The monk Grimlaicus (ca. 900) wrote a rule for those who, like himself, pursued the solitary life within a monastic community. Never leaving their cell yet participating in the liturgical life of the monastery through a window into the church, these enclosed" sought to serve God alone. Beyond the details of horarium, reception of newcomers, diet, and clothing, Grimlaicus details practical measures for maintaining spiritual, psychological, and physical health, and for giving counsel to others. Scripture, the Rule of St. Benedict, and the teachings of early ecclesial and monastic writers form the kernel of Grimlaicus's wise and balanced rule, presented here for the first time in English translation.

"Andrew Thornton is a monk of Saint Anselm Abbey and associate professor in the department of Modern Languages at Saint Anselm College, where he teaches German language and Chinese philosophy. He is organist in the abbey church. He translated the poems of the twelfth-century recluse Ava, the first woman to write in a European vernacular ("The Poems of Ava, " Liturgical Press).""

Eight hundred years ago, Albert of Jerusalem gave the hermit-penitents of Mount Carmel a way of life to follow. Since then, this rule has inspired and formed mystics and scholars, men and women, lay and ordained to seek the living God. In "The Carmelite Tradition" Steven Payne, OCD, brings together representative voices to demonstrate the richness and depth of Carmelite spirituality. As he writes, Carmelite spirituality seeks nothing more nor less than to 'stand before the face of the living God' and prophesy with Elijah, to 'hear the word of God and keep it' with Mary, to grow in friendship with God through unceasing prayer with Teresa, to 'become by participation what Christ is by nature' as John of the Cross puts it, and thereby to be made, like Therase of Lisieux, into instruments of God's transforming merciful love in the church and society."

The lives and writings in "The Carmelite Tradition" invite readers to stand with these holy men and women and seek God in the hermitage of the heart.

"Steven Payne, OCD, of the Washington Province of Discalced Carmelite Friars, is a member of the Carmelite Friars' formation team at the Monastery of St. John of the Cross near Nairobi, Kenya, and director of the Institute of Spirituality and Religious Formation (ISRF) at Tangaza College, a constituent college of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) in Nairobi. He is the past editor of ICS Publications and of "Spiritual Life" magazine and the author of several works in philosophy of religion, theology, and Carmelite spirituality. He is a member of the Carmelite Forum and of the Carmelite Institute in Washington DC, of which he is a past president. ""

2010 Reprint of 1923 Edition. In this brilliant reflection on the poor friar of Assisi, G.K. Chesterton unfolds the life and times of St. Francis, from his conversion as a young man to his receiving of the Stigmata at the end of his life. While many modern biographers stumble in their effort to grasp the essence of the saint, Chesterton shows that Francis' entire life, his prayer, his poverty, his asceticism, his love of creation, and all his eccentricities, flowed from his profound love for Christ and all men. In Chesterton's colorful prose, St. Francis shines with the splendor of sanctity and calls each of us to the same intense and animating love for God and His people.

Today, as increasing numbers of people try to make sense of their lives in the face of unexpected or unlooked for change, this direct and compelling memoir by someone who has voluntarily embraced a life of radical simplicity and solitude is a real message for our times. What makes a young, Cambridge educated woman first join a religious order and then, if that were not demanding enough, seek a hermit vocation, literally on the edge of the world with only a simple hut as protection against Atlantic winds and storms? Here the author tells her story. For more than forty years Sr Verena lived a solitary life at the tip of the Lleyn Peninsula, looking out across the sea to Bardsey, Wales' island of saints, and has only recently - with increasing age - moved nearer human habitation in the parish where R S Thomas was priest. For her, this narrow straitened place became a mirror of the whole of creation and the material poverty of her life became a means to 'having nothing yet possessing all things' in the words of St Paul. Over the decades, countless people have beaten a path to her door seeking spiritual counsel and direction for their own busy lives and her account speaks directly to those who may be facing an enforced simplicity leading them into something profoundly positive and life giving.

