Monasticism category: 212 books
Humility Matters
Toward Purity of Heart
Language: English
Release Date: February 1, 2013
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....
Following The Footsteps Of The Invisible
The Complete Works of Diadochus of Photikë
Language: English
Release Date: October 1, 2010
Fifth-century Christianity was a theological battlefield. With the Messalian heretics and their experientialist spirituality on the one side and the intellectualist school on the other, representatives of both extremes found themselves condemned by the Church. In this milieu of subjectivist notions...
"Your Hearts Will Rejoice"
Easter Meditations from the Vita Christi
Language: English
Release Date: February 8, 2016
The Vita Christi, a spiritual classic of the fourteenth century by the Carthusian Ludolph of Saxony, was an early and extremely comprehensive book of meditations on the events recorded in the gospels. A popular and influential book for centuries, it was instrumental in the conversion of Ignatius Loyola,...
At Home With Saint Benedict
Monastery Talks
Language: English
Release Date: April 1, 2011
At Home with Saint Benedict is a selection of the author's conferences on Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries delivered to the monks of Assumption Abbey of Ava, Missouri, when he was abbot there. The author's intention was simply to share with his brother monks what Saint Benedict through his sixth-century...
An Infinity of Little Hours
Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order
Language: English
Release Date: March 13, 2007
In 1960, five young men arrived at the imposing gates of Parkminster, the largest center of the most rigorous and ascetic monastic order in the Western world: the Carthusians. This is the story of their five-year journey into a society virtually unchanged in its behavior and lifestyle since its foundation...
Seventy-Four Tools for Good Living
Reflections on the Fourth Chapter of Benedict's Rule
Language: English
Release Date: May 7, 2014
There is more in Benedict’s Rule than meets the eye. Based on the rules of life of John Cassian and Saint Basil, Benedict invites us to go further back to the scriptural basis of all Christian and monastic living and pursue our spiritual journey by the guidance of the Gospel.
This book of...
Great Orders of the Catholic Church
From the Benedictines to the Carmelites
Language: English
Release Date: July 17, 2017
From very early in her history the Church has been filled with men and women who have dedicated themselves exclusively to God in the religious life. Over the centuries the Holy Spirit has inspired a multitude of religious orders, from which many of the great saints have emerged. This eBook examines...
Wisdom: The Good Life
Wisdom Literature and the Rule of Benedict
Language: English
Release Date: March 24, 2017
We all want to live well, but how can we put that desire into action? With thoughtful reflection on the biblical wisdom writers and the Rule of Benedict, Irene Nowell shows us how we too can live the good life. Each chapter includes reflection questions and meditative prayers, guiding us on a renewed journey toward wisdom and encouraging us to embody this wisdom more in our daily lives.
The Cistercian Fathers and Their Monastic Theology
Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 8
Language: English
Release Date: May 12, 2016
These conferences, presented by Thomas Merton to the novices at the Abbey of Gethsemani in 1963–1964, focus mainly on the life and writings of his great Cistercian predecessor, St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153). Guiding his students through Bernard’s Marian sermons, his treatise On the Love...
by Gertrud the Great of Helfta
Language: English
Release Date: March 26, 2018
Language: English
Release Date: March 26, 2018
Gertrud the Great (1256–1302) entered the monastery of Helfta in eastern Germany as a child oblate. At the age of twenty-five she underwent a conversion that led to a series of visionary experiences. These centered on “the divine loving-kindness,” which she perceived as expressed through and...
by Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel
Language: English
Release Date: April 1, 2013
Language: English
Release Date: April 1, 2013
Smaragdus was a monk and abbot of considerable standing in the early ninth century church. His Diadema Monachorum (The Crown of Monks), together with a later commentary on the Rule of Saint Benedict, established him as one of the most significant interpreters of Benedict's Rule in his day and for...
by Hildegard of Bingen, Jenny C. Bledsoe, Stephen H. Behnke
Language: English
Release Date: April 25, 2014
Language: English
Release Date: April 25, 2014
Perhaps the least studied of Hildegard of Bingen’s writings, Solutions to Thirty-Eight Questions is translated in this volume into English for the first time from the original Latin.
In this work of exegesis, Hildegard (1098–1179) resolves thorny passages of Scripture, theological questions,...
Anchoritism in the Middle Ages
Texts and Traditions
Language: English
Release Date: April 30, 2013
This volume explores medieval anchoritism (the life of a solitary religious recluse) from a variety of perspectives. The individual essays conceive anchoritism in broadly interpretive categories: challenging perceived notions of the very concept of anchoritic ‘rule’ and guidance; studying the...
In Our Own Words
Religious Life in a Changing World
Language: English
Release Date: January 12, 2018
Written by a diverse group of younger women religious from North America, In Our Own Words offers a collection of essays on issues central to apostolic religious life today. The thirteen authors represent different congregations, charisms, ministries, and histories. The topics and concerns that shape...