Emmaus Partnership
“When I went to bed at night the house was completely blacked out. When I woke in the middle of the night it was to rush into the air raid shelter with the rest of the family. We never stopped saying the rosary until the siren sounded the ‘all clear’. I was often cold and hungry for fuel and food was short. I wore hand-down clothing, because you needed precious coupons to buy new. There was no sport to divert us at weekends, because the players were fighting for King and country. Where we went, who we spoke to, and what we did was all restricted.
“It was a strange world, but it was not strange to me. I was born shortly before the Second World War started, and what was new and all but unbearable to everyone else in the family, was simply normal to me. I took this strange new world for granted for I knew no other. It is rather like Catholics today. They have grown up in a strange abnormal religious world, yet they have known no other, and they think it is normal, as I thought the war years were normal. Yet it is aeons away from the first Catholic world and the faith that was first introduced by Jesus Christ Our Lord.”
These are the words with which David Torkington begins his book Passport to Perfection, which is a simple compelling summary of 14 spiritual books on prayer written over 60 years. It leads his readers back to the Royal, Contemplative, Redemptive and Sacrificial Spirituality first lived by Christ the King before he introduced it into the early Church.
David is a renowned Spiritual Theologian, author and speaker who specialises in Prayer, Christian Spirituality and Mystical Theology. For the past 50 years, he has been communicating to his audience his profound love of the traditional and authentic Mystical and Biblical Theology that has inspired all his writings on prayer.
He has done this through his ability to express profound truths simply and truthfully in his inspiring lectures and retreats to religious and laity, in England, Ireland, Europe and Africa. He was asked to lecture on Mystical Theology at the Angelicum in Rome as the only speaker who had practical knowledge and experience in Mystical Theology.
“The American writer and columnist Kevin Wells, writing for Crisis magazine, wrote a whole article on David concluding that, “He is the world’s foremost Mystical Theologian, and that you will find no better teacher this side of heaven”.
David’s Metanoia retreats for Clergy, Religious and the laity, are dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel and use his books Passport to Perfection and Early Christian Spirituality as well as his FREE fifteen-video series on prayer and his free audio presentations of How to Pray and The Hermit, read by him on Radio Maria.
When deciding to produce a Catechetical Retreat for all Catholics which could be followed in their own homes, David’s 15-part video course on prayer complemented by Passport to Perfection seemed tailor made for this purpose, along with his masterwork Early Christian Spirituality as the ideal bedside book to help the participants continue to deepen the spirituality learnt and practised during the retreat.
Originally, the material for the Metanoia Retreat course was to be provided by different spiritual theologians. However, it was decided to provide all the material from the spirituality of David and for two reasons: Firstly, for unity, to ensure that the retreatants would not be muddled by different presentations of the truth. Secondly, because it was not possible to find other suitable spiritual theologians who have specialised in the early Catholic Spirituality upon which Metanoia is based, together with a simple history of Catholic Spirituality that is essential to see how we have deviated from the Spirituality of Christ the King.
“This also enables us to see the legitimate and inspired developments over subsequent centuries that have been incorporated into what had been called the Perennial Catholic Spirituality,” said Essentialist.
“So many are calling for us to return to our true tradition, but so few seem to know what our true tradition is; David Torkington does.”
For David there is an urgent need for Catholics to return to the basic principles of mystical spirituality upon which the Church was founded.
“Truth to tell we are all disunited and we must be united together in, and under the leadership of Christ the King, and in his authentic lived and practiced Spiritual Theology, for disunited we fall easy prey to the enemy, and can be picked off one by one,” says David.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider is the patron of Metanoia Retreats, and the current retreat – which is dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel – is subtitled “Back to Prayer Forward with Christ”.
Bishop Athanasius is a Kazakhstani Catholic prelate born in 1961 in Kyrgyzstan. Now serving as an Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, he is widely recognised for his unwavering commitment to traditional Catholic doctrine, the reverent celebration of the liturgy, and the importance of Eucharistic devotion.
“We hope and pray that Metanoia will at last be, a means of generating the positive ground level Catholic Renaissance that is so desperately needed, to reinstate the Spirituality that Christ the King has given to us,” says David.
Join David on a program for personal renewal in this Jubilee Year 2025
Patron: His Lordship Bishop Athanasius Schneider
Dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Theme: Back to Prayer – Forward with Christ the King
If you are a Parish Priest who wishes to run parish retreats for your parishioners, or a lay person wishing to lead groups of likeminded Catholics, or making the retreat alone or with the rest of your family at home , please contact Metanoia director, Sr Bernadine for more details at info@metanoia.org.uk
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Learn more about David’s inspiring books and Metanoia Retreats:
https://essentialistpress.com/