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Tom Beattie is a self-publisher author and two-time Pinnacle Award Winner. He lives in Rhode Island with his husband David.
Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
Ad Majorem: A Gay Man's Spiritual Testament is a non-fiction memoir written by Tom Beattie. Ignatius of Loyola had been Tom's imaginary friend as he was growing up. Tom was not big on learning Catechism and the like in school, and his flunking religion would mean big problems beyond salvation -- there was also television and that weekly allowance to consider. And so, to get the extra credit necessary to pass the course, he was able to get himself assigned to do a paper on his friend, Ignatius. Yes, he lived in the sixteenth century and founded the Jesuits, but the facts that have survived about his life were much more to a young boy's liking than your ordinary saint. Tom thought of the soldier-saint who was injured in battle as a sort of GI Joe, a man of action and valor. Together they'd take on superior forces and cover each other while under attack. The works, words and life of Ignatius of Loyola would stay with Tom throughout his life -- as a spiritual adviser, teacher and, yes, a friend. He was there when Beattie accepted the fact that he was indeed gay, despite the church's teachings about it, and under his tutelage, Beattie was able to come to terms with the basic fact that God made him and loved him exactly as he was.
Tom Beattie's non-fiction spiritual memoir, Ad Majorem: A Gay Man's Spiritual Testament, had this fellow lapsed Catholic enjoying learning about Ignatius of Loyola while he got to know the author at the same time, and finding that both the saint and the author were well worth the effort. I loved following along with both the historical aspects of the book as well as the autobiographical aspect. I was intrigued to find that Beattie and God never parted ways, despite what the church told him, and while I felt badly, along with him, at his impulse to refrain from partaking physically in communion, I never doubted for a moment that Jesus Christ, Beattie's other boon companion and spiritual adviser, valued his moment of communion as much as he did everyone else's. Ad Majorem is also a love story about Tom and David, and the enduring love that they share. And it's a marvelous thing indeed. This well-written, often humorous and elegantly philosophical spiritual testament is most highly recommended.
