Though he spoke rather casually of his literary output, he was meticulous in editing his compositions. And now his parting gift to us, which will surely join the ranks of his other best-sellers, is The Prayer of the Frog. For that matter, any theme he touched came alive and captured attention. Hardly any of his anecdotes were original, and some were not even exceptionally smart but on his lips they came alive with meaning and relevance, or just plain fun. But he was always an incomparable story-teller. Much has happened to all of us since then and Tony himself went through innumerable stages of growth and change, of fresh competence and new interests, and of effective service. I remember Tony with a batch of juniors, as we called them, sitting under the trees outside the kitchen and cleaning vegetables for the day’s meals, whilst he regaled a very receptive audience with his inexhaustible fund of stories. The whole group had come up to St Stanislaus’ Villa for a brief holiday. Tony was then a Jesuit student, but engaged in teaching the young men who had just finished their noviciate. 12th, 1987)įOREWORD The first image of Tony de Mello that I cherish goes back thirty years-and precisely to Lonavla, to the very house that much later became the home of the Sadhana Institute. In short, what Tony de Mello is telling us is that if we want to make Christianity credible we need to plumb die depths of (lie human spirit, to reach beyond our present frontiers, (From “VidaNueva’ Madrid, Sept. That is why Tony de Mello said that “our violent spirituality has created problems for us’’, that “Jesus Christ has got a bad name because of what is said of him from pulpits” and that “it is very difficult to recognize a saint because he looks like the rest of us”. He wants to rediscover the God beyond all that has been identified through the years with the name of God: laws, norms, doctrines not made flesh, words stranded from life. Modem man mired in profound cultural change first wants to know who he is, what imprisons his soul, what stands in the way of spiritual progress. There is an anguished search, sometimes confused in its direction, for a more liberal outlook. People aren’t buying set formulas anymore, or pious platitudes redolent of an cry gone by beaten tracks that did not succeed in bringing people to a spiritual awakening. It’s a hunger with very special characteristics. What’s behind this phenomenal success’? Very simply, it is a manifestation of the hunger for the spiritual spreading around the world. We’ve had to bring out four editions of the reprint after his death the message of this special incarnation of a ‘guru’ is evoking a real inner discovery in many people. To judge from the success of the course, we have to admit she’s right. THE PRAYER OF THE FROG PART ONE AUTHOR Anthony de Mello “Tony’s been a refreshing cool drink this summer,” commented a Sister referring to the special issue we brought out which included a supplement on the course of inner self-liberation by Tony de Mello.
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