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 Rule might have to offer monks of the early twenty-first century. It is hoped that these conferences, published here, will now speak to men and women outside the monastic cloister. This book is a door to the chapter room of Assumption Abbey. Readers are invited to open the door, sit down with the monks and their abbot, and feel at home with Saint Benedict. Mark A. Scott, OCSO, is a monk of the Trappist-Cistercian Abbey of New Clairvaux, Vina, California, which he entered in 1978. From 2000 to 2008 he served as appointed superior and then abbot of Assumption Abbey, Ava, Missouri.
Pons, born to a noble family in the south of France in 1075, is given to the Church at the age of four. He becomes a Benedictine monk and thrives in the monastery as a devotee of the Order's rules, working, praying, and studying. Reaching adulthood, he falls in love with Primavera, a woman in the nearby village, but the Church's renewed enforcement of celibacy endangers their relationship. It is a lawless time when people of the land are threatened with violence as they cultivate their fields or travel on pilgrimage. The monks are compelled to become warriors, defending themselves with farm tools and walking staves. Pons is elected as Abbot of Cluny Monastery. He is torn amidst his sense of duty as the powerful leader of Cluny, rivaling the Pope, his love for Primavera, and the calling to join the crusade to save Jerusalem. Pons of Melgueil was the abbot of the powerful and influential Benedictine monastery at Cluny, France, from 1109 to 1124. At the time, Cluny administered hundreds of satellite monasteries in Europe and had influence over a greater number of clergy than the Pope himself. As abbot, Pons made commendable progress in the construction of the Cluny basilica, which became the world's largest church. He inherited financial difficulties, but he campaigned and successfully procured valuable donations of property for the Benedictine Order and obtained sacred relics to increase the number of pilgrims visiting Cluny. Historical sources also reveal he was an excellent negotiator and his participation in major councils was beneficial to the Church1. In contrast, other sources called him secular-minded, contentious, and short tempered2. Controversy began when Pons tried to return the lifestyle of the Cluniac monks to the austere ways advocated by Saint Benedict, the founder of their monastic order3. The monks of Cluny had become lax and contested a return to a strong work ethic. In retaliation they alleged that Pons was wasting the monastery's resources. This was, in fact, the opposite of his initiatives. The local bishops and nobles were jealous of Cluny's privileges and wealth4 and joined the conflict. Did Pons maintain the leadership of Christendom in western Europe achieved by previous abbots of Cluny, or did he drag the monastery further into decline? Read Warriors and Monks: Pons, Abbot of Cluny and make your own judgment.
In 2007, Our Lord and Our Lady began to speak to the heart of a monk in the silence of adoration. He was prompted to write down what he received, and thus was born In Sinu Jesu, whose pages shine with an intense luminosity and heart-warming fervor that speaks directly to the needs of our time with a unique power to console and challenge.
The theme of this book is the Beatitudes, and the apparent contradictions they contain are shown to offer a radical freedom to those who respond to the call to live wholly in Christ. Here is the important message that this call is not restricted to those who have a vocation to the monastic life, but is to all Christians. The book enables readers of all backgrounds to share the fruits of a hidden and solitary life - a gift that will be universally apprecciated. The classic monastic tradition is opened up in a radical and contemporary vision for us all.
This study presents research by specialists of monastic history, literature, and spirituality. Covering the period from 1150 to 1500, this volume demonstrates that monastic preaching was not only carried out in the cloister by monks, but also in public arenas by monks and nuns. The topics range from questioning if the sermons of Bernard of Clairvaux were ever preached, to an analysis of Hildegard of Bingen's preaching against the Cathars. Sermons addressed to monastic communities by secular preachers are also analysed. The diversity of monastic preaching - e.g., cloistered preaching, preaching against heretics, preaching by heretical monks, preaching by nuns - and a geographical range of monastic pastoral history is studied. Medieval Monastic Preaching offers a preliminary step in understanding how sermons and preaching shaped monastic identity in the Middle Ages.
This is a collection of translations and essays on a region known for a small and often forgotten Christian community that has preserved the language of Jesus since the time of Christ. Their living institutions are expressed in monuments of stone, manuscripts, and a spoken dialect of Aramaic called Syriac. These stories about monasteries and saints are a witness to a civilization of Christians who should never be forgotten.
This book explores the value of contemplative mysticism and how to live it. The author gives the reader a tour through the history of monasticism and the pivotal philosophers, from Sophocles to St. Therese of Lisieux, who laid the foundation for its use in modern society.
A Monk in High Heels is a journey through the walls of monasteries and into the heart of God. Mixed with humor, deep spirituality, and a passionate pursuit of God, you'll leave this book knowing not only is God enough, but so are you.
It would seem that for many Christians, and particularly for persons who have left the Church, conventional Christianity does not provide enough to sustain their spiritual lives.This book charts an uncommon spiritual path by examining the non-dual spirituality of Henri le Saux (Swami Abhishiktananda), a French Benedictine monk in India. His approach to Christian spirituality is courageous, authentic, and even unsettling in some instances. However, his deep commitment to finding Christ can serve as an invitation to others who long for an authentic spirituality.
Father Matthew Kelty was an especially beloved monk at the historic Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. Perhaps best known as Thomas Merton's colleague and confessor in the year prior to Merton's death, Father Matthew was also an enormously gifted spiritual writer in his own right, one whose homilies at Gethsemani attracted a wide following. This is the first book-length study of Matthew Kelty's life in relation to his spiritual writings and his profound reflections on the virtues of the monastic life in the modern age.
Gift book presentation of the spirituality of St Benedict for modern readers seeking a more balanced and centred life. Presents extracts from the 6th-century Rule of Benedict, accompanied by original colour illustrations and calligraphy by artist Muir. The texts and illustrations are grouped into the major themes of the Rule, such as Conversion, Humility, Prayer, Hospitality and Peace, and each section is introduced by Holyhead, an Australian member of a Catholic religious order in the Benedictine tradition. Includes guide to further reading.
This is a small Rule for people who live in community based on Christian monastic traditions. It is a guide not only for monks but for anyone who desires to live, work, and cooperate among fellow members of their school, business, or organization.
This book gathers together in convenient form all the prayers first published in In Sinu Jesu, including the Chaplet of Reparation. It also makes available the Epiphany Conference of Mother Mectilde de Bar. These fervent prayers and this magnificent conference will enkindle the souls of all who take them up, especially in Eucharistic adoration.
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 Rule might have to offer monks of the early twenty-first century. It is hoped that these conferences, published here, will now speak to men and women outside the monastic cloister. This book is a door to the chapter room of Assumption Abbey. Readers are invited to open the door, sit down with the monks and their abbot, and feel at home with Saint Benedict. Mark A. Scott, OCSO, is a monk of the Trappist-Cistercian Abbey of New Clairvaux, Vina, California, which he entered in 1978. From 2000 to 2008 he served as appointed superior and then abbot of Assumption Abbey, Ava, Missouri.
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