Anglican Religious Life is an international directory of religious communities throughout the Anglican Communion. Now in its tenth edition and with a widened focus, it offers a complete directory of communities throughout the Anglican world, plus information on the many groups of companions and associates attached to traditional religious communities. For each community, it gives information on retreat accommodation, times of services and community wares. News features, articles and photographs give a vivid picture of the Franciscans, Benedictines and other religious orders who form a spiritual core to the worldwide Anglican church.

This book combines a rich description of the (Lutheran) Formula of Concord (1577) with experiences in today's Lutheran parishes to demonstrate how confessional texts may still come to life in modern Christian congregations. Timothy Wengert takes the Formula of Concord, traditionally used as ammunition in doctrinal disagreements, back to its historical home, the local congregation, giving pastors, students, and theologians a glimpse into the original debates over each article. The most up-to-date English commentary on the Formula of Concord, A Formula for Parish Practice provides helpful, concise descriptions of key theological debates and a unique weaving of historical and textual commentary with modern Lutheran experience. Covering the entire Formula of Concord the book includes discussion questions at the end of each chapter.

This book surveys the full panorama of ten centuries of Christian monastic life. It moves from the deserts of Egypt and the Frankish monasteries of early medieval Europe to the religious ruptures of the eleventh and twelfth centuries and the reforms of the later Middle Ages. Throughout that story the book balances a rich sense of detail with a broader synthetic view. It presents the history of religious life and its orders as a complex braid woven from multiple strands: individual and community, spirit and institution, rule and custom, church and world. The result is a synthesis that places religious life at the center of European history and presents its institutions as key catalysts of Europe's move toward modernity.

Jonas of Bobbio was an Italian monk, author, and abbot, active in Lombard Italy and Merovingian Gaul during the seventh century. He is best known as the author of the Life of Columbanus and His Disciples, one of the most important works of hagiography from the early medieval period, that charts the remarkable journey of the Irish exile and monastic founder, Columbanus (d. 615), through Western Europe, as well as the monastic movement initiated by him and his Frankish successors in the Merovingian kingdoms. In the years following Columbanus's death numerous new monasteries were built by his successors and their elite patrons in Francia that decisively transformed the inter-relationship between monasteries and secular authorities in the Early Middle Ages. Jonas also wrote two other, occasional works set in the late fifth and sixth centuries: the Life of John, the abbot and founder of the monastery of Reome in Burgundy, and the Life of Vedast, the first bishop of Arras and a contemporary of Clovis. Both works provide perspectives on how the past Gallic monastic tradition, the role of bishops, and the Christianization of the Franks were perceived in Jonas's time. Jonas's hagiography also provides important evidence for the reception of classical and late antique texts as well as the works of Gregory the Great and Gregory of Tours.This volume presents the first complete English translation of all of Jonas of Bobbio's saints' Lives with detailed notes and scholarly introduction that will be of value to all those interested in this period.

The work of Dom Adalbert de Vogue, O.S.B. (1924-2011) serves as the basis of all serious study of the Rule of Benedict. In the first volume of this edition, Vogue uses literary criticism to show how the Rule of Benedict developed. He establishes the dependence of the Rule of Benedict on the Rule of the Master.

The Benedictine monk Pierre-Francois de Bethune has dedicated his life to following the lead of the great pioneers of interreligious dialogue at the level of spiritual experience. Having practiced zazen and "Way of tea" assiduously for decades, he now leads readers along the path of spiritual hospitality, describing how welcoming other religions transformed him and brought him to rediscover the Gospel. In this volume, he evokes the spiritual journeys of some of the pioneers of interreligious dialogue, among them, Thomas Merton, Henri Le Saux, Raimon Panikkar, and Christian de Cherge and the monks of Tibhirine. In doing so, he proposes that their commitment to dialogue, hospitality, and welcoming the other corresponds to what the Gospel requires of the followers of Jesus.

