Carthusian spirituality and wisdom have a great attraction for our age. The goal of Carthusian life is union with God in Love. A union as profound and continual as is possible in this life. It has its source in God who is the first to call us to intimacy with Him. The Carthusian's life, the Carthusian's love, is a response to that Love - cultivating solitude, silence, poverty, chastity, obedience, fraternal charity, spiritual reading, study, work and, above all, prayer. Prayer of adoration, praise and intercession. This book is written as a guide to help the beginner during his first months in the Charterhouse. It is a practical introduction for the aspirant to the Carthusian life, providing guidelines of orientation to help during the first steps in solitude as well as essential themes of spiritual formation. Following the young monk, listening in complete openness to God who speaks in the depth of his heart, the reader outside the monastery can gain an insight into this powerful spirituality and the silence of a heart in love. Other books of classic Carthusian spirituality published by Gracewing include The Call of Silent Love, Early Carthusian Writings, Interior Prayer, The Prayer of Love and Silence, They Speak by Silences, The Way of Silent Love and The Wound of Love.

The theme of this book is the Beatitudes, and the apparent contradictions they contain are shown to offer a radical freedom to those who respond to the call to live wholly in Christ. Here is the important message that this call is not restricted to those who have a vocation to the monastic life, but is to all Christians. The book enables readers of all backgrounds to share the fruits of a hidden and solitary life - a gift that will be universally apprecciated. The classic monastic tradition is opened up in a radical and contemporary vision for us all.

The Carthusian's traditional doctrine on prayer - from its very beginnings to the simplicity of its highest forms. Far from being abstract and theoretical, we learn about the prayer process by sharing the novices' concrete spiritual journey. Their problems and difficulties, and the many pitfalls they encounter on the way, are expressed in anongoing dialogue with their guide who relates to each one individually. Illuminating, even dazzling, insights, in one of the most profound books on Christian prayer available today. Many will find help here in their own quest for God and the ultimate purpose of life.

A vocation is an extremely mysterious reality. The call of God is not something extrinsic; it penetrates to the most intimate centre of the heart. We are what we are on account of this call. The Call of Silent Love is a profound and eloquent examination of the twin themes of vocation and discernment in which the father-master speaks about the nature of a calling, and the interanl and external struggles, the discernment of spirits and the overall framework in which we live our lives. 'The reader is faced with a rare and compelling account of Carthusian spirituality that is simple, sustaining and inviting - to every Christian.' (The Tablet) Other books of classic Carthusian spirituality published by Gracewing include The Prayer of Love and Silence, They Speak by Silences and The Wound of Love.

What is Carthusian life really like? What actually goes on in a Charterhouse? Is the Order's ancient mixture of carefully regulated solitary and community life a hoepless harking back to the Middle Ages, or is it relevant to modern lifestyles and problems? If any book can answer these questions, it is The Wound of Love. It provides background information on the Carthusian Order, including letters from St Bruno, its founder, and a reflection on Bruno's continuing significance today. The many concerns of Carthusian life are evident here: solitude, fraternal love, prayer, monastic vows, work and lirturgy, and each is tackled with great honesty, wit and wisdom. This book is testimony to how much there is to be learned about life 'in' the world from the Carthusians' standpoint 'outside' it. While the Carthusian call to find God always and everywhere is essentially the same vocation as that of all Christians, there is an intensity about the monastic life which distils the message and makes it more fiery, more compelling. This book will prove a bracing brew for all those who would sample it. Other books of Carthusian spirituality published by Gracewing include The Call of Silent Love, The Prayer of Love and Silence, and They Speak by Silences.

The thoughts contained in this book were from the pen of one who, in the silence of the Charterhouse, had already arrived at the summits of the spiritual heights, and dwelt there unceasingly. Souls who have reached such perfection in this life are rare; not so rare, however, are those who ardently aspire thereto. It is chiefly for such as these - to encourage and help them to arrive at those same heights - that these thoughts have been preserved and collected. They Speak by Silences was first published in French in 1948, and has since allowed Carthusian wisdom and spirituality to reach the widest possible audience. This new, and widely requested edition carries on the tradition. It will provide material for daily reading and reflection for newcomers to Carthusian spirituality and, equally, for those who have already discovered the riches it has to offer. Not everyone can experience that same recollection that exists in a Charterhouse, but they must not be afraid to set aside as far as possible at least some moments, however short, for recollection and to give some time to Him Who is within them. It is in that silence that He speaks to us, and bids us listen to Him. Other books of classic Carthusian spirituality published by Gracewing include The Call of Silent Love, The Prayer of Love and Silence and The Wound of Love.

