The Vows Book reveals that many issues and concerns for vowed religious have universal aspects to them. These reflections on the monastic vows can be helpful for all who seek to live Christian life with joy and integrity. The Vows Book opens the meaning of the traditional religious vows of obedience, poverty and chastity from the little-explored perspective of Anglican religious orders. The author, Clark Berge, SSF, writes from his experience as a life-professed member of the Anglican/Episcopal Society of St. Francis, and a priest in The Episcopal Church. Grounded in Baptismal vows, the religious vows are inspiration and strength for members of orders and others (their admirers), engaging in the Gospel work of justice and healing for the world. Often discredited as repressive and old-fashioned, the vows protect a precious way of life that is radical vulnerability to God and service to the world.

At the age of forty-five, unfit and overweight, Clark Berge, a professed Franciscan friar, took up running. In his younger life he had struggled with alcoholism and with his sexual identity. Running became cathartic not just for his body, but for making peace with the lingering shame of a troubled past, facing unresolved questions and coming to a fuller acceptance of who he was. As the elected leader of a worldwide religious community, the opportunity to run in widely differing urban and wild places -the English countryside, wide South African and Australian landscapes, busy cities and remote Pacific islands - opened up larger spiritual insights into the nature of religious life, social activism, contemplation, life on the margins, solitude and community, fear and fortitude, simplicity and living in harmony with creation, and coming in last in his first marathon. This unique memoir of running and religion explores Christian spirituality with a disarming honesty and depth.