Reflecting on years of living the Benedictine life and of scholarly work on the Rule of Saint Benedict, monk and priest Terrence Kardong offers his wisdom in Day by Day with Saint Benedict. These short, daily reflections on quotations from the Rule are accessible to lay people and religious alike and they will help the reader to incorporate Benedictine values in his or her own life. Day by Day with Saint Benedict includes 366 meditations, one for each day of the year. Those interested in a great religious classic will find here a way to apply the Rule to their own daily life. In some of the meditations Kardong shares true stories told from his long experience of Benedictine community life that show how he has applied the Rule to his own life and how he has seen it incorporated in the lives of those around him. Terrence G. Kardong, OSB, (1936-2019), was a monk of Assumption Abbey, Richardton, North Dakota. He served as the editor of The American BenedictineReview, and was the author of many books and articles.

Monasticism is a social and religious phenomenon which originated in antiquity and which still remains relevant in the twenty-first century. But what, exactly, is it, and how is it distinguished from other kinds of religious and non-religious practice? In this Very Short Introduction Stephen J. Davis discusses the history of monasticism, from our earliest evidence for it, and the different types which have developed from antiquity to the present day. He considers where monasteries are located, from East Asia to North America, and everywhere in between, and how their settings impact the everyday life and worldview of the monks and nuns who dwell there. Exploring how monastic communities are organized, he also looks at how aspects of life like food, sleep, sex, work, and prayer are regimented. Finally, Davis discusses what the stories about saints communicate about monastic identity and ethics, and considers what place there is for monasticism in the modern world. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This book provides an account of the archaeology of medieval monastic houses throughout Great Britain and Ireland. The application of a wide range of archaeological techniques, allied to historical investigation, has awakened interest in monasteries. Important new sources of information have transformed knowledge of monastic life. As well as discussing many of the advances made by research over the last two decades, innovative methods of archaeological investigation are described, and examples of good practice in the preservation of sites and their interpretation to visitors are provided. Suggestions for further research, examples of outstanding monastic sites to visit, a glossary of terms, a comprehensive bibliography and an index are also included.

In the first chapters of this book it is the purpose to demonstrate that the spirit of sacrifice is the essence of the Christian life; an assertion the truth of which the author imagines is not possible to question for a moment. If that assertion is incontestable, even self-evident, it will be seen that the closest relations exist between the victim's spirit of sacrifice and the religious life, since, if the spirit of sacrifice is the foundation and essential characteristic of the Christian life, the religious life, which aspires to the attainment of the greatest perfection of the Christian life ought to aim at attaining the perfection of a victim's life of self-surrender.

The 1950s and 60s were times of extraordinary social and political change across North America that re-drew the boundaries between traditional and progressive, conservative and liberal. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the history of Catholic nuns. During these two decades, nuns boldly experimented with their role in the church, removing their habits, rejecting the cloister, and fighting for social justice. The media quickly took to their cause and dubbed them 'the new nuns,' modern exemplars of liberated but sexually contained womanhood. With Visual Habits, Rebecca Sullivan brings this unexamined history of nuns to the fore, revisiting the intersection of three distinct movements - the Second Vatican Council, the second wave of feminism, and the sexual revolution - to explore the pivotal role nuns played in revamping cultural expectations of femininity and feminism. From The Nun's Story to The Flying Nun to The Singing Nun, nuns were a major presence in the mainstream media. Charting their evolving representation in film and television, popular music, magazines, and girls' literature, Sullivan discusses these images in the context of the period's seemingly unlimited potential for social change. In the process, she delivers a rich cultural analysis of a topic too long ignored.

Monica Appleby and Helen Lewis reveal the largely untold story of women who stood up to the Church and joined Appalachians in their struggle for social justice. Their poignant story of how faith, compassion, and persistence overcame obstacles to progress in Appalachia is a fascinating example of how a collaborative and creative learning community fosters strong voices. Mountain Sisters is a prophetic first-person account of the history of American Catholicism, the war on poverty, and the influence of the turbulent 1960s on the cultural and religious communities of Appalachia.

Founded in 1941, The Glenmary Sisters embraced a calling to serve rural Appalachian communities where few Catholics resided. The sisters, many of them seeking alternatives to the choices available to most women during this time, zealously pursued their duties but soon became frustrated with the rules and restrictions of the Church. Outmoded doctrine -- even styles of dress -- made it difficult for them to interact with the very people they hoped to help. In 1967, after many unsuccessful attempts to persuade the Church to ease its requirements, some seventy Sisters left the security of convent life. Over forty of these women formed a secular service group, FOCIS (Federation of Communities in Service). Mountain Sisters is their story.