The combination of Fresh Expressions and the explosion of interest in monastic spirituality is resulting in the emergence of new monastic communities inspired by historic patterns of religious life, but reframed for the contemporary world. This worldwide movement is seen as a radical expression of ecclesial community and was named in Mission Shaped Church as one of the leading new forms of church that would help people reconnect with Christianity. A new monastic community may be a dispersed group of families and individuals meeting to share meals and worship, it might be a group connected virtually; it might be a youth group exploring monastic spirituality. In this book, leaders of traditional religious communities and emerging 'new monastic' communities tell their stories and reflect on how an ancient expression of being church is inspiring and shaping a very new one. Included are many well-known contributors: Graham Cray, Tom Sine, Shane Claiborne, Ray Simpson, Abbot Stuart Burns and others exploring intentional living in the UK and the US.

Pachomius, who died in 346, has long been regarded as the "founder of monasticism." Available again, Philip Rousseau's careful reading of the available texts reveals that Pachomius's pioneering enterprise has been consistently misread in light of later monastic practices. Rousseau not only provides a fuller and more accurate portrait of this great teacher and spiritual director but also gives a new perspective on the development of monasticism. In a new preface Rousseau reviews the scholarly developments that have modified his views and emphases since the book was published. The result is to make Pachomius an even less assured pioneer, a man likely to have been more involved in the village and urban society of his time than previously thought.

In disarmingly simple down-to-earth language Chiara Lubich draws her readers into the very heart of evangelical love and gently challenges them to start living it. She never tired of repeating the ideas that shine through each of the texts collected in this volume. Even as she lay dying, she urged those around her to spread the gospel message of unity and peace to everyone. The few simple phrases that compose her "Art of Loving", drawn from the gospels, disclose the secret of human fulfillment found in divine love: 'Love everyone', 'Be the first to love', 'Love your neighbour as yourself', 'Love each other as I have loved you', and 'Make yourself one'. "The Golden Rule", the universal message of Christianity and the essence of every great religion, is written into the spiritual DNA of every person, even those who seem far from God. In today's ever-changing society "The Art of Loving" can serve as a daily handbook for anyone who wishes to heed what Chiara Lubich understood to be the primary vocation of every human person and the source of personal and collective fulfillment: the call of Love.

"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 heart; it is a universal spirituality that is the common inheritance of every human being; it is a search for God. From the atheist to the saint there is in the heart of al creatures a desire for ultimate meaning, a desire for God. In this sense everyone has the heart of a monk.
As you read this book you will meet some of the great themes of monastic life: silence, solitude, community life, prayer. You will also be helped to find your most authentic self, the self Thomas Merton spoke of when he said at the center of our being is a point of nothingness, a point of pure truth. Nothingness, emptiness, absence are important aspects of our spiritual journey.
There is a subtheme running through ancient monasticism that conceives of the monastery as a hospital 'a place for healing the soul, the spirit, the heart. The place of the heart is highlighted in these conferences and homilies as an ancient theme so relevant to the modern person.

"Spiritual Friendship" is today the best known and perhaps most influential of the thirteen surviving works of Aelred, abbot of the great English Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx from 1147 '1167. During his abbacy he built Rievaulx into a place of spiritual welcome and physical prosperity, desiring to make it a mother of mercy" to those in need. In a three-book Ciceronian dialogue Aelred defines human friendship as sacramental, beginning in creation, as God sought to place his own love of society in al his creatures, linking friends to Christ in this life and culminating in friendship with God in beatitude. This fresh new translation makes the work crisply readable, allowing the intellectual and Christian insight of this great Cistercian teacher and writer to speak clearly to today's seekers of love, wisdom, and truth.

"Lawrence C. Braceland, was professor of classics and dean at Ignatius College, Guelph (Canada), until in 1963 becoming professor of classics and dean of arts and sciences at St. Paul's College, the University of Manitoba. After his retirement in 1-978, he devoted himself to Cistercian scholarship, publishing numerous articles and translating in four volumes al the works of the English Cistercian abbot Gilbert of Hoyland."

