Download or read book What Is Contemplation written by Thomas Merton and published by Ravenio Books. This book was released on with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are so many Christians who do not appreciate the magnificent dignity of their vocation to sanctity, to the knowledge, love and service of God. There are so many Christians who do not realize what possibilities God has placed in the life of Christian perfection — what possibilities for joy in the knowledge and love of Him. There are so many Christians who have practically no idea of the immense love of God for them, and of the power of that Love to do them good, to bring them happiness. Why do we think of the gift of contemplation, infused contemplation, mystical prayer, as something essentially strange and esoteric reserved for a small class of almost unnatural beings and prohibited to everyone else? It is perhaps because we have forgotten that contemplation is the work of the Holy Ghost acting on our souls through His gifts of Wisdom and Understanding with special intensity to increase and perfect our love for Him. These gifts are part of the normal equipment of Christian sanctity. They are given to all in Baptism, and if they are given it is presumably because God wants them to be developed. Their development will always remain the free gift of God and it is true that His wise Providence sees fit to develop them less in some saints than in others. But it is also true that God often measures His gifts by our desire to receive them, and by our cooperation with His grace, and the Holy Spirit will not waste any of His gifts on people who have little or no interest in them.

Download or read book Befriending Silence written by Carl McColman and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2015-11-20 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2016 Georgia Author of the Year: Inspirational-religious books. Respected speaker, author, and Patheos blogger Carl McColman introduces Cistercian spirituality as "the hidden jewel of the Church," presenting a surprisingly contemporary path grounded in monastic tradition. This accessible and comprehensive guide highlights a unique focus on simplicity, living close to the earth, and contemplative prayer, all of which make Cistercian spirituality relevant today. Steeped in chant and silence, grounded in down-to-earth work and service, and immersed in the mystical wisdom of teachers ancient (Bernard of Clairvaux) and modern (Thomas Merton), Cistercian spirituality's beautifully humble path has for centuries made monasteries places of rest, retreat, and renewal. Now, Carl McColman offers the first practical introduction to this ancient, contemplative spirituality for all people. Hailed by reviewers of his many books as playful, and profound, McColman draws on his experience as a lay Cistercian to provide insight into the relevance of the tradition to contemporary issues and spiritual practice. He explains how silence, simplicity, stability, stewardship of the earth, contemplation, ongoing conversion, and devotion to Mary combine to offer a rich and unique path to discipleship and intimacy with God.

Download or read book Strangers to the City written by Michael Casey and published by Paraclete Press. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Casey, a monk and scholar who has been publishing his wise teachings on the Rule of St. Benedict for decades, turns to the particular Benedictine values that he considers most urgent for Christians to incorporate into their lives today. Eloquent and incisive, Casey invites readers to accept that gospel living - seen in the light of the Rule - involves accepting the challenge of being different from the secular culture around us. He encourages readers to set clear goals and objectives, to be honest about the practical ways in which priorities may have to change to meet these goals, and to have the courage to implement these changes both daily and for the future. Casey presents thoughtful reflections on the beliefs and values of asceticism, silence, leisure, reading, chastity, and poverty - putting these traditional Benedictine values into the context of modern life and the spiritual aspirations of people today. Strangers to the City is a book for all who are interested in learning more about the dynamics of spiritual growth from the monastic experience.

Download or read book My Life With The Pentecostals and Other Stuff written by Steve L. Morgan and published by Publish Green. This book was released on 2010-10 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Storyteller Steve Morgan has a tale to weave for you. It involves some reflection, some irreverence, and - yes - some Pentecostals. It's the story of his life. Imagine being raised where the Devil was always around the next corner - and the end of the world could happen at any time. Then imagine growing up and learning that the rest of the world didn't subscribe to that ''flat earth, six day creation'' theory. How would you deal with that change? Author Steve Morgan has dealt with it by telling these stories - and many more - in My Life With the Pentecostals and Other Stuff. Steve recounts tales of family reunions, summer camps, and being trapped in a ditch with his grandfather (and a pile of watermelons). He also tells stories of being the main source of income in a struggling family and going out into the world to make his own fortune - and his own mistakes. Above all, Steve's storytelling will remind you what it's like to be part of a family and all that ''other stuff'' that comes with it.