The Henry Bradshaw Society was established in 1890 in commemoration of Henry Bradshaw, University Librarian in Cambridge and a distinguished authority on early medieval manuscripts and liturgies, who died in 1886. The Society was founded for the editing of rare liturgical texts'; its principal focus is on the Western (Latin) Church and its rites, and on the medieval period in particular, from the sixth century to the sixteenth (in effect, from the earliest surviving Christian books until the Reformation). Liturgy was at the heart of Christian worship, and during the medieval period the Christian Church was at the heart of Western society. Study of medieval Christianity in its manifold aspects - historical, ecclesiastical, spiritual, sociological - inevitably involves study of its rites, and for that reason Henry Bradshaw Society publications have become standard source-books for an understanding of all aspects of the middle ages. Moreover, many of the Society's publications have been facsimile editions, and these facsimiles have become cornerstones of the science of palaeography. The society was founded for the editing of rare liturgical texts; its principal focus is on the Western (Latin) Church and its rites, and on the medieval period in particular, from the sixth century to the Reformation. Study of medieval Christianity - at the heart of Western society - inevitably involves study of its rites, and the society's publications are essential to an understanding of all aspects (historical, ecclesiastical, spiritual, sociological) of the middle ages.

In the fourth century, the deserts of Egypt became the nerve center of a radical new movement, what we now call monasticism. Groups of Christians-from illiterate peasants to learned intellectuals-moved out to the wastelands beyond the Nile Valley and, in the famous words of Saint Athanasius, made the desert a city. In so doing, they captured the imagination of the ancient world. They forged techniques of prayer and asceticism, of discipleship and spiritual direction, that have remained central to Christianity ever since. Seeking to map the soul's long journey to God and plot out the subtle vagaries of the human heart, they created and inspired texts that became classics of Western spirituality. These Desert Christians were also brilliant storytellers, some of Christianity's finest. This book introduces the literature of early monasticism. It examines all the best-known works, including Athanasius' Life of Antony, the Lives of Pachomius, and the so-called Sayings of the Desert Fathers. Later chapters focus on two pioneers of monastic theology: Evagrius Ponticus, the first great theoretician of Christian mysticism; and John Cassian, who brought Egyptian monasticism to the Latin West. Along the way, readers are introduced to path-breaking discoveries-to new texts and recent archeological finds-that have revolutionized contemporary scholarship on monastic origins. Included are fascinating snippets from papyri and from little-known Coptic, Syriac, and Ethiopic texts. Interspersed in each chapter are illustrations, maps, and diagrams that help readers sort through the key texts and the richly-textured world of early monasticism. Geared to a wide audience and written in clear, jargon-free prose, Desert Christians offers the most comprehensive and accessible introduction to early monasticism.

In honor of John W. Padbert, S.J., this collection of essays covers topics of Jesuit education and experience throughout the world during the Society's more than 450 years of existence, though most focus on more recent history and interpretations of Ignatian spirituality. Contributing authors include William A. Barry, S.J.; John W. O'Malley, S.J.; David L. Fleming, S.J.; and Michael J. Buckley, S.J.

The definitive story of the recent discovery of the first-century ossuary (limestone bone box) with the legend 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus', & it's implications for understanding Jesus, his family, his followers, the first Christians and the Jewish Christian movement in Jerusalem that was led by James.

Alcuin of York was one of the most significant figures of the Anglo-Saxon Church alongside Bede and Cuthbert. This introductory selection from his extensive writings includes Alcuin's prayers, poetry and prose. Douglas Dales is Chaplain and Head of RE at Marlborough College. His other published titles include "This is my Faith" and "Glory: the spiritual Theology of Michael Ramsey."