At the age of nineteen, Catherine Spalding (1793--1858) ventured into what would become a lifetime of leadership with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (SCN) -- one of the most significant American religious communities for women. As a cofounder and first superior of the order, she dedicated her life to developing and improving health care, services for orphans, and education on the early frontier. Her contributions had a lasting impact on Catholicism, the state of Kentucky, and the many people whose lives she touched. Mary Ellen Doyle supplements her definitive biography of the influential educator and humanitarian, Pioneer Spirit, with this meticulously edited and annotated volume. The collected correspondence illustrates Spalding's exemplary character and the scope of her day-to-day life as an administrator. Together, the letters reveal a new picture of Spalding's personality and drive, her insights, her trials, and her world as mother superior. The collection also gives readers a valuable glimpse of antebellum life in Kentucky and the wider south. Doyle presents the correspondence chronologically, following Spalding through key stages in her career from the founding of the SCN to her final years, as she turned to quieter cares. She provides essential historical context and information about Spalding's various correspondents, and she also analyzes the significance of letters missing from the collection. Catherine Spalding, SCN brings the SCN founder's words to a broader audience and offers readers new perspectives on both the world in which she lived and frontier faith.

This new book by Sister Aquinata Boeckmann discusses the Prologue and chapters 1, 2, and 3 of the Rule of St. Benedict. In a lectio regulae she plumbs the depths of Benedict's vision. Listen, the first word of the Prologue, is a keyword that describes the main stance of the individual monastic, the superior, and the entire community. Listening to the Scriptures and in them to Christ guides individuals and the community on how to "run on the way of God's commandments" toward the goal of communal life in and with Christ. The first three chapters of the Rule concretize the principles of this communal spirituality of listening: the importance of a rule and a pastor for maintaining the community's attentiveness to life; the superior's responsibility to listen to individuals within the community; and the mutual listening between leader and community members, regardless of their age. As in her earlier books Sister Aquinata proves to be a true guide into the spirit of Benedict's Rule, which provides sound principles for listening in common in a community of life.

For three decades, Monastic Practices has been a valued resource for English-speaking aspirants to monastic life. In this revised edition, updated and expanded, Charles Cummings, OCSO, explores the common practices of the monastic life in order to rediscover them as viable means of leading persons to a deeper encounter with God. How do monks and nuns occupy themselves throughout the day? Have they modernized their lifestyle or is it still cluttered with medieval customs? Could any of the monastic practices be of use to those outside the monastery? A certain wisdom is necessary to know how to use such practices and how to give oneself to them until they lead one to God. After long monastic experience, Cummings shows us how the ordinary things we do constitute our path to God. In the art of living life, he argues, we are always beginners, searching for God through our concrete circumstances and actions.

Dom Andre Louf (+2010) was abbot of the Trappist-Cistercian monastery of Mont-des-Cats in northern France from 1963 to 1997. This book brings together talks given to a variety of audiences in which he shared his spiritual experience from both his life of prayer and his life in community. Each chapter offers inspiring insights on the spiritual experience, the priority of love, and other areas of our Christian life: community life, obedience, prayer, psalms, the liturgy, and more. In this book we enter "a school of contemplation" wherein the monastic experience enlightens our lives and service to the world and the Church.

The 15th century was a time of dramatic and decisive change for nuns and nunneries in Florence. In the course of that century, the city's convents evolved from small, semiautonomous communities to large civic institutions. By 1552, roughly one in eight Florentine women lived in a religious community. Historian Sharon T. Strocchia analyzes this stunning growth of female monasticism, revealing the important roles these women and institutions played in the social, economic, and political history of Renaissance Florence.

It became common practice during this time for unmarried women in elite society to enter convents. This unprecedented concentration of highly educated and well-connected women transformed convents into sites of great patronage and social and political influence. As their economic influence also grew, convents found new ways of supporting themselves; they established schools, produced manuscripts, and manufactured textiles.

Strocchia has mined previously untapped archival materials to uncover how convents shaped one of the principal cities of Renaissance Europe. She demonstrates the importance of nuns and nunneries to the booming Florentine textile industry and shows the contributions that ordinary nuns made to Florentine life in their roles as scribes, stewards, artisans, teachers, and community leaders. In doing so, Strocchia argues that the ideals and institutions that defined Florence were influenced in great part by the city's powerful female monastics.

