Four Books by Dr. Tallman

God's Ecstatic Love: Transform Your Life with a Spiritual Masterpiece

“Remarkable .... grounds us in a new awareness of God’s ever-present love, reaping a rich harvest of hope for our spiritual lives.” Michael Prieur

“Provides a mature adult spirituality grounded in authentic love of God and neighbor.” Edwin Buettner “Invaluable for anyone on a journey to nurturing a more intimate relationship with God.” John Fraresso

“You will find your own love of God grows as you discover God loves you beyond anything you can imagine.” Michael Tremblay “Brings de Sales’ devotional wisdom into the postmodern era” Linda Johnson

Bruce Tallman is a lover of God who lives in London, Ontario. A director of adult religious education for 14 years and a spiritual director since 2002, he is author of the bestselling Finding Seekers.

First Inside Page

Praise for God's Ecstatic Love

A remarkable summary of Francis de Sales’ spiritual masterpiece, mixed with a broad spectrum of modern spiritual insights, showing us how relevant this classic work is for us today. Bruce Tallman grounds us in a new awareness of God’s ever-present love, reaping a rich and much-needed harvest of hope for our spiritual lives.” Michael Prieur, S.T.D., Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology and author of The Art of the Confessor

“Dr. Tallman’s brilliant integration of the magnum opus of a medieval doctor of the church and our postmodern world achieves a rare consummation. While bringing from his storeroom both the old and the new, Tallman is not offering a collection of feel-good pieties. He names the major spiritual obstacles of our current age but does not leave the reader adrift. God’s Ecstatic Love provides a mature adult spirituality grounded in authentic love of God and neighbor. This is a never-failing contemporary life raft: the overriding power of God’s love for us and our love for God.” Edwin Buettner, Ph. D., Catholic book reviewer and author of Awakening to Trust in God: A Journey through Grief

“God’s Ecstatic Love supplements the work of modern spiritual writers like Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Thich Nhat Hanh and Neale Donald Walsch by adding a very profound examination of God’s love for each one of us in the Universal Christ who became incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth. You will find that your own love of God grows as you discover that God loves you beyond anything you can imagine.” Michael Tremblay, J.C.L., Professor, King’s University College

“Expands on Francis de Sales’ insights for our scientific age. This wise and practical guidebook greatly assists us in understanding God’s love and how to respond to it. Though written from a Christian perspective, this book is invaluable for anyone on a journey to nurturing a more intimate relationship with God.” John Fraresso, M. Th. S.

“The eternal and most important question of anyone’s life “How can I love God with all my heart?” has been answered by Bruce Tallman using the lens of Bishop Francis de Sales’ spiritual classic Treatise on the Love of God. Tallman has successfully bridged the gap between the 1600s and the 21st century. He has laid out a workable plan for proper spiritual direction, which was one of de Sales’ strongest concerns, and brings de Sales’ devotional wisdom into the postmodern era, enabling more readers to access this work that has relevance not only for centuries past, but also for today, and perhaps all time.” Linda Johnson, United Methodist Minister

God's Ecstatic Love

Table of Contents

Prayer of Dedication
Acknowledging My Seven Clergy Editors
Introduction: Why This Book Was Written
Background
Who Was Francis de Sales?
How This Book Was Written

Book One: Preparation for the Rest of the Book: The Science of Love
Chapter One: We naturally love the good
Chapter Two: The greatest good is God
Chapter Three: The ninety-nine names of God
Chapter Four: God is more lovable than anything because God is more loving than anything
Chapter Five: The role of free will in loving or rejecting God
Chapter Six: The necessity of God’s grace

Book Two: The Generation of Divine Love
Chapter One: Plan A: Incarnation Plan B: Redemption
Chapter Two: All of creation is for and by the Universal Christ
Chapter Three: All is by grace
Chapter Four: How God draws us
Chapter Five: Turning toward God
Chapter Six: How grace leads to love of God
Chapter Seven: On the progress and perfection of love
Chapter Eight: On loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength
Chapter Nine: The progress and perfection of love continued
Chapter Ten: The heavenward growth of love
Chapter Eleven: The ease and perfection of loving God in heaven

Book Three: On the Decay and Ruin of Our Love for God
Chapter One: The onslaught of distraction and temptation
Chapter Two: Biblical figures who lost their love of God
Chapter Three: Loss of love of God is our choice
Chapter Four: The danger of imperfect love of God
Chapter Five: We overcome imperfect love by returning to God

Book Four: The Two Main Exercises of Sacred Love: Complacence (Resting in God’s Love) and Benevolence (Acting in God’s Love)
Chapter One: A mutually reinforcing circle of love
Chapter Two: Increasing our complacence and benevolence
Chapter Three: Endless praise completes our complacence and benevolence

Book Five: Concerning the Exercises of Holy Love in Prayer
Chapter One: Meditation and contemplation unite our actions and heart to God
Chapter Two: Deep contemplation
Chapter Three: Sacred repose
Chapter Four: Sacred wounds

