most recent, published in 2026, and another is coming out soon in mid 2026. Two Years ago I read my first book in the series, it was Born to Do This: 30 Days with Joan of Arc by Jaymie Stuart Wolfe, and loved it and the concept of the series. I have read one almost every month since that first one, and if I can track down all the out of print, will do so until I finish all 25 released to date in the series. This one jumped to the top of my list as soon as it released. First it was an eBook, which with my dyslexia is easier to read. Second was the subject Óscar Romero.
The description of this volume states:
“John Kirvan adds the wisdom of beloved English writer, Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) to the The Thirty Days with a Great Spiritual Teacher series. For Evelyn Underhill, spirituality was never mysterious or remote, but "the heart of religion and therefore of vital concern to ordinary men and women." The focus of her spirituality is that life is a journey into Reality. Underhill never separated the world and the spirit, but defined mysticism as "the art of union with Reality." Grace Through Simplicity offers us the opportunity to see this ordinary world with new eyes and to discover the deeper dimension of Gods presence in it. Over 340,000 copies sold in this series.”
The back of the book states:
“Writing at the beginning of the twentieth century, Evelyn Underhill was a thoroughly modern woman who explored one of the most abused words in the English language—mysticism. For her, mysticism was the art of union with Reality. It is a definition that includes both great saints and stumbling seekers.
Spirituality is not an intense form of other-worldliness
remote from the common ways and incompatible
with common life.
but rather the heart of religion and
therefore of vital concern to ordinary men and women.”
About the series we are informed:
“Each book in the Great Spiritual Teachers series provides a month of daily readings from one of Christianity's most beloved spiritual guides. For each day there is a brief and accessible morning meditation drawn from the mystic's writings, a simple mantra for use throughout the day, and a night prayer to focus one's thoughts as the day ends. These easy-to-use books are the perfect prayer companion for busy people who want to root their spiritual practice in the solid ground of these great spiritual teachers.”
I believe there are 19 volumes in this series currently in print, but only 16 of those have digital editions. There are also a number that are currently out of print, The oldest I have seen are from the late 1980’s and it looks like they went through a rebranding and format change in the mid 00’s, and they have undergone yet another rebranding beginning in the 2020’s including some new titles available in the series.
I must admit I do not recall running across this series prior to that first volume on Joan. I have however added all of them to my ‘to be read list’. I love the recent rebranding, and hope Ave Maria completes the rebranding across all volumes. I hope also that Ave Maria brings back into print some of the volumes currently not available; specifically the volumes on John of the Cross, Evelyn Underhill, Mother Theresa and others. This specific volume was released in 2004, making it the antepenultimate of the original series before new volumes started being added in 2020.
The sections in this volume are:
Evelyn Underhill
How to Pray This Book
Thirty Days With Evelyn Underhill
One Final Word
While reading this I numerous passages, so many that I exceeded the 10% Ave Maria allowed for export, so some of them are:
“When Evelyn Underhill wrote in the late 1930s that her "object was to present some of the great truths concerning man's spiritual life in simple language" she was referring to a series of BBC radio talks, but she could have been summarizing her life's work and indeed the changing face of western spirituality.”
“Spirituality was for her, as it has become for most seekers, not "an intense form of other-worldliness remote from the common ways and incompatible with the common life, but rather the heart of religion and therefore of vital concern to ordinary men and women."”
“For her, spirituality must be compatible with ordinary life— the kind of life that most of us live. It is not an accident that the heart of her spiritual insight—and this book—is a journey into Reality rather than the escape that marks so much spiritual teaching and writing.”
“Most important perhaps, in understanding her life and work, is a word that may not appear above but which was the focal point of her writings and speaking. The word is mysticism—"one of the most abused words in the English language." The abuse continues. But in that one word, too often reserved for the spiritually privileged when it is not being debased as a synonym for magic, she professed and taught her belief that holiness is not for the few, but is rather an invitation extended to all. It involves not a retreat into a silent soul, but a reaching out to a noisy world, a reaching out that is best done hand in hand with your fellow "mystics."”
“In this book she defined mysticism as "the art of union with Reality/' and the mystic as "a person who has attained that union in greater or lesser degree; or who aims at and believes in such attainment." It is a definition that includes great saints and stumbling seekers. Without ever dumbing down the richness of the western mystical tradition, she has made it accessible to seekers of every tradition and personal history. She has helped us to understand our mysterious journey, even as she provides encouragement and nourishment along the way.”
“The purpose of this book is to open a gate, to make accessible the spiritual experience and wisdom of one of the modern world's most important spiritual scholars and teachers, Evelyn Underhill.
