Download or read book The Great Beginning of C teaux written by Konrad (Abbot of Eberbach) and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 649 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the closing decades of the twelfth century the Cistercian Order found itself in a world rather different from the one in which it had been founded and began to thrive. The Order was justifiably proud of its achievements and unparalleled diffusion across Europe. It had become an important ecclesiastical and economic power in Europe and developed an institutional structure meant to sustain a large, widespread organization. Yet it had lost its influential spokesman, Bernard of Clairvaux, and as the century drew to a close, religious sensibilities were changing. The new mendicant orders, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, and the impulses they embodied, were to shift the center of gravity in Christian religious life for centuries to come.
Download or read book The Cistercian Fathers and Their Monastic Theology written by Thomas Merton and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 of God, his controversy with Peter Abelard, and above all his great series of sermons on the Song of Songs, Merton reveals why Bernard was the major religious and cultural figure in Europe during the first half of the twelfth century and why he has remained one of the most influential spiritual theologians of Western Christianity from his own day until the present. As James Finley writes in his preface to this volume, "Merton is teaching us in these notes how to be grateful and amazed that the ancient wisdom that shimmers and shines in the eloquent and beautiful things that mystics say is now flowing in our sincere desire to learn from God how to find our way to God."
Download or read book The cistercian fathers or Lives and legends of certain saints and blessed of the Order of Citeaux tr by H Collins written by Cistercians and published by . This book was released on 1872 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Cistercian Fathers written by Anonymous and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-04-27 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint of the original, first published in 1872.
Download or read book The First Life of Bernard of Clairvaux written by William of Saint-Thierry and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2015-12-07 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The First Life of Bernard of Clairvaux, traditionally known as the Vita Prima, originated to prepare the case for canonization of Bernard, first abbot of Clairvaux. The work was begun by William of Saint-Thierry, continued by Arnold of Bonneval, and completed by Geoffrey of Auxerre. When the initial case put forth for Bernard was rejected by Innocent II, Geoffrey undertook a revision of the original vita (Recension A) and submitted another version (Recension B) to Pope Alexander III, who declared Bernard a saint in 1174. This work emphasizes the deep love in which Bernard was held during his life by his monks and the people of France and Italy as well as his role as a powerful public figure. This book contains the first English translation of Recension B, drawn from what is apparently the only manuscript of the work found today in a Cistercian monastery, Mount Saint Bernard Abbey. The introduction begins with the story of how this manuscript came to Mount Saint Bernard, so fixing this translation of the Vita prima within Cistercian life from the twelfth century to today.
Download or read book Monastic Sermons written by Bernard of Clairvaux and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2016-08-18 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Saint Bernard was born in 1090 near Dijon, France. He joined the fifteen-year-old monastery of Cîteaux in 1113. In 1115 he became the founding abbot of Clairvaux Abbey, whence his name, Bernard of Clairvaux. Saint Bernard was a gifted and prolific writer of theological treatises, Scriptural commentaries, letters, and many sermons. The sermons in the collection published here, styled Sermones de diversis (Sermons about Various Topics), lack the specific point of departure that characterizes his other sermons. That is, whereas the sermons on the Song of Songs are a verse-by-verse commentary on that biblical book and his Sermons for the Year follow the liturgical calendar, this collection of sermons deals with his various pastoral concerns. Since Scripture is always Bernard’s point of departure and inspiration, the sermons often read like a Scripture study, but what comes through equally is the voice of an understanding spiritual father who is a masterful student of Scripture, biblical language, and the needs of his monks.
Download or read book The Cistercians written by Louis Julius Lekai and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers written by Thomas Merton and published by New City Press. This book was released on 2018-09-15 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of previously uncollected studies makes a notable contribution to Merton's extensive and influential legacy. This volume includes pieces on eleventh- and twelfth-century monastics by Thomas Merton, perhaps the most significant American Catholic spiritual writer of the twentieth century. The essays are difficult to locate elsewhere, the conference transcriptions are available only here.
