A Retreat for Priests

By Ronald Knox

“Shepherds of his own choice to guide you well and prudently”: This is the promise of the Lord through the Prophet Jeremiah; this is the promise of the priesthood. A priest is chosen by God himself, divinely elected a shepherd of souls, appointed an ambassador from heaven to earth, ordained another Christ.

In these eighteen conferences, Monsignor Ronald Knox offers instruction, encouragement, and refreshment for the men who have accepted this vocation. Anchoring each meditation in the Old Testament, Knox uses the stories of Abraham, Jacob, Esther, and more, to throw the situations and needs of the spiritual life into sharp relief. Pairing these stories with ones from the New Testament, Knox underscores those admonitions and encouragements toward holy living, placed there by the Holy Spirit when he inspired the sacred authors to write as they did.

“As God chose your soul, chose that it should exist, so he chose, before the foundation of the world, your priesthood; determined that you and not some other should stand at his altar and minister to his people.” (Ronald Knox)

A retreat, as Knox describes it, is a time of leisure for God. Yet a retreat is not a permanent state; one must return from the mountain to the world of familiar work and care. The grace of A Retreat for Priests—what makes it an immensely beneficial book both for priests and for the laity entrusted to their care—is its power to make its readers like the Apostles at the close of the Transfiguration, seeing “no man any more, but Jesus only.” 

Ronald Knox (1888–1957) was an English Catholic priest, theologian, and author, and one of the most prominent twentieth-century converts from Anglicanism to Catholicism. Best known for his contemporary English translation of the Scriptures (the “Knox Bible”), he wrote numerous works of apologetics and collections of ser­mons, retreat conferences, and lectures, as well as six detective novels. 

Paperback: 214pp.

ISBN: 978-1685953836