Download or read book Monastic Practices written by Charles Cummings and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2015-12-07 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For three decades, Monastic Practices has been a valued resource for English-speaking aspirants to monastic life. In this revised edition, updated and expanded, Charles Cummings, OCSO, explores the common practices of the monastic life in order to rediscover them as viable means of leading persons to a deeper encounter with God. How do monks and nuns occupy themselves throughout the day? Have they modernized their lifestyle or is it still cluttered with medieval customs? Could any of the monastic practices be of use to those outside the monastery? A certain wisdom is necessary to know how to use such practices and how to give oneself to them until they lead one to God. After long monastic experience, Cummings shows us how the ordinary things we do constitute our path to God. In the art of living life, he argues, we are always beginners, searching for God through our concrete circumstances and actions.

Download or read book Rome 1960 written by David Maraniss and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-07-01 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered, the blockbuster story of the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, seventeen days that helped define the modern world. Legendary athletes and stirring events are interwoven into a suspenseful narrative of sports and politics at the Rome games, where cold-war propaganda and spies, drugs and sex, money and television, civil rights and the rise of women superstars all converged to forever change the essence of the Olympics. Using the meticulous research and sweeping narrative style that have become his trademark, maraniss reveals the rich palette of character, competition, and meaning that gave rome 1960 its singular essence.

Download or read book Dwelling in the Wilderness written by Jason M. Brown and published by Trinity University Press. This book was released on 2024-01-23 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What might the lives of contemporary monastics teach us about putting down roots? Whereas many of us are constantly on the go, stressed out, and focused on productivity, the life of a monk prioritizes staying put and paying attention. Many monks take a vow of stability that commits them to their home monastery, leading them to develop a deep connection with and knowledge of the land they inhabit. The monastic life teaches those who practice it to move more slowly through the world, and the monastic sense of place may even hold a key to responding to the growing ecological crisis threatening our environment. Dwelling in the Wilderness examines how contemporary Benedictine Roman Catholic monks in the American West fall in love with their landscapes and how, in troubled times, we might do the same. Jason Brown travels to four monasteries—the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California; the Abbey of Our Lady of New Clairvaux in Vina, California; Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey in Carlton, Oregon; and the Monastery of Christ in the Desert in Abiquiu, New Mexico—and spends time with the monks there, following their daily routine of prayer and tending to the land. He learns how the places they inhabit are essential to their daily spiritual practice and how they construct deeper theological meaning from the natural world. Illustrated with Brown’s photography of monastic landscapes, his journey journey as a pilgrim anthropologist is astute, insightful, and intimate. He explores theories of environmental perception, philosophy, and symbolic landscapes in accessible language. Bringing theological reflection to the power of contemplative ecology in an era many are calling the Anthropocene, or the age of human domination, he leads us to reconsider our relationship with our natural homes.

Download or read book New Arrivals in Californiana written by and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Hand on My Shoulder written by John W. Gran and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book National Union Catalog written by and published by . This book was released on with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes entries for maps and atlases.

Download or read book Voices of Silence written by Frank Bianco and published by Anchor. This book was released on 1992-07-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A blend of case history, anecdote, history, and spiritual quest, this intimate and fascinating look at the world's oldest and most reclusive monastic order provides a rare understanding of day-to-day Trappist existence.

Download or read book Roads to Santiago written by Cees Nooteboom and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2000 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roads to Santiago is an evocative travelogue through the sights, sounds, and smells of a little known Spain-its architecture, art, history, landscapes, villages, and people. And as much as it is the story of his travels, it is an elegant and detailed chronicle of Cees Nooteboom's thirty-five-year love affair with his adopted second country. He presents a world not visible to the casual tourist, by invoking the great spirits of Spain's past-El Cid, Cervantes, Alfonso the Chaste and Alfonso the Wise, the ill-fated Hapsburgs, and Velázquez. Be it a discussion of his trip to the magnificent Prado Museum or his visit to the shrine of the Black Madonna of Guadalupe, Nooteboom writes with the depth and intelligence of an historian, the bravado of an adventurer, and the passion of a poet. Reminiscent of Robert Hughes's Barcelona, Roads to Santiago is the consummate portrait of Spain for all readers.

Download or read book The Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West written by Alison I. Beach and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-09 with total page 1244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monasticism, in all of its variations, was a feature of almost every landscape in the medieval West. So ubiquitous were religious women and men throughout the Middle Ages that all medievalists encounter monasticism in their intellectual worlds. While there is enormous interest in medieval monasticism among Anglophone scholars, language is often a barrier to accessing some of the most important and groundbreaking research emerging from Europe. The Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West offers a comprehensive treatment of medieval monasticism, from Late Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages. The essays, specially commissioned for this volume and written by an international team of scholars, with contributors from Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States, cover a range of topics and themes and represent the most up-to-date discoveries on this topic.