Download or read book Five Books on Consideration written by Bernard (Clairvaux, Abt, Heiliger) and published by Cistercian Publications Books. This book was released on 1976 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Always a vigorous champion of papal reforms, Bernard of Clairvaux toward the end of his life saw one of his own monks raised to the papal throne as Eugene III. While acting as the new Pope's political and spiritual counsellor, the Great Cistercian abbot was tireless in advancing Eugene's policies and in defending his authority and prestige. Both as a monk and as a strategist, Bernard realized that political astuteness needs the complement of sober and honest reflection. In Five Books on Consideration he defines 'consideration' for the Pope by examining the practical and the theological demands of the papal office.
Download or read book The Sayings of the Desert Fathers written by and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 1975-02-01 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: `Give me a word, Father', visitors to early desert monks asked. The responses of these pioneer ascetics were remembered and in the fourth century written down in Coptic, Syriac, Greek, and later Latin. Their Sayings were collected, in this case in the alphabetical order of the monks and nuns who uttered them, and read by generations of Christians as life-giving words that would help readers along the path to salvation.
Download or read book The Life of Wulfric of Haselbury Anchorite written by John of Ford and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John of Forde's Life of Wulfric of Haselbury 'priest, healer, seer, mystic, who lived in a cell abutting a village church from 1125 until his death in 1154 'is a classic of its kind. It portrays the daily life of the recluse, his austerities, the hours of prayer, his familiar companionship with his God, as well as his place in the community, a network of relationships stretching country-wide and friendships maintained over many years with both women and men. John, prior and later abbot of Forde, is the devoted guide opening up the treasures of his Wulfric to any who care to listen. The work, too little read or studied for want of a translation, is now made available not only to the medievalist but to anyone with an interest in the spiritual life.
Download or read book Becoming Fire written by Tim Vivian and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this revised edition of Becoming Fire: Through the Year with the Desert Fathers and Mothers, Tim Vivian arranges the sayings of the desert monks of the fifth and sixth centuries in short daily readings. This volume provides sayings and stories for each day of the year to use for lectio divina; saints and revered persons from the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Episcopalian traditions; sayings from the Philokalia and the fourth-fifth century monastic writers Neilos of Ancyra and Hyperechios, among others"--
Download or read book Cassian and the Fathers written by Thomas Merton and published by Cistercian Publications Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cassian and the Fathers is the initial volume in the series of Novitiate Conferences of Thomas Merton, the classes he presented to young men beginning their monastic life at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. They contain Merton's insights on important Patristic and monastic figures preceding the time of St. Benedict, above all John Cassian, the most significant bridge between the early desert fathers and the development of monastic life in the West, and they reveal the continuing relevance of their teachings for contemporary monastics and other Christians. Much of the value and interest of Cassian and the Fathers, as of the novitiate conferences in general, lies in the light it casts on Merton himself as teacher, novice master and monk. These notes provide a privileged standpoint for observing Merton functioning as an integral and important member of his monastic community. The 'public' Merton has long been visible in his works written for publication, and has more recently been complemented by the 'interpersonal' Merton disclosed in his correspondence and the 'intimate' Merton revealed in his complete journals. While the novitiate conferences may not equal in significance these other sources, they do allow access to yet another stratum of Merton's wide-ranging and immensely productive engagement with his world from the distinctive standpoint he had chosen within a tradition dating back more than sixteen centuries. While these lectures need to be used critically and carefully in evaluating Merton's own perspectives and commitments, nevertheless they do need to be used. The dialectical relationship between Merton's private and more public statements, including those made to his novice classes, makes possible a more complex and thus a richer picture of his monastic identity and so of his personal identity. In learning about Cassian and the Fathers from Merton, one learns as well about Merton as monk, as heir to the great monastic teachers, and as teacher of a new generation of monks, an easily overlooked and undervalued, yet integral, even central component of his vocation for more than half his monastic life. Thus the publication of the novitiate conferences will fill a significant lacuna in Merton studies and contribute to a balanced, holistic comprehension and appreciation of Thomas Merton's life and work. This edition includes an extensive introduction situating these conferences and Merton's years as novice master in the context of his broader life as monk and writer, an extensively annotated edition of the text of the conferences based on Merton's own typescript, and helpful appendices indicating changes Merton made to his text, correlating the written text with taped versions of the actual classes, and providing suggestions for further reading both in Merton's other works and in more recent studies of the figures he discusses here.
