Perfect Joy 30 Days with Francis of Assisi / Kerry Walters

The whole world’s looking for happiness, but few seem to find it. And it’s no wonder, when we’re told to seek it in pleasure, conspicuous consumption and narcissism—paths that end instead in self-destruction and despair.

Amid so much confusion, one voice pierces through the clamor and offers real, lasting advice for finding "perfect joy": St. Francis of Assisi. This thirteenth-century Italian friar sought contentment as a restless youth, but for years he searched in vain. When at last he uncovered the path to joy, it lay in a direction he had never dreamed of.

In Perfect Joy, you’ll discover thirty reflections about living joyfully, based on St. Francis’ own life and writings. Each passage includes an anecdote from his life, a thought expressed in his own words, a confirming insight from another spiritual teacher, and questions to help you apply it all to your own life. The book encourages you to read and ponder one entry each day. At the end of the month, you’ll have a greater understanding of how to find true joy—the joy of living simply and with gratitude, of serving and coexisting with all of God’s creatures; of being an instrument of His peace.

St. Francis’s radiant joy was so contagious that it turned his world upside down and won countless men and women to a new way of living. Join him in the search for true happiness—the only kind that can last—and your world, too, will never be the same.

Kerry Walters is a professor of philosophy and peace and justice studies at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. He is a prolific author whose recent books include Giving Up god to Find God: Breaking Free of Idolatry, John Paul II: A Short Biography, John XXIII: A Short Biography, and Junipero Serra: A Short Biography.