A Sheltering Tree

Catholic psychotherapist Peter Wilcox spent thirty years as a spiritual director, and this slim devotional volume distills that experience into fifteen meditations on friendship as divine gift. He weaves Aristotle alongside St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Thomas Merton, and Dorothy Day, then anchors each lesson in real contemporary stories. The result is deceptively rich — accessible in language but substantive in thought. The honest caveat is a narrow one: if you are outside the Catholic or broader Christian tradition, the theological framing will feel foreign. But for parish reading groups or anyone who has wondered why certain friendships feel like more than coincidence, this is a genuinely nourishing read. Entirely family-safe and warmly recommended for adult believers.