This is, therefore, not a book for mere reading. It invites you to meditate and pray its words on a daily basis over a period of thirty days.”
“It is a handbook for a spiritual journey.”
“We have to want the Reality that invites us.”
“It is in prayer and meditation
that we will discover
in our inmost sanctuary
a self, an “I,”
not wholly practical,
who refuses to be satisfied by our busy life,
a self who hungers for communion
with a spiritual universe.”
“Within us is a self
that refuses to be satisfied
with our busy life.”
“Reality is with us
but we are too frightened to respond.”
“Keep me in the embrace of your Reality
through this night,
and the day to come.
Surround me with your silence
and give me the rest that only you can give
Real peace,
now and forever.”
“We are like actors
who have another life when we are not onstage.
When we do not merely believe this but know it,
when we have acquired this power of withdrawing our self, of making the first distinction between appearance and Reality,
the initial stage of our contemplative life has begun.
The Real world awaits us.”
“The struggle is to see clearly.”
“Getting to know ourselves
is always a lonely and arduous journey.”
“I need you to keep me
in the embrace of your Reality through this night,
and all the days to come.
Give me the courage that only you can give—
Real courage,
now and forever.”
“Freedom beckons.”
“These attitudes,
so ordinary that they can pass unnoticed,
have a name given to them by our blunt forefathers—
they are the Seven Deadly Sins of
Pride, Anger, Envy, Avarice, Sloth, Gluttony and Lust.”
“Make Real,
by your presence,
every part of my life.”
“Keep me in your embrace
through this night,
and in all the days to come,
be my Reality.”
“Our pursuit of Reality
is an act of love.”
“Reality surrenders to love not ideas.”
“As long as we live out heart is subject to change.”
“Let me fix my eyes and my will steadily and deliberately on the new world
that I am just now beginning to see.”
“My growth depends on the walls coming down.”
“The walls I have built
to protect my self
will have to come down,
so that others,
so that you
may come in.”
“Let me neither pass by the world at my gate nor be content with it.
Rather, let me recognize in everything a gateway to the rest.
You are to be found in what I usually pass by.”
“To see you in the world I need to see with your eyes, feel with your heart, walk in your shoes.”
“We will not enter peace until we enter into the wild strange place of silence.”
“Open my eyes to what is really important, all those delicate movements of your presence that go unnoticed by me.”
“We have entered into an intense and vivid silence that exists in itself through and in spite of the ceaseless noises of the world around and within us.
It is a silence within which we can lose ourselves, in whose ebb and flow we are able to wander lost in an imageless world.”
“Lord, you have been with me all through this day, stay with me now.
As the shadows lengthen into darkness let the noisy world grow quiet, let its feverish concerns be stilled, its voices silenced.
I know that this at long last is where I want and need to be.
I am beginning to understand what the psalmist meant when he said: "Be still and know that I am God."”
“Let me wake to a new day, to a new world,
to an utterly different way of living, to a life united to yours.”
“I am a stranger in a strange and bewildering place.
There are no familiar landmarks here, nothing that I can cling to but you.
You will have to take my hand.
Keep me in your embrace, in the dark silence of this night, and in the day to come
keep my eyes and my heart open to what is Real.”
“This book not has been written as a final word, but as a gateway to the spiritual wisdom of a specific teacher, a gateway opening on your own spiritual path.
You may decide that Evelyn Underhill is someone whose experience of God is one that you wish to follow more closely and deeply. If so a wide variety of books is available. Over a lifetime she published many books that demonstrate a constantly growing mind and spirit. Still others are being developed from her notes and retreats. You might begin with The Spiritual Life or Practical Mysticism, both of which are widely available. Pray them as you have prayed this gateway book.”
“Spirituality is not meant to be self-absorption, a cocoon-like relationship between God and me. In the long run, if it is to have meaning, if it is to grow and deepen and not wither, it must be a wellspring of compassionate living. It must reach out to others as God has reached out to us. No one better captures this dimension of spirituality than Evelyn Underhill.”
“True spirituality, she repeatedly reminds us, breaks down the walls of our soul to let in not just heaven, but the whole world.”
Each day follows the same format with three main sections:
AS OUR DAY BEGINS: “As the day begins set aside a quiet moment in a quiet place to do the reading provided for the day
The passages are short; they never run more than a couple of hundred words. They have been carefully selected, though, to give a spiritual focus, a spiritual center to your whole day. They are designed to remind you, as another day begins, of your own existence at a spiritual level. They are meant to put you in the presence of the spiritual master who is your companion and teacher on this journey. This is especially true of this journey with Catherine of Siena. The readings are her report of God’s words to her, God’s side of the dialogue. And since the purpose of the passage is to remind you that at every moment during you are in the presence of a God who invites you continually, but quietly, to live in and through him, what better source than the words of God himself?”
