Reflections from the Book Group: The Five Invitations

St. John’s Book Group meets every first and third Thursday of the month from 10-11:30am in the Fireside Room and on Zoom. Together they vote on and choose books that challenge, affirm, and deepen their spiritual lives. They’ve explored genres including history, novels, theology, psychology, poetry, anthropology, biographies, and much, much more.

When you ask participants what the book group means to them, many will tell you about how it has opened their eyes to other ways of living and being, and made them more active and aware about justice issues. In the coming months we are going to share some reflections from participants on books the group has read together.

Terri Fishel shares:

I have enjoyed all the books we have read in this group but my favorite book so far was The Five Invitations; Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully by Frank Ostaseski.  The book group read this as our first book for 2024.

Written by the cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, it is a guidebook on how to be present in the moment and how to live a life that will help you live it fully without regrets.  Everyone has regrets, but this book provides a path forward to live with serenity and how to accept change gracefully.  As with all our book discussions, there were many insights shared by members of the group as we talked through each of the five invitations. 

The Fifth Invitation is to “cultivate a don’t know mind”, to engage in curiosity. And I think that particular chapter spoke to me as I think being curious helps keep us young.

This book does have a lot of personal stories about dealing with death, but it also is a guide for having hope. Hope is something all of us are looking for in these challenging times.  It is an inspiring book that I pull off the shelf from time to time to remind me of some of his words of wisdom.  There are just certain books you just want to keep close by to refresh your memory from time to time on how to live a better life. 

Despite the title, it is a book that really does focus on “living fully” and it will make you think about how you respond to life events that we don’t always have control over. I found it very inspirational and I think most of the book group members did as well.