"Nuns and Nunneries in Renaissance Florence" shows for the first time how religious women effected broad historical change and helped write the grand narrative of medieval and Renaissance Europe. The book is a valuable text for students and scholars in early modern European history, religion, women's studies, and economic history.

People of God is a brand new series of inspiring biographies for the general reader. Each volume offers a compelling and honest narrative of the life of an important twentieth or twenty-first century Catholic. Some living and some now deceased, each of these women and men have known challenges and weaknesses familiar to most of us, but responded to them in ways that call us to our own forms of heroism. Each of them offers a credible and concrete witness of faith, hope, and love to people of our own day.
Thomas Merton was the consummate post-modern holy one: flawed, anti-institutional, a voice for the voiceless. But he was also a classical traditionalist: centered, obedient, in search of stability. He was a religious thinker of remarkable insight, a social commentator of courage and conviction, and a writer of startling virtuosity. Michael W. Higgins recounts the life of this insatiable wanderer. He explores the various layers of influence and evolution in Merton's thought and spirituality. This book tells the remarkable story of a life that remains to be understood from its beginnings and long after its premature ending.

"How should we live in this house of God? We know that the way a building is shaped also helps in determining the way those within it live and relate. We are indeed formed by what we form. Qualities such as integrity, hospitality, humanity and beauty in a place will enable its dwellers to live lives in which such qualities are evident. The way we understand who we are and how we live will be reflected in our places and vice versa. Our places become bearers of meaning and memory." --From Chapter 1In "Living in the House of God," Margaret Malone draws on her study of and research on the Rule of Saint Benedict to show the ways in which this ancient rule can illuminate modern life. The broad gamut of topics this book examines--from Benedictine life as sacrament to Augustine's influence on Benedict to obedience and the art of listening, among others--is itself a witness to the generous flexibility of the Rule, as Benedict proposes a way of life that truly corresponds to the deepest needs of the whole of human nature.

Cristiana Piccardo was the long-time abbess of an unusual Cistercian community in Italy. "We have always believed," she writes, "that the monastic charism can be a precious 'talent' offered to our contemporary world, and there are moments in history when what normally remains hidden should come into the light." These words accurately describe both the force behind the story of the Vitorchiano monastic family and the account of it given in Living Wisdom, her reflection on the meaning of that story. Over the course of four decades, the Abbey of Vitorchiano would found no fewer than six new monasteries around the world, from Argentina to Indonesia, and today this vibrant oasis of prayer and Christian living still has some eighty sisters of its own. What is the secret of such success? In a nutshell, we could say that, in the Vitorchiano perspective, the monastery is nothing other than a microcosm of the church and of human society. The book, translated from the Italian, initiates us in a most concrete way into a wisdom that seeks the kingdom of God ardently yet realistically, without ever bypassing the essential human foundations that the life in Christ transforms and elevates but never supplants: hard work, communal striving, friendship, honesty in communication, a sense of humor, and, above all, love--the willingness both to ask for forgiveness and to give it with joy.

Light in the Shoe Shop offers readers a unique and intimate glance into the day-to-day experience of living the cloistered life in feminine mode. In her "cobbler's contemplations"--no metaphor here: the author did indeed make and mend her sisters' shoes for many years--Mother Agnes reveals the very simple secret of monastic life, a secret she shows to be an inseparable combination of mindfulness and fidelity. It is continual mindfulness of God's transformative presence and action and, in response, equally continual fidelity to each of the minutely detailed ways in which that loving divine presence woos the contemplative's heart. Even those who strive for a more contemplative life outside of literal cloisters will find her reflections to be a great gift and inspiration. "This book is decidedly not just one more item in the picturesque genre of the 'nun's story.' Rather, for all its slenderness, the volume bears a strong witness to the fact that a human life that stakes its all on loving will gradually become transfused with light." From the foreword by Simeon Leiva, OCSO

John W. O'Malley gives us the most comprehensive account ever written of the Society of Jesus in its founding years, one that heightens and transforms our understanding of the Jesuits in history and today. Following the Society from 1540 through 1565, O'Malley shows how this sense of mission evolved. He looks at everything-the Jesuits' teaching, their preaching, their casuistry, their work with orphans and prostitutes, their attitudes toward Jews and "New Christians," and their relationship to the Reformation. All are taken in by the sweep of O'Malley's story as he details the Society's manifold activities in Europe, Brazil, and India.