ALL THROUGH YOUR DAY: “Immediately following the day’s reading you will find a single sentence, a meditation in the form of a mantra, a phrase meant as a companion for your spirit as it moves through a busy day. Write it down on a 3" x 5" card or on the appropriate page of your daybook. Look at it as often as you can. Repeat it quietly to yourself, and go on your way.
It is not meant to stop you in your tracks or to distract you from responsibilities but simply, gently, to remind you of the presence of God and your desire to respond to this presence.”
AS YOUR DAY IS ENDING: “This is a time for letting go of the day, for entering a world of imaginative prayer … This exercise is not meant to last more than a few minutes. End it when you are comfortable doing so. It has two parts. The first, in keeping with Catherine’s model, is a personal response to the words spoken by God in the day’s reading. Just as God has spoken to you, so you speak to God. Second, you are invited to turn to the familiarity of a prayer based on Catherine’s own words. It is an act of trust and confidence, an entryway into peaceful sleep, a simple evening prayer that gathers together the spiritual character of the day that is now ending as it began—in the presence of God.
It is a time for summary and closure.”
A sample day is:
“DAY 13
My Day Begins
Homily of the Funeral Mass for Fr. Rutilio Grande, Manuel Solórzano, and Nelson Lemus, March 14, 1977
If we experience a fundamental opposition between the things of this world and those of the spirit it is a conflict we have created for ourselves.
The problem is not in the things themselves, but in our self-created attitude toward them... an attitude to "things" that consists of demands, appetites, wants, an enslavement to the verb "to have," with its quiet certitude that we are well within our rights in pushing the claims of "the 1, the Me, the Mine”
We are driven by a demand either for a continued possession of what we have, or for something which as yet we do not have: wealth, honor, success, social position, love, friendship, comfort, amusement.
We are convinced that we have a right to have our abilities recognized to be immune from failure or humiliation. We come to resent anything that stands in our way. We are upset when others prove themselves more skillful than we are in the game of acquisition.
These attitudes, so ordinary that they can pass unnoticed, have a name given to them by our blunt forefathers— they are the Seven Deadly Sins of Pride, Anger, Envy, Avarice, Sloth, Gluttony and Lust.
As long as these egotistical attitudes govern our character, we can never see or feel things as they are, but only as they affect ourselves.
This is why the mystics tell us perpetually that "self-centeredness must be killed before Reality be attained."
All Through The Day
It is not “things,” it is us.
My Day Is Ending
Lord, you have been with me all through this day, stay with me now.
As the shadows lengthen into darkness let the noisy world grow quiet, let its feverish concerns be stilled.
In the silence of this night let me recognize how deep is my need for "things," how driven is my soul to protect what I have, how hungry I am for what I "want," for what I think I need.
I know that as long as I blind myself to anything beyond my own needs I will never see or feel things as they are. I will live with the unreal. Reality beyond my reach, locked into the "deadening" sins of my own need "to have."
Here in the silent darkness of this night break through my blindness, cut away at what is not Real, the ridiculous megalomania that makes me the center of my universe.
Embrace me with your Reality.”
I hope those quotes and sample day give you a feel for this volume. I have now read 19 books in this series from the 25 I believe have ever been in print. And this is one is an wonderful volume in the series. I was really blessed by this volume I have recommended it to a number of friends, if they can track it down, my own copy has already been given away.
I have benefited from every volume I have read in the series and I have now completed more than half of them. I have now read 19 volumes in this series, and currently working on a twentieth I can state this is another great offering in the series. I find that some speak to me more than others. I can state I benefited from the month with each person being profiled. If I went back and did a volume again at a different point or season in life I might interact with it differently. I already plan to circle back to the volume on Joan and some of the others and reread them once I have completed the series, and this would be towards the top of that list.
This is a great read, it is one I really enjoyed reading. I can easily recommend this volume, and the series as a whole, and I look forward to reading others in the series. If you can track it down I highly recommend this volume.
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2026 Catholic Reading Plan!
Books in the Great Spiritual Teachers Series:
Abide in love: the Gospel spirituality of John the Evangelist – John Kirvan
Fear Not the Night - John of the Cross and John Kirvan
God Awaits You Based on the Classic Spirituality of Meister - Richard Chilson
Love Without Measure - Mother Teresa and John Kirvan
Stay with Me, Lord: 30 Days with Padre Pio - Susan de Bartoli
Where Only Love Can Go - The Cloud of Unknowing and John Kirvan
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