This work goes beyond the basics of classroom management to consider the path of both teacher and student toward authentic intellectual maturity and spiritual growth. It provides a framework for stripping away the external and personal pressures that bleed intellectual content out of classroom teaching so that teachers may, in fact, experience their vocation as sublime. Written in the novelistic first-person narrative, it is a seasoned teacher's story of his initiation from graduate student at the University of Chicago to ninth-grade teacher in a Catholic high school where he manned the battle lines in provincial, petty, sometime even violent world of American secondary school. It is also the story of how a certain Brother Blake, a 67-year-old practitioner of the pedagogy of the sublime, passed on his vision of classroom teaching as a sublime vocation. A major contribution to the field by the acclaimed author of The Ignorant Perfection of Ordinary People.

This pocket-sized treasury of wisdom from the influential Christian contemplative, political activist, social visionary, and literary figure is abridged from the larger collection "Seeds "by Robert Inchausti (Shambhala, 2002).

This work goes beyond the basics of classroom management to consider the path of both teacher and student toward authentic intellectual maturity and spiritual growth. It provides a framework for stripping away the external and personal pressures that bleed intellectual content out of classroom teaching so that teachers may, in fact, experience their vocation as sublime. Written in the novelistic first-person narrative, it is a seasoned teacher's story of his initiation from graduate student at the University of Chicago to ninth-grade teacher in a Catholic high school where he manned the battle lines in provincial, petty, sometime even violent world of American secondary school. It is also the story of how a certain Brother Blake, a 67-year-old practitioner of the pedagogy of the sublime, passed on his vision of classroom teaching as a sublime vocation. A major contribution to the field by the acclaimed author of The Ignorant Perfection of Ordinary People.

'This Lenten devotional is unlike any I've seen. It's not about giving up something trivial for a few weeks. It's about getting free of the "false self" that alienates us from ourselves, each other, and God. Nobody understood that transformation better than Thomas Merton - and nobody understands Merton better than Robert Inchausti.' Parker J. Palmer, writer, speaker and author of On the Brink of Everything The Way of Thomas Merton guides you through the major themes of Merton's work and shows how his advice can help you to overcome the obstacles that modern life presents for spiritual development. For Merton, the spiritual life is a journey from the false to the true self - a journey that all followers of Jesus must take - and this book will help you to love and nurture your true self as you journey through Lent and beyond. 'While no one can take your journey for you, Inchausti's poetically insightful reflection on Thomas Merton's life of deep inquiry opens a window through which you may discover your own unique pathway home.' Ward Mailliard, Co-founder of the Mount Madonna Center, Watsonville, California