"Marshal. Dutton, professor of medieval literature and director of graduate studies in English at Ohio University, is along time student of the works of Aelred of Rievaulx and of other twelfth-century Cistercian writers. She is associate editor of "Cistercian Studies Quarterly." In addition to her many articles on Cistercian thought, Dutton has written the introduction to "Vita Aelredi" (CF 57) and edited Aelred's "The Historical Works" and "Lives of the Northern Saints" (CF 56, 71) as well as preparing a critical edition of "Aelred's Pastoral Prayer" (CF 73). She was one of the editors of "Truth as Gift: Studies in Cistercian History Honoring John R. Sommerfeldt "(CS 204).""

A modern retelling of the life of St. Francis of Assisi, this book combines historical details and dramatic style. The author explores the daily lives of Francis and Clare and the lives of thirteen-century Assisi and beautifully translates their stories in these pages. St. Francis: The Saint of Assisi reads like both a love story and a biographical account of the life of the most universally acclaimed saint.

"The strength of Joan Mueller's novel is its close adherence to the historical realities of the medieval world of Saint Francis. I could see and hear the everyday lives of Francis and his brothers, of Clare and her sisters, of ordinary citizens. Mueller's rendering of the lives of clergymen and knights puts a human face on the intricate workings of church and state in war and peace."

Murray Bodo, O.F.M.

"I assume that historical sources can convey human feeling, even though it is fruitless to psychologize individual friends or to reach complete explanations about their motives. I simply accept that because medieval Christians believed in friendship and felt the need for it, some of them both practiced and lived out friendships." from the new Introduction

Human beings have always formed personal friendships. Some cultures have left behind the evidence of philosophical discussion; some have provided only private or semipublic letters. By comparing these, one discerns the effect exercised by the society in which the writers lived, its opportunities, and its restrictions. The cloistered monks of medieval Europe, who have bequeathed a rich literary legacy on the subject, have always had to take into account the overwhelming fact of community. Brian Patrick McGuire finds that in seeking friends and friendship, medieval men and women sought self-knowledge, the enjoyment of life, the commitment of community, and the experience of God.

First published in 1988, Friendship and Community has been widely debated, inspiring the current interest among medievalists in the subject of friendship. It has also informed other fields within medieval history, including monasticism, spirituality, psychology, and the relationship between self and community. In a new introduction to the Cornell edition, McGuire surveys the critical reaction to the original edition and subsequent research on the subject of medieval friendship."

One would expect an abbot to have words of wisdom for monks living in a monastery. But could his musings be relevant for those living in a complicated and often harried world? Yes, as readers will discover in this insightful collection. In these essays, from "Coldhearted Orthodoxy" to "God's DVD Library," from "The God of Hearsay" to "The Turtle on the Fencepost", readers will think in new ways about prayer and the Christian life, about faith and trust. Along the way, they will find in Jerome Kodell an abbot worthy of trust.

This is the first modern study in English of the life and thought of the ninth-century Byzantine theologian and monastic reformer, Theodore the Stoudite. Cholij provides a guide to and a complete analysis of all the primary source material attributed to Theodore. If the monastic leader is considered in the context of the tradition to which he belonged, it is clear that his religious formation occurred within a widely established school of Basilian and Palestinian Christian thought. This encourages a fresh engagement with the subtleties in Theodore's behaviour towards the Byzantine religious and secular leaders of his time and provokes new conclusions concerning the religious and secular issues which involved Theodore in controversy. Cholij refutes the established view of Theodore as a breaker of the traditional; Byzantine church and state relationship and provides new insights into Theodore's true understanding of the involvement of the Emperor in church affairs. In his analysis of the rites of holiness that belonged to Theodore's church, the author identifies a false tradition of sacramental mysteries in a misreading of Pseudo-Dionysios the Areopagite and so offers a radically new definition of the origins of the Orthodox sacramental tradition.

It is said that the heart of the home is the kitchen tale, and the same is true of the monastic home. Saint Benedict devoted ten chapters to the monastic tale and to providing and serving food as well as necessities; inserted in the middle are chapters on the sick, the aged, and children. That arrangement makes it clear that the tale is about care, not just discipline. Sister Aquinata Backmann offers a thorough study of these core chapters in Benedict's Rule. Drawing on scholarship and personal experience of the monastic tale, she demonstrates in this commentary the relationship between Benedict's Rule and other rules, including those of Basil, Augustine, and the Rule of the Master. More than discipline, what comes through here is the focus on care for weaker members, practicality about work schedules and demands, and the overall desire to meet the needs of the brothers and sisters sharing life together.