Book Six: The Soul’s Union with God is Perfected in Prayer
Chapter One: Types of ecstasy and rapture
Chapter Two: Discerning between divine and diabolical inspiration
Chapter Three: Love Is stronger than death

Book Seven: Living in Harmony with God’s Will
Chapter One: Loving God by loving God’s commandments
Chapter Two: Loving God by loving God’s counsels
Chapter Three: Loving God by loving God’s inspirations

Book Eight: Surrendering to God’s Will
Chapter One: Loving God by loving whatever God allows
Chapter Two: Loving God by submitting to God’s will
Chapter Three: Loving God by trusting God alone

Book Nine: Loving God Above All Else
Chapter One: Love of God above all perfects all things
Chapter Two: We must love God above our self
Chapter Three: True and false zeal for God
Chapter Four: Twelve marks of Christ’s most excellent love

Book Ten: Love is the Ultimate Virtue
Chapter One: Love of God, the supreme virtue
Chapter Two: Love of God perfects and unites all the virtues

Book Eleven: The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Twelve Fruits of the Love of God
Chapter One: The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit
Chapter Two: The role of fear in the love of God
Chapter Three: The role of sorrow in the love of God
Chapter Four: The twelve fruits of the love of God

Book Twelve: Counsels on Holy Love
Chapter One: Integrating holy love into our life
Chapter Two: The ninety-nine names of Jesus the Christ
Chapter Two: The greatest love of all

Epilogue
Scripture Cited
Footnotes from Treatise on the Love of God
Heart, Mind, and Soul Bibliography:
Books to Stimulate Loving God with Total Passion, Intellect and Depth

About the Author

Introduction: Why This Book was Written

Loving God is the most important thing in life. When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he said “Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.” Or as one person translated it: “Love God with all your passion, intellect, soul, and willpower.”

Jesus also said there is a second great commandment which is like the first one, that is, “Love others as you love yourself” (Matthew 22: 37-39). These two commandments sum up all of scripture, the Law and the Prophets. Everything else is commentary.

In 1983 I decided to make these great commandments the centre of my life. When I pondered, “How can I love God with all my heart?” it came to me that I needed an expert opinion. That is when I discovered Francis de Sales’ Treatise on the Love of God. It was very profound but seemed out of date since it was published in the seventeenth century. I thought “Someday someone should do a modern update of it.”

Now, God has given me the gift of writing. I have had two books published which were aimed at professional spiritual directors and counsellors. One of them, Finding Seekers, is a bestseller in its field. Plus, I have had hundreds of articles on spirituality published in the London Free Press, the main newspaper where I live. Various people have suggested I should write a book on spirituality aimed at the general public. Because I felt God was telling me through these people what I should do, I give God all the credit for this present book. I have just tried to obey orders.

For several years now, God has been laying on my heart that the world is falling apart and this is partly because the major religion of the western world, Christianity, has been overwhelmed by all the contemporary challenges to it: modern evolutionary science, scholarly criticism of the Bible and of the church’s historical record (both important and necessary, but faith-shaking), a materialist and consumerist culture, Christians rubbing shoulders with other major world religions thus relativizing Christianity, the rise of people who are spiritual but not religious, the new atheism, and so on.

If their faith survives, Christians today seem to be either anti-intellectual, anti-science fundamentalists with great passion, or broad-minded liberal intellectuals who lack passion. God has led me to believe that what the world needs now is a new type of Christian, that is, one who is both passionate and intellectual. De Sales’ Treatise is an intellectual and passionate approach to God and a masterpiece that fits this need.

In brief, I have written this book because God led me to write it. God has called me to do my little part to try to renew our civilization by renewing the Christian faith. I don’t see many Christians living Christ’s Great Commandments. And I believe they don’t love God with all their heart because no one taught them the importance of this, and just showing up at church for an hour once a week is not enough to transform anyone.

In my opinion and that of many scholars, the Treatise is on the level of other great classic Christian works such as The Cloud of Unknowing, The Imitation of Christ, and The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, but the Treatise is unknown by 99% of Christians. I wrote my book with the hope of remedying that. This is meant to be a devotional book, not an academic one, and so I hope the 260 quotes from the actual Treatise, hundreds of passages from scripture, and my 21st century commentary on all this will have a spiritual impact on my readers and change their hearts, minds, souls, and wills. I hope they will find their love of God growing as they read it.

I didn’t want the book however to be so heaven-bound that it was no earthly good. I believe that loving other human beings is integral to loving God, and so I wanted to show how God’s love and loving God in return relates to the everyday real-life issues of ordinary people. Throughout, I relate de Sales’ ideas to contemporary concerns about social justice, peace and care for our planet.

Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi for the United Kingdom from 1993 to 2013, said that “Since we are living with such immense powers of destruction, God is setting us a really big challenge. God is giving us very little choice: we must love or die. That is where we are at the beginning of the 21st century.”

Hopefully God’s Ecstatic Love, a condensed version of the greatest spiritual masterpiece of a great spiritual master on the most important topic of all, that is, God’s love and loving God and other human beings, will help us all in fulfilling this great 21st century challenge.