Download or read book Finding the Monk Within written by Edward Cletus Sellner and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finding the Monk Within is written with the conviction that lying deep within every person and underlying much of contemporary western and eastern cultures is an ancient memory, a vital archetypal energy related to monasticism and its spirituality. This book recovers that monastic memory, the living presence of the past, for those who desire to name and incorporate monastic values: values of solitude and silence, faith and compassion, friendship and mentoring, contemplation and leadership itself. The author examines the social and religious dimensions in the fourth century that gave rise to monasticism, then looks at Christian leaders from late antiquity to the medieval period associated with monasticism in both East and West who have much to teach about monastic values and their relevance for today, among them Antony, the "first monk," Augustine and Jerome, John Cassian, Brigit of Kildare and early Celtic monasticism, Gregory the Great, Benedict and Scholastica and, finally, Bernard of Clairvaux. "By studying the history of monasticism and its great heroes we come to realize that, for the Christian, much of what we call 'monastic' is purely and simply what being a follower of Christ is all about, and that being a monk, whether inside monastic enclosures or outside 'in the world, ' is simply becoming the sort of person everyone ought to be, a person who unites action and contemplation in the care of souls," writes the author. By becoming familiar with the stories and thought of these inspirational figures, readers will be inspired to incorporate monastic perspectives and values into their own lives. +

Download or read book Drinking with the Saints written by Michael P. Foley and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-05-04 with total page 541 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Raise Your Spirits and Toast the Saints Recipe for a liturgically correct cocktail: mix Bartender’s Guide and Lives of the Saints, shake well, garnish with good cheer. Drinking with the Saintsis a concoction that both sinner and saint will savor. Michael Foley offers the faithful drinker witty and imaginative instruction on the appropriate libations for the seasons, feasts, and saints’ days of the Church year. · A guide to wine, beer, and spirits, including 38 original cocktails · Lively sketches of scores of saints, from the popular to the obscure · Tips on giving the perfect toast and on mixing the perfect drink · Even includes drinks for Lent!

Download or read book The Cistercian Way written by André Louf and published by Cistercian Studies Series. This book was released on 1983 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sketch of the unique tradition of the 'white monks' as they have sought 'men and women alike' to leave all things to follow the Gospel. The paths leading to the monastery are diverse. But one day they will all converge and form a singe Way, meeting in him who said, "I am the Way", and "No one can come to the Father but me". The Christian who becomes a monk is seeking no other way than this. What he makes his own is what he has seen and heard in the words and deeds of Jesus. As Saint Benedict said in the Prologue to this Rule [for Monasteries], "Let us set out on this way with the Gospel for our guide...". In saying this, saint Benedict is saying no more than Saint John, who said, "We must live the same kind of life that Christ lived".

Download or read book The Spirit of Simplicity written by Jean-Baptiste Chautard and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2017-11-10 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few people have ever seen or heard of The Spirit of Simplicity: it has been hidden for almost seventy years after quietly being published by the Abbey of Gethsemani in 1948. Anonymously translated and annotated by a young monk named Thomas Merton, the book’s author—who also is not mentioned by name in the original edition—is Jean-Baptiste Chautard, the famous French Cistercian whose only other book, The Soul of the Apostolate, has been a favorite of modern saints and popes, including Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Every generation struggles with the question of simplicity. In the history of our faith, there have been no more eloquent voices calling us back to simplicity than the monks of the Cistercian Order, from Bernard of Clairvaux to Chautard to Merton—all of whom contribute to this powerful book. Merton surrounds Chautard’s text with his own remarks on simplicity, translations of classic texts by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and commentary that allows readers to pursue the themes of simplicity in their own lives. "Only a very inadequate idea of exterior simplicity can be arrived at if we do not trace it back to its true source: interior simplicity. Without this, our resolution to practice exterior simplicity would be without light, without love …," Chautard wrote at the beginning of the book. He is writing to his fellow Cistercians, but he might as well be speaking to twenty-first century Christians. He goes on to lay out the best disciplines that a monk—or anyone—might practice to find the elusive simplicity, with quotations from St. Benedict, St. Bernard, and other pillars of monastic life and spirituality. A dozen photographs of Cistercian architecture illustrate how principles of simplicity are incorporated into Cistercian daily life. In Part 2, Merton opens up the teachings of St. Bernard, a great mystic and doctor of the Church, offering excerpts from St. Bernard’s writings on the original simplicity in the Garden of Eden, the difficulty of intellectual simplicity, the simplicity of the will (obedience), and other kindred topics. Merton also offers personal reflections from the perspective of one who had recently exchanged an active life in pursuit of worldly things for the solitude of a monk.