"We need a new kind of mystic," writes Fr. Robert Wild; and in The Tumbler of God, he presents a spiritual portrait of G.K. Chesterton that convincingly shows why he is precisely the new kind of mystic we need. Chesterton's mysticism was grounded in an experiential knowledge that existence is a gift from God, and that the only response is a spirituality of gratitude and praise for the unveiled beauty of creation. Franz Kafka said of Chesterton, "He is so happy one might almost think he had discovered God." And Fr. Wild adds that "indeed he had, and he was doing his best to live in the light of that discovery. What was his 'secret'? It was to love the splendor of the real, and to live in adulthood the innocence and wonder of the child who sees everything for the first time. The Gospel tells us we must become again like little children in order to enter the kingdom. Chesterton shows us how."
Fr. Robert Wild is the author of Catherine's Friends and editor of Compassionate Fire: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Catherine de Hueck Doherty, and Comrades Stumbling Along: The Friendship of Catherine de Hueck Doherty and Dorothy Day Through Their Letters. He has been a member of Madonna House Community, founded by Catherine Doherty, since 1971, and is the postulator for her cause.