This volume offers translations of the twelfth-century Latin "vitae" of four monks of the Monastery of Savigny: Abbot Vitalis, Abbot Godfrey, Peter of Avranches, and Blessed Hamo. Founded in 1113 by Vitalis of Mortain, an influential hermit-preacher, Savigny expanded to a congregation of thirty monasteries under his successor Godfrey (1122-1138). In 1147, the entire congregation joined the Cistercian Order. Around 1172, two monks of Savigny, Peter of Avranches and Hamo, friends but very different personalities, died. Their stories were told in two further "vitae."The "vitae" of these four men exemplify the variety of people and movements found in the monastic ferment of the twelfth century.

2014 Reprint of 1950 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Catherine ranks high among the mystics and spiritual writers of the Catholic Church. She remains a greatly respected figure for her spiritual writings, and for her political boldness to "speak truth to power." This was exceptional for a woman in this period. The "Dialogue" speaks to the whole spiritual life of man and is presented in the form of a series of colloquies between the Eternal Father and the human soul (represented by Catherine herself). It is a mystical counterpart in prose to Dante's "Divina Commedia." This edition is translated from the original Italian by Algar Thorold.

"Reaching for God" is a compendium of Benedictine life and prayer for oblates. It brings together in one volume the essence of Benedictine spirituality-its history, its relevance through the ages and in the present, and a summary of the most fundamental gifts and values it offers for living a meaningful life. Here, the meaning and purpose of the oblate way of life is explained in a clear and encouraging way. Werner offers guidance and examples of prayer to enrich any spiritual life.

"Sister Roberta Werner, OSB, having worked as a teacher, caregiver, and educational administrator, is now the assistant oblate director at St. Benedict's Monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota. In this role, she guides an oblate discussion group, contributes to oblate newsletter publications, has set up an oblate library, and makes the spiritual journey with the many oblates who connect with her and with the monastery in their search for God."

There has never been a richer time for Franciscan studies than now, thanks in great part to the publication of Francis of Assisi: Early Documents (FA:ED) in 2002. Hugo's workbook is a proven resource that has guided people at all academic levels through a study of the life and writings of Saint Francis using primary sources in translation. This Second Edition is a thorough revision that is totally compatible with FA:ED. It also includes new scholarship and new bibliographic references. More than half the worksheets of the previous edition have been revised, and others have been added. The worksheets can be done by individuals or in groups or seminars. General readers will enjoy learning about Saint Francis and how hagiography shaped the public stories of medieval saints. Formation directors who teach the life and writings of Saint Francis should not be without this extraordinary sourcebook with its readymade lesson plans and insightful commentaries. A Beginner's Workbook is an invaluable guide - Br. Bill Hugo takes pains not to interject his own person between the voyager and St. Francis. Rather, he provides the tools and maps out a route for one to discover for her/himself the person of Francis.

Christophe Lebreton, 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 recent 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 both by its vivid sincerity and by the fresh and inventive quality of its poetic expression. Through these pages readers become privy to the daily events in the soul of a generous searcher after God under very trying conditions. His style is highly personal, playful, ardent, full of color and whimsy.

In his old age, Roland Walls stood in awe admiring a tiny flower beside the path - 'isn't it beautiful? Just sitting there. Not drawing attention to itself. Just being itself'. Hearing these words, the author applied them in his mind to the Community of the Transfiguration. This tiny, humble contemplative religious Community, founded by the much-loved Roland Walls in Roslin near Edinburgh, achieved its far-reaching international and ecumenical influence by embodying a simple mode of 'Being' in a world where most people are extremely busy 'Doing'. Through the story of the Community's origins and its 50 years of existence, the author explores how, in an era when Europe has been shedding its religious faith, and the historic churches have been in decline, this tiny Christian community has been inspirational testimony to the relevance of religious faith in the 21st century.