Unique in the Church, the Camaldolese life is ordered to a three-fold good: solitude, community, and witness. Men and women as hermits live by a monastic rule, committed to both solitude and community life. The discipline of solitude combined with the second good, the rigors of community living are intended to widen the heart in service of the third good: bearing witness to the abundance of God's love as the self, others, and every living creature are brought into fuller communion in the one Love. The essays in The Privilege of Love convey the richness and the depth of the Camaldolese Benedictine spirit. Their diversity of expression is itself a manifestation of the magnitude of God's bonding Love. This bonding is the Spirit's own gift, weaving together the many voices found in these pages - voices of women and men, of monk, hermit, and layperson. The voices speak of historical roots, of the riches found in solitude and the grit of community life, of the psychological strength required in any pursuit of God, of the vulnerability of the human heart which is the home for wisdom's Word, and of the privilege of being in love with Love itself. Essays and contributors underPart One: A Vision in Context are Overview of Camaldolese History and Spirituality," by Peter-Damian Belisle, OSB Cam. Essays and contributors under Part Two: Sustaining the Spirit are *An Image of the Praying Church: Camaldolese Liturgical Spirituality, - by Cyprian Consiglio; *Lectio Divina and Monastic Theology in Camaldolese Life, - by Alessandro Barban; *Monastic Wisdom: The Western Tradition, - by Bruno Barnhart. Essays and contributors in Part Three: Configurations of a Charism are *The Threefold Good: Romualdian Charism and Monastic Tradition, - by Joseph Wong; *Koinonia: The Privilege of Love, - by Robert Hale; *Psychological Investigations and Implications for Living Together Alone, - by Bede Healey; *Golden Solitude, - by Peter-Damian Belisle, OSB Cam; *A Wild Bird, with God in the Center: The Hermit in Community, - by Sr. Donald Corcoran; *The Camaldolese in Dialogue: Ecumenical and Interfaith Themes in the History of the Camaldolese Benedictines, - by Thomas Matus and Robert Hale; *The Camaldolese Oblate Program: History, Tradition, Charism, - by Jeffry Spencer and Michal Fish; *Concluding Remarks - ; *Camaldoli's Recent Journey and Its Prospects, - by Emanuele Bargellini; Peter-Damian Belisle, OSB Cam., Translator. *The Bibliography for the Study of Camaldolese History and Spirituality, - provides, for the first time anywhere, a comprehensive list of Romualdian/Camaldolese source material. "

With its focus on narratives, its attention to contextual and material realities, and its collection of women-identified liturgies in global context, "Dissident Daughters" claims prominence within the growing literature on women's ways of worship. This book not only introduces liturgical texts, but focuses on the communities that create and celebrate these liturgies. "Dissident Daughters" gives voice to the women activists in these communities who show how their communities came into being; how social, cultural, and political realities shaped them and their liturgies; and how they envision their lives in and as communities of faith. In drawing the different narratives together, "Dissident Daughters" displays the expanse of the worldwide expression of women's rites, and how each is shaped by distinctly different contexts of struggle and hope.

Analyzing convent culture in sixteenth-century Italy through the medium of three unpublished nuns' chronicles, this study examines the nuns' intellectual and imaginative achievements to determine how they preserved individual and convent identities by writing chronicles. The chronicles reveal many examples of the nuns' achievements, especially with regard to cultural creativity, and demonstrate that convent traditions ultimately determined the cultural priorities that dictated convent ceremonial life.

The first black Cathotic sisterhood in the United States; Founded in Baltimore in 1828 by a French Sulpician priest and a mulatto Caribbean immigrant, the Oblate Sisters of Providence formed the first permanent African American Roman Catholic sisterhood in the United States. It still exists today. Exploring the slavery-era history of this pioneering sisterhood, which took as its practical mission the education of black children, Diane Batts Morrow demonstrates the centrality of race in the Oblate experience. By their very existence, the Oblate Sisters challenged prevailing social, political, and cultural attitudes on many levels. White society viewed women of color as lacking in moral standing and sexual virtue; at the same time, the sisters' vows of celibacy flew in the face of conventional female roles as wives and mothers. But the Oblate Sisters' religious commitment proved both liberating and empowering, says Morrow. They inculcated into their communal identity positive senses of themselves as black women and as women religious, Strengthened by their spiritual fervor, the sisters defied the inferior social status white society ascribed to them and the ambivalence the Catholic Church demonstrated toward them. They successfully persevered in dedicating themselves to spiritual practice in the Roman Catholic tradition.

In the spring of l996 armed men broke into a Trappist monastery in war-torn Algeria and took seven monks hostage, pawns in a murky negotiation to free imprisoned terrorists. Two months later their severed heads were found in a tree; their bodies were never recovered.

The village of Tibhirine had sprung up around the monastery because it was a holy place protected by the Virgin Mary, revered by Christians and Muslims alike. But napalm, helicopters, and gunfire had become regular accompaniments to the monastic routine as the violence engulfing Algeria drew closer to the isolated cloister high in the Atlas Mountains.

Among New Orleans most compelling stories is that of the Sisters of the Holy Family, which was founded in the 19th century and still thrives today. The community s difficult early years are portrayed in a remarkable account by one of the sisters, Mary Bernard Deggs. While Deggs did not officially join the community until 1873, as a student at the sisters early school she would have known Henriette Delille and the other founders. It was not until 1852 that the sisters were able to take their first official vows and exchange their blue percale gowns for black ones, and it was 1873 before they were permitted to wear a formal religious habit. This community of mixed race faced almost insurmountable obstacles, but the women remained unflagging in their dedication to the poor, to education, and to the care of the elderly and the orphaned to the needs of "their people."

