Jones concludes her article, “The Riches of our Human Poverty: Insights into the Mystery of the Trinity from Ruth Burrows,” with this summary of the insights we can gain from this modern spiritual writer: In fact, she denies that mystic experience means anything, except for a few in each era, not most ordinary people. Here is three chapters of other points: how 'experiences' and 'favors' are not the point; on self-knowledge's changes; and on sins on attitude-level. Prayer can never be a failure. If I used that expression it would refer to how people express themselves: "I can't pray"; "my prayer is a failure"; "I pray and nothing happens; I'm praying to myself." This is to have a completely false idea of prayer. In the early 1970s I formed a very supportive friendship with a holy woman who enlightened and enriched my life. She gave me a deeper understanding of what it was to be a true contemplative. If I were to point to a "moment," it would be then.

Again drawing out the Trinitarian reference, Jones quotes Stephen Sundborg, SJ, who wrote in his dissertation on Burrows, The book includes an appendix, a full bibliography of Carmelite primary sources with a listing of all the published writings of Ruth Burrows, and an extensive index. “About this book” introduces the readers to a brief biography of Burrows and the author and how the book came to be. A conclusion summarizes the book’s contents but also invites the reader to explore the possibility of what many consider the greatest need of our time: a mysticism that is not only personal, but deeply ecclesial, able to radically transform the church and the world. I got this book because Sister Wendy recommended it in the foreword. I'm not a Christian, but I liked Sister Wendy's book on prayer, so I gave this book a chance. I thought that even if I didn't agree with every "jot and tittle" of Roman Catholicism, contemplative practice in that tradition might have something to show me. Burrows asserts that to believe in Jesus Christ means to affirm his view that "the REALITY, the MYSTERY in which we are immersed ... loves us. ... If we truly believe it then we hold onto the fact that we are utterly safe and secure in this love. ... We cannot lose it, cannot escape its unfolding: it is there for us; one with our existence. ... We cannot imagine such love for it exceeds everything the human mind and heart can grasp; but we can get faint intimations of it in our experience of human love. It is not meaningless to us. Jesus gave the name of Father to this love, and he strains to get us to trust this Father utterly. ... Faith means living all the time by this truth, it means a constant surrender to it, a desire to receive it. And this is the mystical life: the human person becoming more and more receptive to the inflowing of divine love, which, as it enters, of necessity purifies and transforms." Wonderful! My Benedictine Spiritual Director recommended this Carmelite book on prayer to me, which he said he would read. What drew me to it was words like these:

The forword by Butler, explains to the reader that contemplation is nothing to Burrows except a way to focus on Jesus Christ and his life in us. 'Her message is, in short: 'there are no limits' to what God will do for each of us 'if only we will trust him utterly'.' Obviouly this sentiment reflects Eph3:19-21. This book is an important contribution to the field of spirituality and will, no doubt deservedly, become the textbook for studies on Ruth Burrows and her spirituality. It will also help clarify the concept of mysticism that should, in turn, help make more accessible to us the deep wells of the Christian mystical tradition. There is something deeply easeful in her person and manner. I was soon very much at ease. Never did I open my briefcase with its carefully prepared interview sheet. We talked of many things, the church, religious life, John of the Cross, the Carmelite reform, her ideas as expressed in Guidelines, and of her novices (her real pride and joy). Her books are strong. Everywhere they stare death, desolation, and chaos boldly in the face. It was not surprising to me; therefore, that the person I met radiated all that is antithetical to death, spiritually, intellectually and emotionally. Like her books, her person exudes consolation, hope, life and energy. It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to believe—"No one can come to me except the Father draw him"—but we must cooperate with all our powers. And this means we must "labor for the food which endures to eternal life" (John 6:27). "This is the labor of God that you believe in him whom he has sent" (John 6:29). What can be more important? Burrows is an acutely sensitive experiencer of this condition, and has written about it for years. If you don’t know the writings of Ruth Burrows, now is an auspicious time to get acquainted: there is a brand new, handy collection of her Essential Writings (Orbis, 2019) in the Modern Spiritual Masters series. “Ruth Burrows” is the pen name of Sister Rachel (Gregory), a Carmelite in the monastery at Quidenham in the county of Norfolk, England. Rowan Williams describes her as “one of the most challenging and deep exponents in our time of the Carmelite tradition –and indeed of the fundamental Gospel perspective.” And Sister Wendy (late, lamented BBC art nun!) ranks her writings alongside Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila, and Therese of Lisieux.

Faith is a profound mystery that we can never adequately explain. It is an interplay between divine grace and the human mind and will. We are speaking of Christian faith, and that is faith in Jesus Christ as the incarnate Word of God. The object of our Christian faith is the God revealed in Jesus Christ. What I actually experience on my conscious level is quite unimportant. In fact I experience nothing except my poor, distracted self. It is a case of blind trust; Recently, while traveling in England, I was offered a rare and privileged opportunity. A former student of mine arranged for me to meet with Ruth Burrows, the Carmelite spiritual writer. A certain mystique surrounds Ruth Burrows. First of all, although she is one of the foremost spiritual authors of our time, very few people know her real name or know where precisely she lives. Ruth Burrows is her pen name. Burrows pens down the fruits of conversations with contemporary spiritual 'equals': Claire and Petra. All three are well acquainted with ancient treatises written by 15th century saints. Burrows and her fellow mystics critically reflect on these works while honing their own views on the contemplative/mystical life. The author gives the reader a 'map' of the insights these believers have distilled from their own life experiences as contemplatives. This 'map' helped me to understand and honour some of the inexplicable issues which I came across (and still do!) in my frustratingly slow development towards a contemplative life. Endearingly, Burrows speaks directly to the reader's heart and mind in her honesty about mysticism: ' ... once I couldn't bear the word and eshewed discussion of it' (p2). Her introduction ends with the prayer that Jesus '... look at us, ..., with that look which sees us as we are in our cowardice, in our complacency ...' (p.8) knowing that nothing we do is most important to God. Only our wanting to please him, our trust in him and his word allows us 'to do what we can and then we shall find that, in him, we can do what we can't' (p.7). This seems to me to be Burrows' take on the saying: 'Letting go and letting God'!A Christian, praying in great weakness from a frail humanity, is aligning with the incarnate Son who aligned himself with us. He lived out in our common humanity the Trinitarian receptivity of Son to Father, showing how it could be done in human nature. When we experience the besetting failures and weaknesses of human life, and confess that we are utterly enmeshed in them, it is possible to perceive in those very weaknesses the kind of dependence Jesus had toward the Father. Biographically speaking, Burrows was “vividly aware since her earliest childhood of the terrifying reality of humanity’s inescapable contingency and the fundamental chasm between God and humankind” (50). She experienced this as the anxiety and self-loathing that are common enough in our world, but she was always one of those highly sensitive people who felt it more deeply. And she began to analyze it spiritually. This is where a Trinitarian dynamic begins to register in her thought: Suffering is not an infallible indication of growth, it can just as easily indicate neuroses. We must be careful not to cast a mystical garb over indigestion.”