I have found Fr. De Mello's book to be very useful both in my personal and professional life. It challenges many commonly held dysfunctional beliefs and provides many opportunities for gains in self-awareness. I still use it for meditation purposes and I gain the most from it by using it as a morning read, one chapter at a time. I also learned that the more you read it the deeper it gets.
Enjoy

A friend sent this book to me when I finished grad school, along with a note: "Upon discovering the complicated & ugly muck of the world, one of my first questions was 'what now?' This book helped." It's the meditations of a Jesuit priest, who is surprisingly concrete in his examples of things from life that pull us down or stress us out, and a new way to think of them. I read a chapter a night before bed, and it gave me a lot to think about, and a lot of perspective. Helped me realize what's important and what's not so. Helped me deal with things, some small, some bigger.

As other reviewers have alluded to, this book is deceivingly small. Do not let it's size dupe you for one moment! This composition is said to be Anthony de Mello's last authored words, filled with both profound wisdom and plenty of tidbits for personal contemplations for us booklovers. Anthony de Mello selects pieces from the Gospels in the Bible, weaving together a book all about living a life in love. It is truly extraordinary! Now I for my part do not belong to the Christian traditions, I practice Zen Buddhism in contrast. But these are just names. Religious life is simply life. Why spend our time only experiencing just one kind of religion, when we can take away some of the best from each one of them? Anthony de Mello, in my present day evaluation, represents the "best of" the Christian tradition for me to now benefit from. I imagine you will find the same. Have a pleasure reading this jewel over and over again.

Most people don't know of him yet he may have achieved
enlightenment in this lifetime. I first found out about
Anthony de Mello when a friend lent me a video where he
was leading a meeting in New Jersey in the early 80s. Watching
him in person you cannot help but be impressed by the
clarity of his mind and his understanding of the human heart.
He was willing to say things that challenged our core beliefs
about what makes one happy but in a gentle and compassionate
way not one based on superiority. So it was a delight to
find out that he was able to leave something that may help
others in their own spiritual quest. The book can be read
in an hour or two and at the end of book you are inspired by his
sincere attempt to help you to see how most of our
suffering is caused by our own misguided thinking. I always
feel more liberated after reading his book. Other authors
that are useful to me are Carlos Casteneda, Eckhart Tolle,
and Girard Haven.

DeMello was a priest of some sort, Catholic maybe, but of a mystical/monastical variety, and his soil was India, so he expresses a very ecumenical/eastern flavor of Truth. Plenty for Christian hardliners to reject or criticize, but for this wish-I-could-find-more-God-in-Catholicism Catholic, he talks like a man who knows/loves/experiences God intimately and effortlessly, and it's a pleasure to read his expression of that love. He challenged and deepened my understanding.

DeMello is charming and self-effacing like Merton, bracing, and almost confrontational honest like of J. Krishnamurti, hopeful and accessible like Deepak Chopra without being as, uhm, woo-woo?

He begins each mini chapter with a quote from the gospels, but interprets the idea in a way I never heard from Fr. Buren at Holy Spirit School.

DeMello is a mystic, a joyful mystic, and if you're looking for something like this -- reminder: he pulls no punches -- and are willing to give it your full attention, I'd bet you'll find it transformative.