272 pages $18.95USD To Order or for More Information: Amazon.com

A Thousand Spirital Lessons: Wisdom and Peace for the Over-Busy, Over-Informed, Over-Worked, and Over-Whelmed

“Feast with Bruce Tallman on a thousand plus lessons—because as you meditate with each one, you’ll find yourself coming to your own deeper insights. In the midst of a life in motion, A THOUSAND SPIRITUAL LESSONS will help you to be profoundly centered in the Source.” - Kent Ira Groff, Founder of Oasis Ministries and author of Facing East, Praying West and Honest to God Prayer.

“A THOUSAND SPIRITUAL LESSONS is an amazing work, a real gold mine for seekers. I can see so many ways the book could be used - privately, in small groups, in training for spiritual directors, a resource for sermon preparation - the list goes on. I strongly believe it will be well received - there isn't anything out there quite like it. This is an important work." - Edwin Buettner, PhD, Catholic book reviewer and author of Awakening to Trust in God: A Journey through Grief

“A THOUSAND SPIRITUAL LESSONS is a brilliant compilation, a gift, an inspired map, and a treasure trove for anyone on the spiritual quest. I use it for my own continuing spiritual formation, and as a companion volume with my spiritual directees. The ideas presented here have eternal value.” - Linda R. Johnson, United Methodist Minister

185 pages, $17.95 US Paperback or $9.99 Kindle. To Order or for More Information: www.amazon.com

Finding Seekers: How to Develop a Spiritual Direction Practice from Beginning to Full-Time Employment

“Bruce Tallman integrates important spiritual counsel with principles in business and marketing to guide the spiritual director in his or her practice. The book is full of spiritual and practical wisdom. I will use it in my training seminars in spiritual direction." Marcus G. Smucker, PHD, Professor of Theology and Spiritual Director Training, Kairos School of Spiritual Formation

"Dr. Tallman is transparent about his own struggles, successes, and failures in setting up a full-time spiritual direction practice. His love for the work is evident on every page. This book is filled with practical ideas and creative suggestions to ease the anxiety of new directors and enhance the ministry of those who are seasoned. A worthwhile read for any and all who are called to this holy vocation." Rev. Sabrina Caldwell, M.DIV, Board Member of the Pacific Jubilee Spiritual Directors Training Program.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: The Spirituality of Developing a Spiritual Direction Practice.
Chapter Two: The Ethics of Developing a Spiritual Direction Practice
Chapter Three: Finding Seekers: General Principles
Chapter Four: Finding Seekers through Talks, Workshops, and Retreats.
Chapter Five: Finding Seekers through Networking
Chapter Six: Finding Seekers through Advertising
Chapter Seven: Finding Seekers Through Social Media Networking.
Chapter Eight: Keeping Clients (Ethically)
Chapter Nine: Growing Your Practice
Chapter Ten: The Reality of Developing a Full-Time Spiritual Guidance Practice – It’s Tough
Chapter Eleven: It’s Tough, But Your Higher Power Will Help You
Chapter Twelve: Are You Called to Be a Full-Time Spiritual Director?
Chapter Thirteen: Spiritual and Emotional Support
Chapter Fourteen: Basic Attitudes for Full-Time Spiritual Direction
Chapter Fifteen: Basic Skills for Full-Time Spiritual Direction
Chapter Sixteen: Nuts and Bolts of Developing a Practice
Chapter Seventeen: Fees
Chapter Eighteen: Enjoying Your Practice

220 pages, $16.62 US Paperback or $9.99 Kindle.

To Order or for More Information:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=%22Finding+Seekers%22&i=stripbooks-intl-ship&ref=nb_sb_noss

Archetypes for Spiritual Direction: Discovering the
Heroes Within

He presents concise tables of key characteristics of the heroic and anti-heroic archetypes, activities for accessing the archetypes, and questions for reflection to aid readers in becoming fully conscious and proficient spiritual guides and spiritual seekers. I am always grateful for those times when a book virtually falls from the shelf into my hands. This book came to me through one of those serendipities and I’m glad it did. It’s benefits to me are significant both personally and professionally.” - Beverly Williams-Hawkins, book review for March 2006 Presence, the journal of Spiritual Directors International

“This book is written for both spiritual directors and spiritual seekers. It includes an excellent, highly readable description of four key hero archetypes, the Sovereign, Warrior, Seer and Lover, and their anti-heroic shadows, the Tyrant and Abdicator, Sadist and Masochist, Manipulator and Fool, Addict and Frigid. This is followed by an examination of how this applies to spiritual guidance. The author's stated intention for writing this book is to ‘empower, protect and serve male and female seekers. Examining these archetypes for both men and women breaks through gender stereotypes and uncovers valuable insights concerning abuses of power, not only within the spiritual direction relationship but in the larger societal context. This book will serve as a resource to spiritual directors and directees for both its practical and thought‑provoking insights.” -Mary Klein, editor, Spiritual Directors of Ontario Newsletter.

242 pages, $19.95 US.

To Order or for More Information:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=%22Archetypes+for+Spiritual+Direction%22&i=stripbooks-intl-ship&ref=nb_sb_noss