Monastic Reading List

[Anselm]

I'm sure this has been done on here before, but I wondered what reading others would suggest for those considering the contemplative life? Some of those I've found most helpful are:

 

The Practice of the Presence of God - Br Lawrence

Chapters on Prayer - Evagrius Ponticus

The Cloud of Unknowing - Anon

Our Purpose and Method - Aelred Carlyle

Conferences - John Cassian

Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence - Jean-Pierre de Caussade

Where Silence is Praise - 'A Carthusian'

On the Religious Life - Dom Prosper Gueranger

 

Any suggestions?

[truthfinder]

Imitation of Christ is something I've seen on various convents/monasteries' reading lists. and of course the Carmelite writings Teresa of Jesus and John of the Cross. 

[NadaTeTurbe]

The Rule of St Benedict

http://www.geneseeabbey.org/abbey-stores/where-do-you-want-to-shop/on-property-bookstore/recommended-books-about-monastic-life/ Here's what Genesee Abbey is recommending. 

[Gabriela]

Anything by Merton

In This House of Brede

An Infinity of Little Hours

Some people find The Genesee Diary helpful, though personally I can't stand that book.

[Anselm]

Haha yes, I'm one of those who likes the Genesee Diary. An Infinity of Little Hours is fascinating too.

[katherineH]

3 hours ago, Gabriela said:

Anything by Merton

In This House of Brede

An Infinity of Little Hours

Some people find The Genesee Diary helpful, though personally I can't stand that book.

I've never heard of An Infinity of Little Hours. What a beautiful title.  Putting it on hold at the library 

[Nunsuch]

I also love Genesee Diary (and visited the abbey last summer). Curious, Gabriela, as to why you don't.... There is also a really interesting book by a Protestant minister who spent a retreat of several months at Snowmass (St. Benedict's Trappist Abbey in Colorado). Will try to remember to look on my shelves to find it.

A favorite of mine is this: https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Benedictine-Elders-Americas-Greatest/dp/0974240532

[Sr Mary Catharine OP]

The Contemplative Life by Fr. Thomas Philippe, OP

Christ the Ideal of the Monk by Bl. Dom Marmion, OSB

Augustine's Ideal of Religious Life, excellent but used copies are often extremely expensive!

Commentary on the Rule of St. Augustine by Sr. Agatha Mary 

ANY book by Fr. Michael Casey, OSCO especially Purity of Heart and Centered on Christ, 2nd Edition

Books by Fr. Andre Louf, OSCO

St Gertrude the Great, (Classics of Western Spirituality Series)

The Scent of Holiness (about a women's Greek Orthodox monastery) is an interesting view into Eastern monastic life from which we can learn a lot! 

We Dominicans don't have many books specifically on the contemplative life because we understand ourselves as totally part of the preaching mission of the Order but expressed in a monastic way of life. The Order hasn't seen itself as two separate ways of life but 2 different expressions of one charism. The friars live a life that is both supposed to be rooted in the contemplative life but also apostolic. 

[Nunsuch]

Here is a book on contemplative Dominican vocations. I am curious as to what Sr. Mary Catharine thinks of it.

https://www.amazon.com/Vocation-Black-White-Dominican-Contemplative/dp/0595476805/

[truthfinder]

Totally forgot - Fr. Thomas Dubay's Fire Within on Carmelite prayer

[Egeria]

Off the top of my head, and in addition to some of those already mentioned:

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers and the Life of Saint Anthony are musts.

If you read French, anything by Fr Placide Deseille (His L'Evangile au Désert presents a good and accessible overview of monastic tradition).

A little-known but exceptionally good little book on "contemplative" prayer, is Encountering the Depths by Mother Mary Clare, former superior of the Anglican Sisters of the Love of God. I think it's out of print but is still available on their website, possibly only as an ebook. (They've also got some other very good stuff on the same site).

 

 

[Gabriela]

6 hours ago, Nunsuch said:

Curious, Gabriela, as to why you don't....

I think the author comes off as a self-absorbed liberal who comforts himself about being a spoiled Westerner with the thought that he's offering up so much for starving third-world people and "suffering with them in spirit". His "deep insights" about himself are recounted in a maddeningly superficial way that makes them seem trite and fake. I cannot stand him. To me, he's the polar opposite of Thomas Merton, who is invariably deep and real and uncompromisingly honest.

That being said, in the book "Between Heaven and Mirth", Fr. James Martin tells the story of a woman who felt exactly the same way about Thomas Merton as I do about Nouwen. So, to each her own, as they say.

[Sr Mary Catharine OP]

5 hours ago, Nunsuch said:

Here is a book on contemplative Dominican vocations. I am curious as to what Sr. Mary Catharine thinks of it.

https://www.amazon.com/Vocation-Black-White-Dominican-Contemplative/dp/0595476805/

Well, I WAS one of the editors and I have a story in there! :-)

 

[Nunsuch]

1 hour ago, Gabriela said:

I think the author comes off as a self-absorbed liberal who comforts himself about being a spoiled Westerner with the thought that he's offering up so much for starving third-world people and "suffering with them in spirit". His "deep insights" about himself are recounted in a maddeningly superficial way that makes them seem trite and fake. I cannot stand him. To me, he's the polar opposite of Thomas Merton, who is invariably deep and real and uncompromisingly honest.

That being said, in the book "Between Heaven and Mirth", Fr. James Martin tells the story of a woman who felt exactly the same way about Thomas Merton as I do about Nouwen. So, to each her own, as they say.

I find it hard to feel this way about a Yale professor who spent many years living as a companion in a L'Arche community.... Hardly a superficial choice.... Or a self--absorbed one, in my opinion, though I do find him reflective....

51 minutes ago, Sr Mary Catharine OP said:

Well, I WAS one of the editors and I have a story in there! :-)

 

I'd forgotten! Obviously, I need to look at it again.... I do remember enjoying it a lot. 

[Gabriela]

9 minutes ago, Nunsuch said:

I find it hard to feel this way about a Yale professor who spent many years living as a companion in a L'Arche community.... Hardly a superficial choice.... Or a self--absorbed one, in my opinion, though I do find him reflective....

I know. I'm aware of who he is and what he did. He's also very often mentioned in conjunction with Thomas Merton, which is why I was so eager to read his books. But once I did, I just couldn't bear him.

It is possible, though, that a Yale professor live with L'Arche or engage in other seemingly selfless acts for actually selfish reasons (like making himself feel good and holy). So those facts in and of themselves don't mean he must be selfless. Of course, I could also just be reading him like an uncharitable beesh. If so, I just can't help it. His writing voice makes that interpretation unavoidable for me. Better not to read him, IMO. It's a near occasion of sin for me!