"Aquinata Backmann, OSB, PhD, is a member of the Benedictine Missionary Sisters of Tutzing, Germany. She has taught in Rome since 1973 at the Pontifical Institute for Spirituality and Moral Theology Regina Mundi and as the first woman professor at Sant' Anselmo. She is the author of "Perspectives on the Rule of Saint Benedict, " also published by Liturgical Press."

In "Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, " Father Anthony Ruff, OSB, offers a simple chanted setting and makes it possible for the responsorial psalm to be sung at every daily Mass during the seasons of the liturgical year. These responsorial psalms were conceived for unaccompanied singing led by a single cantor, but keyboard accompaniments and 'tar chords are provided for those who desire it.

The melodic settings use the eight Gregorian chant modes, as found in the psalm tones of Saint Meinrad Archabbey. Type melodies, one for each mode, are employed repeatedly for varying antiphon texts, making it easier for cantor and congregation to pick up the antiphon melodies. The psalm verses are provided in two translations, the New American Bible translation of the United States "Lectionary for Mass" and the Grail translation, as revised in 1983 for inclusive human language. This unique collection of psalm music allows us to celebrate the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter more fully.

Download ready-to-use Seasonal Assembly Leaflets of the antiphons

"Anthony Ruff, OSB, is a monk of Saint John's Abbey. He teaches theolo' litur' and'ian chant at Saint John's University and plays or' in the abbey. Ruff is the founding director of the National Catholic Youth Choir and is a frequent presenter across the U.S. on topics of liturgy and music. In addition to his many journal articles, he is the author of "Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform: Treasures and Transformations."

If you long for more meaningful connections to other people...
We've never needed this book more than we do right now. Most of us are involved with people all day long, every day, but rarely do we feel a part of real community in our lives.
In "A Good Neighbour" Robert Benson takes an intimate look at how others are defining, discovering, nurturing and sustaining life and love right where they are. Facing the confusing conflictions of modern life head on, Benson shows what it means to live in our neighborhoods, work at our jobs, be family, and friends, in ways that build places of relationship, love and mutual support.
Praise for Robert Benson:
"Robert Benson's writing reminds us of things we have half forgotten. It opens our eyes to things we have only half seen."
-Frederick Buechner
"Benson's writing is spare, simple, understated, always faintly humurous, and very forceful without seeming to be."
-Paula D'Arcy

The Benedictine abbey of Solesmes in France is famous for the quality of its Gregorian chant, recordings of which are appreciated throughout the world. Nevertheless, the life of its founder, Dom Prosper Guranger (1805-1875) is still relatively unknown. This is partly due to Guranger himself, who never sought to promote his life story. While he published many liturgical and spiritual works, this highly personal account of his early life and events surrounding the foundation of Solesmes in 1833 was never intended for publication, and indeed was never completed. For this reason, the manuscript remained in the archives of the abbey of Solesmes for well over a hundred years. Growing recognition of its wider importance and interest led to its eventual publication in 2005, the bicentenary of Guranger's birth. The book is far more than a personal portrait of an interesting and innovative individual. Through the prism of events surrounding his early life as a seminarian, secular priest and then Benedictine monk, Guranger's account illustrates many of the wider issues at play in early nineteenth-century France and French Catholicism. Guranger's first-hand account of various political events under the regimes of Napoleon I, the Bourbon Restoration and Louis-Philippe has its own historical value. Above all, however, the book shows how Guranger's project to re-found Benedictine life in France, after its disappearance in the wake of the French Revolution, stood in relation to other currents of religious thought and monastic tradition, notably Gallicanism, Ultramontanism, the Maurists and the Cistercians. Those interested in monastic life and liturgical spirituality will further draw inspiration from Guranger's narration of the human relationships and mystical experiences that inspired his Benedictine vocation and subsequent life's work. Guranger's lively text is also enjoyable in its own right. His optimism, determination, creativity, unwavering trust in divine providence, capacity for friendship and often humorous (and occasionally devastating) portraits of the many people whom he encountered give a particular charm and colour to his writing. Ultimately, however, this account of Guranger's spiritual and intellectual awakening provides impetus for a renewed contemporary appreciation of his convictions, which are of perennial value for all who are seeking God. The monastic community founded by Guranger bears witness to the transforming power of contemplative liturgical spirituality lived in and for the Church and the world. As such, monastic life serves as an exemplar of spiritual and human values whose relevance extends far beyond the cloister. Extensive footnotes, and an introduction by Dr Judith Bowen, whose recent doctoral thesis is one of the most important studies on the unity and significance of Guranger's liturgical and theological work, further enhance this translation.

