Cassian and the Fathers is the initial volume in the series of Novitiate Conferences of Thomas Merton, the classes he presented to young men beginning their monastic life at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. They contain Merton's insights on important Patristic and monastic figures preceding the time of St. Benedict, above al John Cassian, the most significant bridge between the early desert fathers and the development of monastic life in the West, and they reveal the continuing relevance of their teachings for contemporary monastics and other Christians.
Much of the value...
Cassian and the Fathers is the initial volume in the series of Novitiate Conferences of Thomas Merton, the classes he presented to young men...
Those seeking to deepen their spiritual lives by visiting monasteries rarely have enough time to absorb as much as they would like. In this book an experienced spiritual master provides an intensive directed retreat which relies heavily on the rich Cistercian spiritual tradition. Readers may read and digest at their own pace, savoring the author's contagious enthusiasm for the monastic way and the medieval monks who formed this distinctive contemplative tradition.
Robert Thomas, a monk of Sept-Fons from 1928 until his death in 2002, served as prior of his community, professor of...
Those seeking to deepen their spiritual lives by visiting monasteries rarely have enough time to absorb as much as they would like. In this book an...
Andre Louf's probing essay on the nature of humility revisions this fundamental Christian virtue away from the misunderstandings of both the scholastic tradition and its modern counterparts to locate humility in the ancient sources of the monastic tradition. His incisive study prefaces a collection of primary texts which range from the early desert fathers to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. The translator has added further information about the author and his other writings as well as a bibliography for further reading."
Andre Louf's probing essay on the nature of humility revisions this fundamental Christian virtue away from the misunderstandings of both the scholasti...
"Hidden in every human heart is a monk." For men and women in the cloister and in the world, Augustine Roberts explores the inner meaning of the conversatio morum, conversion of life, that underlies Benedictine life. The first, Spanish, edition of this book drew heavily on novitiate notes by Thomas Merton; in this third, completely revised edition, the author takes into account two new factors 'Vita Consecrata, Pope John Paul II's 1996 Apostolic Exhortation, and the postmodern secularization which has deeply affected Christians. By clarifying various aspects of monastic living, Augustine...
"Hidden in every human heart is a monk." For men and women in the cloister and in the world, Augustine Roberts explores the inner meaning of the co...
Bl. Rafael Arnaiz Baron's life was extraordinary by any standards. Set amid the tumult of the Spanish Civil War, this spiritual biography recounts the efforts of a fervent young Spanish aristocrat to come to grips with his artistic talent, his intense personality and, above all, his unquenchable passion for God. Trained in art and architecture, Rafael longed to be a Trappist but was obliged repeatedly by war and illness to withdraw and then try again. His intensively personal reflections form the basis of this biography of a man intent on giving his life to God despite all obstacles. At the...
Bl. Rafael Arnaiz Baron's life was extraordinary by any standards. Set amid the tumult of the Spanish Civil War, this spiritual biography recounts the...
For almost half a century Trappist monk Matthew Kelty has delivered homilies to monks and retreatants in his unique style. Visitors at his monastery have been inspired, and challenged by his talks, given after Compline each evening, and monks have come to love and appreciate his preaching skills at Mass and in Chapter. In this collection of his homilies we read his reflections on life and death, the mysteries of faith, the monastic life from the inside, and his love of the Mass. Those who have heard Father Matthew speak will welcome this new volume, and those who have not will be introduced...
For almost half a century Trappist monk Matthew Kelty has delivered homilies to monks and retreatants in his unique style. Visitors at his monastery h...
Come and See is look inside the mind of a monk. The Vision of monastic life proposed here is not new; it is a Vision going back to the Desert Fathers of the fourth century. And yet, it is new because it is rooted in a place in the soul that never grows old. Come and see where I live, Jesus said to the disciples who were following him. He could just as well have said, come and see where you live; where your real life is being lived. Monastic spirituality is not some esoteric or Gnostic way of perceiving reality or understanding life. It is a treasure hidden in the field of your own...
Come and See is look inside the mind of a monk. The Vision of monastic life proposed here is not new; it is a Vision going back to the Desert F...
In The Way of Simplicity Esther de Waal reveals the riches of the Cistercian (Trappist) tradition and its relevance for today's world.
The book draws not only on such twelfth-century writers as Bernard of Clairvaux and Aelred of Rievaulx, but also on Thomas Merton and many contemporary Cistercians.
These Cistercian men and women wrote on matters of perennial concern: the true self, growth, integration, friendship, the love of God, and above al the life of prayer.
Anyone wishing to explore Cistercian spirituality will find this book an illuminating and practical...
In The Way of Simplicity Esther de Waal reveals the riches of the Cistercian (Trappist) tradition and its relevance for today's world.
Christophe Lebreton, OCSO, aged forty-six, was the youngest of the seven Trappist monks assassinated in Algeria by terrorists in 1996. He was also the poet of the group. Anyone who was enthralled by the film Of Gods and Men should find in Brother Christophe's Journal ample and deeply moving material for meditation on both the light and the darkness inherent in the human condition. The Journal begins in 1993, four months before the terrorists' first visit to the monastery at Tibhirine, and it ends on March 19, 1996, just seven days before the monks' abduction. Entry after entry touches readers...
Christophe Lebreton, OCSO, aged forty-six, was the youngest of the seven Trappist monks assassinated in Algeria by terrorists in 1996. He was also the...
"The Song That I Am: On the Mystery of Music "is a short but full-to-the-brim essay on the decisive role that great music (whether Bach, Tavener, or Gregorian chant) ought to play in the spiritual life. With admirable restraint Elisabeth-Paule Labat shares her interiorexperience of music and thus continually opens up fresh vistas through worlds of sound and spirit. With her uncanny gift of language, Labat precisely describes soundings and yearnings of the soul that many of us glimpse fleetingly. Because "only the lover sings" (St. Augustine), her final illumination is that the experience...
"The Song That I Am: On the Mystery of Music "is a short but full-to-the-brim essay on the decisive role that great music (whether Bach, Tavener, o...
