Do you want more joy in life? Make room for a daily encounter with the Lord.

In Pause in Wonder, Eddie Ensley recounts stories from his own spiritual journey as a Native American and a Catholic deacon to show how you can experience joy even in the most difficult circumstances. Simple, spiritually sound prayer practices—based on scripture and tradition—heighten your sense of wonder and bring you greater joy in everyday life.

“Joy has its tendrils in God,” writes Deacon Eddie Ensley. “It draws on the infinity of his love. Having joy is a matter of being in relationship with the wellspring of joy, not due to our circumstances. God is always available, always ready to touch us. The question becomes: Are we willing to touch him? Do we want to seek deep joy in our lives?”

With compassion and wisdom, Ensley draws from his Native American heritage and spiritual journey to the Church to explore joy’s true meaning and how to find it and experience it in both happy and discouraging seasons of life. Combining prayer exercises with his personal testimony, Ensley and his ministry collaborator Deacon Robert Herrmann will help you appreciate in a new way the life-changing power of the sacraments and other riches of the Church, and to be more mindful of the invisible realities all around you.

Ensley and Hermann offer step-by-step pointers to help you cultivate practical spiritual habits such as engaging in contemplative prayer and journaling to enrich your prayer life. You will also learn how to:

• Choose joy, centering your whole being on God
• Become the custodian, rather than the prisoner, of your thoughts and emotions
• Experience release from stresses and worries by learning to “sing with the angels”
• Pour out your joy upon others through the intentional practice of compassion.

You will discover how to encounter God in deeply personal yet practical ways. Fresh approaches to prayer combined with scripture and the wisdom of the saints will help you rejoice always and appreciate life in all its messy excellence.