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In this unique work, Paul Hanson traces the concept of "community" from its early biblical origins through the end of the apostolic age. This edition includes a chapter devoted to the contemporary implications of this concept and in his new introduction, the author further explores the importance of this theme.

This is the first book to provide a comprehensive account of the emergence of monasticism from its roots in late antiquity and its transition to the early medieval West. Beginning with the search for individual perfection in the context of the religious and social climate of fourth-century Egypt, it traces the adoption and transformation of monastic ideas and practices first by the elites of the Western Roman Empire and later by the royalty and aristocracy of the so-called 'barbarian' kingdoms, including the Franks and Anglo-Saxons. It tracks the development of monastic rules and includes sections on female asceticism and monasticism, on Irish monasticism and its influence, and the developing theology of afterlife and intercession. This unique work is based on a detailed consideration of the texts, their use and adaptation, and is the first treatment of the subject to draw together social and religious approaches. The book offers a number of original perspectives on major issues and controversies.

The astonishing and exiting story of Julie Billiart, the French peasant woman who founded the Sisters of Notre Dame out of the aftermath of the French Revolution. Myra Poole has been a Notre Dame sister for more than forty years. For much of that time was a teacher of history and a headteacher, taking early retirement to study women's theology in the USA, Holland and London. She has been instrumental in founding numerous women's groups including Catholic Women's Network; Catholic Women's Ordination and the British and Irish School of Feminist Theology.

Also available as an eBook

The world-renowned Monks of New Skete have distilled their collective spiritual wisdom into a book that explains how the elements of a monk's life — self-discipline, solitude, prayer, acts of love and forgiveness — are pathways that anyone can follow to achieve true happiness and spiritual fulfillment.

J. Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a twenty-year-old sophomore when he was introduced to fellow student Robert Lax (1915-2000) in the Columbia University cafeteria in 1935. They were brought together by an admiration for each other's writing in the college humor magazine. Upon graduation in 1938, Merton converted to Roman Catholicism; Lax began graduate study in English and took a job at the New Yorker. Three years later, Merton entered the Abbey of Gethsemani, and he and Lax saw each other only four more times. Yet their friendship was sustained for the next thirty-three years through an amazing correspondence.

Their letters show Merton as an irreverent and often hilarious critic of presidents and popes. He also turned to serious issues, such as the war in Vietnam and the dangers of nuclear holocaust. Merton and Lax's correspondence is filled with reminiscences of friends and faculty from their years at Columbia, including Mark van Doren, Lionel Trilling, Ad Reinhardt, Edward Rice, and Jacques Barzun. These letters of two poets and solitaries betray a giddy delight in wordplay, unconstrained by rules of grammar or conventions of spelling. Puns, portmanteaus, and inside jokes abound. The thirty-year exchange began when Merton dashed off a note on June 17, 1938, after spending a week with Lax's family.

The final epistle in this extraordinary correspondence was written by Lax on December 8, 1968. Merton died in Bangkok five days later and never received it. Arthur Biddle spent nearly ten years collecting every letter known to exist between Merton and Lax, a total of 346, two thirds of which have never been published. Biddle provides chronologies of their lives and places events and people in context within the letters. This volume also includes the text of a rare interview with Lax.

Arthur W. Biddle is professor emeritus of English at the University of Vermont.

Based on a treasure trove of letters, this fascinating book tells the history of a seventeenth-century nun in a convent in Leuven and how her complaints-of sexual harassment, fears of demonic possession, alliances among the other sisters against her-led to her banishment from the convent on two occasions. Highly acclaimed when it was first published as a revealing look at female religious life in early modern Europe, the book is now available in an abridged paperbound version with a new preface by the author. Reviews of the clothbound edition: "A window to the past. . . . I loved, just loved, this book."-Carolyn See, Washington Post "The world Mr. Harline uncovers is a fascinating one. . . . The story of Sister Margaret gives an extra dimension of humanity to a turning point in the history of ideas."-Sonia Gernes, Wall Street Journal "Better-than-fiction social history. . . . This is a glimpse into diaries, letters, hearts, minds, hatreds, and hopes; it will enthrall."-Christian Century "Harline's graceful writing allows the women and men in this religious community to breathe, gossip, pray with tears. . . . The Burdens of Sister Margaret helps us see the familiar Reformation in a fresh way."-Kevin A. Miller, Christianity Today "Microhistory at its best."-Larissa Taylor, Renaissance Quarterly

This book intriduces readers to the essential writings of Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian mink who was famous in his own time as atheologian, statesman, and mystic.