"The Prayer of Love and Silence" issues a powerful invitation to respond to the love of Christ. The volume is centered on the need for prayer and teaches that prayer should be a continual response to Christ's call to make him the center of one's life.

Followers of the way of Jesus Christ through two millennia have engaged in the joyful yet life 'costing struggle of responding to the challenge of being transformed into his likeness. This further volume of Carthusian Novice Conferences offers the father 'master's words of instruction on poverty to the men who have been drawn to the Carthusian form of the Christian way.

As with al of us, 'poverty' operates on many levels, and one of the most remarkable qualities of these talks is that they range over the economic history as well as the more traditionally spiritual teaching of the Carthusian Order in its own struggle to seek Christ in simplicity and silence.

Like al Christians, the Carthusians find Jesus the great Exemplar of the poverty that is desirable and yet 'costs not less than everything'; and once again we are reminded, with characteristic directness, of the source and fount of the desirable poverty - the total mutual self-giving of the Persons of the Holy Trinity.

The author writes with warmth, with learning, with passion and with humor. The reader can enter into something of the accumulated wisdom of an Order whose members 'have carried out the same little series of exercises since the eleventh century'. Each season has its special appeal for Carthusians - as the Conferences on Mary and on John the Baptist in the Advent and Christmas seasons show. The great Sunday Gospels of Lent - the Transfiguration, the Samaritan woman at the well, the raising of Lazarus - are expounded; the Passion of Christ is the subject of meditations that are profoundly and sometimes startlingly direct in their candour.

Yet perhaps the most remarkable part of this unusual book the author's capacity to speak at length and to the point about the Resurrection and the coming of the Spirit. Here, where Christian teachers and preachers have so often been either hesitant or dogmatically remote, we have someone who clearly participates in the mysteries of which he speaks. It is a priceless gift to us al.

'The spiritual centre of the human person, the self', writes the author, 'maintains its fundamental identity for the whole of life on earth and is destined for participation in the eternal life of God... The person is not a succession of separate points at the mercy of the conditions of the moment. God has given us a share in his power as creator, and to create ourselves through our liberty, to go beyond ourselves towards absolute values'. These reflections by a Carthusian novice master for those training for the life of silent love show that in the obedience born of love, one responds to the al encompassing, deeply intimate and sustaining love of God.

Calm and spirituality 'the true hallmarks of Carthusian writings 'distinguish this book. The first part sets out the principles of the interior life; the second works out a method of prayer. There follow eleven sermons, originally given to monks in chapter, which illustrate this approach. The final portion discusses the complex doctrine of the Trinity: the extraordinary clarity. Broken into short chapters, the book is designed for personal reflection and meditation.

"Prayer is a journey, sometimes a combat. There are trials, purifications, passages. It is at once the most simple and the most profound of human activities. May these pages help someone to discover its hidden joy." For members of the Carthusian order, prayer is not just something that is done at certain times of day: It is in fact the vital respiration of their faith. This third volume of novice conferences gives us access once again to the Carthusians' profound wisdom, as we share the initiation of a group of young monks into the practice of prayer. Interior Prayer contains the Carthusians' traditional doctrine on prayer - from its very beginnings to the simplicity of its highest forms. Far from being abstract and theoretical, we learn about the prayer process by sharing in the novices' concrete spiritual journey. Their problems and difficulties, and the many pitfalls they encounter on the way, are expressed in an ongoing dialogue with their guide who relates to each one individually. Many will find help here in their own quest for God and the ultimate purpose of life.

A carthusian novice master reminds his charges, and his readers, that the call to live wholly and radically in Christ is the vocation of al Christians and al humanity. 'The Christian is not a separate species of human being, but what each person is called to be. And the monk is not a separate species of Christian. He tries to be what each Christian ought to be. Conformity to Christ in faith, hope, and love: this is holiness, and each person is called to this holiness.'