This major 2006 history of monasticism in early Anglo-Saxon England explores the history of the Church between the conversion to Christianity in the sixth century and a monastic revival in the tenth. It represents the first comprehensive revision of accepted views about monastic life in England before the Benedictine reform. Sarah Foot shows how early Anglo-Saxon religious houses were simultaneously active and contemplative, their members withdrawing from the preoccupations of contemporary aristocratic society, while still remaining part of that world. Focusing on the institution of the 'minster' (the communal religious community) and rejecting a simplistic binary division between active 'minsters' and enclosed 'monasteries', Foot argues that historians have been wrong to see minsters in the light of ideals of Benedictine monasticism. Instead, she demonstrates that Anglo-Saxon minsters reflected more of contemporary social attitudes; despite their aim for solitude, they retained close links to aristocratic German society.

The pearlers we meet in this book were early monks of Syria, Mesopotamia (Iraq), and Persia (Iran), They saw themselves as pearl-divers and pearl-merchants searching, through asceticism and prayer, for the precious pearls of mystical experience. Their quest led them into the wilderness, to a state of silent solitude in remote caves and hermitages. Working from Syriac manuscripts in the British Museum and the Vatican Library, and from the Greek monastery of Saint Catherine in the wilderness of Sinai and the Coptic monastery of the Syrians (Der es-Suriani) in the Egyptian desert, Brian E. Colless has produced a volume which draws modern readers into this little known world.

Thomas Merton was one of the greatest contemporary spiritual writers, whose books have enabled millions of readers to rediscover the importance of prayer in their inner lives. Yet until now Merton's own personal interior life has remained something of a mystery. In Thomas Merton: Master of Attention one of the most distinguished Merton scholars reveals his 'way of prayer'. An ideal introduction to Merton, and essential reading for every admirer of his work.

Early Irish Monasticism is an exploration of the ascetical theology and praxis of sixth to eighth century Irish monasticism as a radical response to the gospel. It claims that the radicality of this response arose from the distinctive cultural consciousness of the Celts. It concentrates on the Irish Celts and makes use of a wide variety of sources including pre and post-Christian elements: social organisations, sagas, Brehon Laws and druidism to emphasise that culture to a great extent determines one's response to life. Syncretism, which the study sees as indicative of the Irish proclivity to accept other peoples' religions tradition, is an element of the study that may not be familiar to some readers. Some of the photos are included in the appendices to reinforce the concrete evidence for this in both Scotland and Ireland. The primary sources utilized include: Irish penitentials, monastic rules, the Vita of ColumCille and the Sermons of Columbanus. These sources, especially the monastic rules and penitentials, have often been read 'out of context' and have so given rise to the allegation that the Irish were overly harsh in their living and that they were obsessed with sexual sins. Both aspects of Irish monasticism are treated in a reassessed understanding of the basics of asceticism drawing on the earlier formulation of Cassian in his theory of Contraries. The Sermons of Columbanus, the quintessential Irish wanderer on the Continent, are goldmines of ascetical theology while also being important extant historical documents.>

Andre Llouf'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 served as abbot Cistercian Abbey of Mont des Cats in northern France until his retirement in 1997 and now lives as a solitary. Previous books in English include "Teach Us To Pray, Tuning into Grace, Grace Can Do More: Spiritual Accompaniment, "and "Mercy in Weakness: Meditations on the Word.

"Lawrence S. Cunningham is Professor of Theology at Notre Dame and book notes columnist for "Commonweal.