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Archive for the ‘monasticism’ Category

Michael Casey, a wonderful Trappist author from Australia, has begun a podcast on the Prologue of the Rule of St. Benedict. If you’re interested in checking out what contemporary monastics have to say about this ancient document, visit this page:
iMonk: Reflections on the Prologue of Saint Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries

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Yesterday at the Lay Cistercian Gathering Day we had a class on the monastic vow of stability (Cistercian monks have three vows: Stability, Obedience, and Conversion of Life). The brother who taught the class spoke at one point about restlessness as a tendency within us to undermine stability. I shared with him and the class [...]

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There are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence.
— St. Benedict, The Rule of St. Benedict

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I copied the following graphic, paragraph and link from the City Cafe page of the Public Broadcasting Atlanta website. It features a four-minute audio clip that has recently been broadcast on WABE, Atlanta’s public broadcasting radio station. Click on the link beneath the image to hear the audio clip; it features chanting by the monks [...]

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This past Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI canonized six new saints. One of them, Saint Damien of Molokai, has received the lion’s share of the attention, because Father Damien (who served a leper’s colony in Hawaii in the 19th century until he eventually succumbed to the disease himself) has been a celebrity for many years. But [...]

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Finding the Monk Within: Great Monastic Values for Today
By Edward C. Sellner
Mahwah, NJ: HiddenSpring, 2008
Review by Carl McColman
Ed Sellner is known primarily for his writing on various aspects of the Celtic Christian spiritual tradition (such as Wisdom of the Celtic Saints). And indeed, one of the most beautifully written chapters in Finding the Monk Within [...]

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The other day I had a wonderful chat with a friend of mine who is a Lay Cistercian and who regularly makes retreats at the monastery where I work. As Lay Cistercians, we have a unique perspective on monastic spirituality and what it can mean for those of us who are not, and not called [...]

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Cloister Talks: Learning from My Friends the Monks
By Jon M. Sweeney
Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2009
Review by Carl McColman
Monasteries are archetypal. Even for Protestants who live in a religious milieu that does not include monastic communities, monks and nuns (and their communal way of life) symbolize either strong positive or negative concepts: at worst, they represent [...]

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A monastery can never be merely an escape from the world. Its very purpose is to enable us to face the problems of the world at their deepest level, that is to say, in relation to God and eternal life. Everything in the monastic life down to the deepest level has to be viewed from [...]

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Yesterday I made my simple promises as a Lay Cistercian, along with six of my friends. Three others, who already were junior Lay Cistercians renewed their promises. The promises are for one year, and need to be repeated annually for at least three years before lifetime promises can be made.
It was a lovely ceremony. We [...]

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In May, God willing and with the permission of my community, I will make my first simple promises as a Lay Cistercian. The Lay Cistercians are an association of laymen and laywomen who have chosen to live their vocation as Christians in accordance with the unique charisms of the Cistercian Order, adapted to the circumstances [...]

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The Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia, is a beautiful place. It’s a peaceful environment, perfect for an hour, a day, or a weekend (or, if you’re a single Catholic man sensing a vocation to religious life, for a lifetime) devoted to prayer and contemplation.
Here are a few photographs I took at the [...]

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One of the most respected of contemporary Benedictine spiritual writers is Mary Margaret (Meg) Funk, OSB. Her books include Thoughts Matter: The Practice of the Spiritual Life and Tools Matter for Practicing the Spiritual Life. She writes not only about Benedictine spirituality and contemplative practice, but also about interreligious dialogue, a pursuit she has been [...]

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This little video will give you some insight into why I like to hang out with monks. It features Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO, speaking at an Integral Contemplative Christianity Conference put on by Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute.

If you have a few minutes, head on over to Youtube: there’s more of Keating [...]

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Monk Habits for Everyday People: Benedictine Spirituality for Protestants
By Dennis Okholm
Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2007
Review by Carl McColman

Okay, so this book has a lame title. But the point of the book is neatly encapsulated in its subtitle: here is an introduction to the spirituality of St. Benedictine, written by a Presbyterian theologian who has [...]

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Christianity Today has posted an article about the growing interest, particularly among young evangelicals, in various aspects of monastic and liturgical spirituality, including Celtic spirituality. Click here to read it.
Dare we  hope that Christian mysticism could be the next arena where evangelicals will go to deepen their faith?

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Blue
Originally uploaded
by TW Collins

I just discovered that Flickr has a wonderful array of photographs (from a variety of photographers) shot at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. Some of these photos are from a recent “spirituality and photography” retreat at the monastery; nearly all of them are breathtaking [...]

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Here is a video concerning a Trappist monastery in Kenya and how the civic unrest their has affected the community.

Please pray for peace in Kenya.

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LaserMonks: The Business Story Nine Hundred Years in the Making
By Sarah Caniglia and Cindy Griffith
New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008
Review by Carl McColman

Some years ago, the management world discovered Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War. This sixth-century Chinese treatise on military strategy considers not only the logistics of conflict, but also the psychology of winning; as such, it [...]

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Sometimes, things are so obvious that your humble servant here simply misses them altogether. This is one of the gifts of contemplative practice: when I slow down long enough to actually remind myself that I am a breathing organism who continues to live and love solely by the grace of God, among other things I’m [...]

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