Spiritual Friendship: The Classic Text with a Spiritual Commentary by Dennis Billy, C.Ss.R.

Aelred of Rievaulx (1110–1167) was born in Hexham in Northumberland near the border with Scotland. In his adolescence, he pursued an education at the court of King David I of Scotland. In 1134, he gave up all of his luxuries to join the Cistercian monastery at Rievaulx where he was eventually elected abbot, a position he would hold until his death. As a writer, Aelred left behind a substantial body of work noted for its quality and breadth of insight. His most well-known work is Spiritual Friendship, which is widely considered a classic of Christian spirituality.

Father Dennis Billy, CSsR, is a teacher, writer, and poet. Ordained a Redemptorist priest in 1980, he taught the history of moral theology and Christian spirituality at the Alphonsian Academy of Rome’s Pontifical Lateran University for more than twenty years, reaching the rank of Ordinary Professor. In 2008 he was installed as the John Cardinal Krol Chair of Moral Theology as a scholar-in-residence at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. He also serves as the Karl Rahner Professor of Catholic Theology at the Graduate Theological Foundation in Mishawaka, Indiana. Raised in Staten Island, New York, and educated there through high school in local Catholic schools, he graduated from Dartmouth College and went on to receive four master's degrees, as well as doctorates from Harvard University, the Pontifical University of St. Thomas, and the Graduate Theological Foundation. Billy is the author of numerous books and articles, both popular and scholarly.