Reviewed in Catholic Library World, March 2001 Highlights: "This book is easy and enjoyable to read. Those who are interested in "the better part" will be pleased and encouraged to find ways to help themselves along the path."

"The Better Part is a modest volume in size but capacious in its wisdom and common (spiritual) sense. [...] It would be wonderful for someone to interview Keating at length and publish the results as a book. His capacity to say profound things in a relatively brief space is pure gift. The final 27 pages of Q&A are worth the price of the book. I wished only for more."--Lawrence S. Cunningham, Commonweal, November 9, 2001

"Any meditator using any method of wordless, imageless prayer will find this book a rich source of wisdom and very practical advice."--Betty Fricke, Monos, 2001

The "better part," of course, is that chosen by the introspective Mary of Bethany in the New Testament story, whose experience has long been taken by the contemplative religious. Father Keating, leader of the Centering Prayer movement, understands the contemplative and prayerful life as a form of participation in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and his book is both a graceful description of that life and a how-to. For most collections.

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