Download or read book Talking Back written by Evagrius Of Pontus and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2009-08-01 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the monks of the Egyptian desert fight against the demons that attacked them with tempting thoughts? How could Christians resist the thoughts of gluttony, fornication, or pride that assailed them and obstructed their contemplation of God? According to Evagrius of Pontus (345 '399), one of the greatest spiritual directors of ancient monasticism, the monk should talk back to demons with relevant passages from the Bible. His book Talking Back (Antirrhêtikos) lists over 500 thoughts or circumstances in which the demon-fighting monk might find himself, along with the biblical passages with which the monk should respond. It became one of the most popular books among the ascetics of Late Antiquity and the Byzantine East, but until now the entire text had not been translated into English. From Talking Back we gain a better understanding of Evagrius's eight primary demons: gluttony, fornication, love of money, sadness, anger, listlessness, vainglory, and pride. We can explore a central aspect of early monastic spirituality, and we get a glimpse of the temptations and anxieties that the first desert monks faced. David Brakke is professor and chair of the Department of Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences of Indiana University. He studied ancient Christianity at Harvard Divinity School and Yale University. Brakke is the author of Athanasius and Asceticism and Demons and the Making of the Monk: Spiritual Combat in Early Christianity, and he edits the Journal of Early Christian Studies.
Download or read book The Book of the Elders written by and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early part of the fourth century, a few Christians, mostly men and some women, began to withdraw from "the world" to retreat into the desert, there to practice their new religion more seriously. The person who aspired to "renounce the world" first had to find an "elder," a person who would accept him as a disciple and apprentice. To his elder (whom he would address as abba—father) the neophyte owed complete obedience; from his abba, he would receive provisions (as it were) for the road to virtue. In addition to the abba's own example of living, there was the verbal teaching of the elders in sayings and tales, setting out the theory and practice of the eremitic life. In due course, these sayings (or apophthegmata) were written down and, later, collected and codified. The earliest attempts to codify tales and sayings are now lost. As the collection grew, they were first organized alphabetically, according to the name of the abba who spoke them, in a major collection known as the Apophthegmata Patrum Alphabetica. A supplementary collection, the Anonymous Apophthegmata, followed. Later, both collections were combined and arranged systematically rather than alphabetically. This collection was created sometime between 500 and 575 and later went through a couple of major revisions, the second of which appeared sometime before 970. This second revision was published in an excellent new critical edition, with a French translation, in 1993. Now, in The Book of the Elders, John Wortley offers an English translation of this collection, based entirely on the Greek of that text.
Download or read book The Cistercian World written by and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2006-04-27 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cistercian Order was born in Burgundy at the start of the twelfth century as a movement of radical renewal - an Order that survives to this day with the greater part of its written heritage preserved. This volume brings together a selection of its finest works, which speak powerfully across the centuries to modern readers. Writings by St Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1090-1153) - including his letters, The Life of Malachy the Irishman, sermons on the Song of Songs and the sharply satirical Apologia for Abbot William - reveal him to be a highly individual and influential writer of the Middle Ages. Also included here are a charming description of Clairvaux, biographies of abbots and a series of exemplary stories, all drawing on the Scriptures to express intensely personal forms of monastic theology.
Download or read book The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life written by Sebastian P. Brock and published by Burns & Oates. This book was released on 1987 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this selection of excerpts translated from Syriac writers, mainly on the topic of prayer, is to introduce this little known tradition of Eastern Christian spirituality to a wider audience. For the reader who is unfamiliar with this tradition the General Introduction is intended to provide a brief orientation. Some supplementary information on the individual authors will be found in the introductions to each chapter.
