Cassian taught that real intimacy with God in prayer demands renouncing one's former way of life, the thoughts belonging to that former way of life, and one's very idea of God. In "Thoughts Matter," Mary Margaret Funk focuses on the second of these: renouncing the thoughts belonging to one's former way of life. Her eight chapters focus on different thoughts"-food, sex, anger, dejection, "acedia" (profound weariness of the soul), vainglory (taking credit for good actions), and pride.

Funk explains well how failure to control these thoughts can undermine our spiritual life, and she instructs readers on how effectively to overcome these thoughts and to focus instead on thoughts in harmony with God's will. The result is an experience of joy, hope, and freedom from enslavement to our appetites. Readers will come away enlightened, strengthened, and inspired to delve more deeply into a life of intimacy with God.

"Lectio divina" is a way of praying by sustained immersion into a revelatory text. While Scripture is the classic place of encounter with God, the text could also be the book of life or the book of nature.

In"Lectio Matters," respected spiritual guide Meg Funk accompanies the reader in exploring the various levels of lectio divina as taught by the ancient church writers and by sharing her own long experience. By means of this wisdom both ancient and new, "lectio divina" can become our burning bush, a real encounter with the living God, in which we take off our sandals and bow our brow to the ground.

After fifty years of monastic life, prayer, and spiritual direction, Meg Funk knows what it means to listen with the ear of one's heart to the Holy Spirit. In"Discernment Matters," she shares what she has learned. This book is a resource for those who want to learn and practice discernment as taught by the early monastic tradition. It includes an accessible summary of teachings about discernment from monastic traditions of late antiquity, consideration of important tools for making decisions today, and practical examples from the lives of St. Benedict and St. Patrick, as well as from the experience of monastics today.

With this fifth volume of the Matters Series, Funk completes one of the most comprehensive presentations of the spiritual life available today, demonstrating why this inner work is both necessary and such a joy.

"Mary Margaret Funk is a Benedictine nun of Our Lady of Grace Monastery, Beech Grove, Indiana. From 1994 through 2004, she served as executive director of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, which fosters dialogue among monastics of the world's religions. In addition to the volumes of the Matters Series, she is the author of "Islam Is... An Experience of Dialogue and Devotion" and "Into the Depths: A Journey of Loss and Vocation.

Written from her deep experience in the monastic tradition, Sister Mary Margaret Funk shows us that, with faith and our given vocations, we are more than strong enough to resist and renounce the violence in the world around us. This book offers, both for personal use and for the broader community, a teaching for our troubled times, a teaching that empowers the reader to renounce violence in all its bold and subtle forms. As a concrete example, Funk retrieves the practice and symbolism of using holy water to bless, cleanse, and free us from violence wherever it is emerging-in our personal lives and in our world. This practice has thrived in the monastic tradition and has a language with a voice.

Christians and Muslims both have an abundance of names for God. The Bible provides Christians with a rich array of names for God, and the ninety-nine Names that Islam gives traditionally to God are drawn from the Qur'an. Praise the Name of the Lord is an offering of texts, from the Qur'an and Bible, meant to lead to meditation and prayer. To pray starting from the texts of another religion can help us to acquire a better appreciation of that religion. It is possible that we will find different echoes that can capture our attention and may nourish our prayer, encouraging dialogue with the persons among whom we are living.

"Humility Matters" makes the claims that humility is for a disciple of Jesus Christ what enlightenment is for a Buddhist, realization for a Hindu, surrender for a Muslim, and righteousness for a Jew. It is the unmistakable character of one who has accepted the vocation to undertake the spiritual journey. It is at the core of our experience of life in Christ.

Meg Funk guides readers deeper into a life of humility by following the movement of what the early Christians called the four renunciations: to renounce our former way of life, our thoughts of our former way of life, our self-made thoughts of God, and our self-made thoughts of ourselves. With the help of the compelling examples of St. Benedict, St. Teresa of Jesus, and St. Therese of Lisieux, Funk shows the way to ongoing conversion of mind, heart, and way of life.

"Mary Margaret Funk is a Benedictine nun of Our Lady of Grace Monastery, Beech Grove, Indiana. From 1994 through 2004, she served as executive director of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, which fosters dialogue among monastics of the world's religions. In addition to the volumes of the Matters Series, she is the author of "Islam Is... An Experience of Dialogue and Devotion" and "Into the Depths: A Journey of Loss and Vocation.

How can we tend the garden of our souls? Meg Funk turns to the wisdom of the desert fathers for the means of removing obstacles to spiritual growth, which include thoughts of food, sex, possessions, anger, dejection, and pride, among other preoccupations. Redirecting thought away from such weeds in the garden of the spirit can lead to a greater awareness of God and purity of prayer.

This method to mental discipline may seem impossible at first, Funk admits, but those who succeed at it are rewarded with a liberating experience as they come to observe and control individual thought processes. Drawing on the writings of the fifth-century monk John Cassian, Funk goes on to explore deeply using such tools as memory, imagination, and rational thinking-tools right out of early Christianity-to work on inner healing. She also explains how other positive tools, such as ceaseless prayer, manual labor, and isolation, may lead to uncluttering the mind and purifying the heart.

"Mary Margaret Funk is a Benedictine nun of Our Lady of Grace Monastery, Beech Grove, Indiana. From 1994 through 2004, she served as executive director of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, which fosters dialogue among monastics of the world's religions. In addition to the volumes of the Matters Series, she is the author of "Islam Is... An Experience of Dialogue and Devotion" and "Into the Depths: A Journey of Loss and Vocation.