How do ministers, whether lay or ordained, form their spiritual life? What practices do they need to foster in order to become good and to be holy in their service? To answer these questions, Richard Gula invites readers to think along with him about the kind of minister they want to be: If we don't know where we want to go," he writes, "we will easily end up somewhere else." Gula then presents a variety of virtues? Including gratitude, self-care, humor, and courage? and explains how developing these qualities is essential for a minister's moral and spiritual life. By grounding a spirituality for pastoral ministry in the virtues, Gula provides a way for ministers to bridge the gap between who they are and who they hope to become in imitation of Christ Jesus.

Richard M. Gula, a Sulpician priest, has been involved in ministerial formation and seminary education for many years. He has become a popular lecturer and workshop presenter for pastoral ministers throughout the country. Gula is the author of several books on spirituality and the moral life: Moral Discernment, The Good Life, The Cal to Holiness, and Just Ministry (al published by Paulist Press).