You are about to embark into a book that has taken four years in the making. Once Upon a Monk will hopefully support all readers in better understanding life woven into a fabric of monklore over the centuries. This living story of one monastic man, who continues an ongoing discovery of his real self, will help to turn the pages of your life if you so desire. In experiencing his personal process of Individuation, time never stops but takes him through many reincarnations. These pages tell h...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"User-friendly...The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything...helpfully unpacks core precepts like ‘finding God in all things.’" —TimeThe Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by Father James Martin, SJ (bestselling author of Jesus and Learning to Pray) is a practical spiritual guidebook rooted in Ignatian spirituality that shows you how to manage relationships, money...

In this classic text, Thomas Merton offers valuable guidance for prayer. He brings together a wealth of meditative and mystical influences–from John of the Cross to Eastern desert monasticism–to create a spiritual path for today. Most important, he shows how the peace contacted through meditation should not be sought in order to evade the problems of contemporary life, but can instead be directed back out into the world to affect positive change.Contemplative Prayer is one...

A new edition of the classic that helped launch the Centering Prayer movement.Centering Prayer is a precious part of the ancient spiritual traditions of the West. When Finding Grace at the Center was first published in 1978, people all over the world welcomed this practical guide to a simple and beautiful form of meditative prayer. Reflections and advice on Centering Prayers possibilitiesand its pitfallsare presented with clarity and simplicity, with a vision of the deeper life...

"The practice of contemplation is one of the great spiritual arts," writes Martin Laird in A Sunlit Absence. "Not a technique but a skill, it harnesses the winds of grace that lead us out into the liberating sea of silence." In this companion volume to his bestselling Into the Silent Land, Laird focuses on a quality often overlooked by books on Christian meditation: a vast and flowing spaciousness that embraces both silence and sound, and transcends all subject/object dua...

By meditating on personal examples from the author's life, as well as reflecting on the inspirational life and writings of Thomas Merton, stories from the Gospels, as well as the lives of other holy men and women (among them, Henri Nouwen, Therese of Lisieux and Pope John XXIII) the reader will see how becoming who you are, and becoming the person that God created, is a simple path to happiness, peace of mind and even sanctity.

A jewel of a bookGuardianHis guidance is spot on. Heaven knows, most of us need all the peace we can getDaily ExpressWhat can a monk tell us about finding happiness in our complicated modern world? A surprising amount, is the answerSunday TimesWhy is 'being happy' such an imperative nowadays? What meaning do people giv...

In their zeal for reform, early Protestant leaders tended to throw out Saint Benedict with the holy water. That is a mistake, writes Dennis Okholm, in Monk Habits for Everyday People. While on retreat in a Benedictine abbey, the author, a professor who was raised as a Pentecostal and a Baptist, observed how the meditative and ordered life of a monk lifted Jesus' teachings off the printed page and put them into daily practice. Vital aspects of devotion, humility, obedience, hospita...

During his seven-month stay in a Trappist monastery, Henri Nouwen had a unique opportunity to explore crucial issues of the spiritual life and discover "a quiet stream underneath the fluctuating affirmations and rejections of my little world." Nouwen participated fully in the daily life of the Abbey of the Genesee in upstate New York -- in work and in prayer. From the early weeks in the abbey -- dominated by conflicting desires and concerns -- to the final days of Advent, when he finds a n...

Every age has answered the questions and challenges of spiritual living in its own particular ways through its languages, arts, and lifestyles, giving seekers various concepts for guidance. In this original manifesto, bestselling author Joan Chittister delivers a roadmap based on the ancient Rule of Benedict that stands as a practical model upon which to build a satisfying life, despite the seemingly limitless (and at times meaningless) supply of options in the modern world. By giving spir...