Monastic Reading List

[Nunsuch]

Sorry, Gabriela--I don't mean to go after you. I just have to say that Nouwen is one of my favorite writers. I increasingly read mostly women spiritual writers, but some of his work always gets to me. But that's why there are options, eh?

[Gabriela]

20 minutes ago, Nunsuch said:

Sorry, Gabriela--I don't mean to go after you. I just have to say that Nouwen is one of my favorite writers. I increasingly read mostly women spiritual writers, but some of his work always gets to me. But that's why there are options, eh?

That's alright!

Have you read Julian of Norwich? If so, what'd you think?

[Nunsuch]

I love Julian! And a dear mentor of mine, Sr. Ritamary Bradley, wrote extensively on her.  Ritamary was a founder of the scholarly journal, Mystics Quarterly--are you familiar with it?

[Anselm]

Oh! I've read lots of articles from Mystics Quarterly in my research on Carthusian history!

[CountrySteve21]

On ‎8‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 7:47 AM, 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 read a single one of Mertons books; (that almost sounds like blasphemy, especially considering how popular he is )  What book would you recommend by him?

 

PAx

[Gabriela]

On 8/15/2016 at 9:04 AM, Nunsuch said:

I love Julian! And a dear mentor of mine, Sr. Ritamary Bradley, wrote extensively on her.  Ritamary was a founder of the scholarly journal, Mystics Quarterly--are you familiar with it?

No, I haven't. I haven't even read Julian of Norwich. I've just wanted to for a really long time. Although personally, I'm not typically a huge fan of mysticism. I suppose it depends, though... I think I've had Julian in my Amazon wishlist for years!

 

On 8/15/2016 at 9:44 AM, Anselm said:

Oh! I've read lots of articles from Mystics Quarterly in my research on Carthusian history!

What'd you learn? (I'm interested in Carthusians.)

 

2 minutes ago, CountrySteve21 said:

I've never read a single one of Mertons books; (that almost sounds like blasphemy, especially considering how popular he is )  What book would you recommend by him?

 

PAx

Definitely start with Seven Storey Mountain. From there, it depends on what you're interested in. He's got a lot on silence, solitude, and prayer.

Edited August 16, 2016 by Gabriela

[CountrySteve21]

7 minutes ago, Gabriela said:

 

 

 

Definitely start with Seven Storey Mountain. From there, it depends on what you're interested in. He's got a lot on silence, solitude, and prayer.

Thanks, fortunately my parish library has a whole section dedicated to him! I think at one point he was a hermit and helped with the inter-religious dialogue with Buddhist? Being a former Buddhist myself that does interest me.

Pax

 

To reply to the topic, was the Life of St. Anthony of the Desert recommended yet?

 

[Gabriela]

28 minutes ago, CountrySteve21 said:

Thanks, fortunately my parish library has a whole section dedicated to him! I think at one point he was a hermit and helped with the inter-religious dialogue with Buddhist? Being a former Buddhist myself that does interest me.

Pax

 

To reply to the topic, was the Life of St. Anthony of the Desert recommended yet?

 

I don't think anyone recommended that yet, but now you have!

Yes, Thomas Merton (Fr. Louis, OCSO, in religion) was a hermit in the latter years of his life, on the grounds of Gethsemane Abbey. Trappists have a tradition of allowing members who discern a calling to a more eremitic life to go off and live in a cabin (or, in Fr. Louis' case, an old shed) on the monastery grounds.

And also yes, he did work in inter-religious dialogue with the Buddhists. In fact, he died at a conference on that topic in Bangkok. He did a lot to point out the similarities, as well as the differences, between Eastern and Western religions, particularly when it comes to mysticism, contemplation, and the like. He believed that Eastern religions had a lot to teach Catholicism.

You might want to read Thomas Merton's Wikipedia entry. Personally, I find it quite good!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton

 

[Nunsuch]

Gabriela, do look up Ritamary's work on Julian. There are used copies available online very inexpensively. I find Julian to be much more accessible than many of the mystics.

[miserere55]

I suggest reading the lives and writings of the Saints.  "True Spouse of Jesus Christ"  by St. Alphonsus Ligouri  is a good start.

The monastic community that I was in (for several years) banned all Merton books.  We were not allowed to read him, although I had read him before I entered.  I personally have nothing against him, but  I wouldn't suggest reading him.....or maybe you can start with the latest book on his life that tells about his affairs as a monk and his lack of obedience to his superiors.  Not a good example.  Sorry Gabriela.  I know I will be unpopular after posting this comment. 

I once lived with a sister who had an uncle that was a monk in Gethsemane with Merton.  I also have a friend who was a novice under Merton.  Too many stories......

[Dominican.Nuns.Menlo]

On 8/14/2016 at 4:28 PM, Sr Mary Catharine OP said:

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

 

 

Me too!  

The list here is wonderful! I'd like to add the newest Apostolic Constitution by our beloved Pope Francis:  Vultum Dei Quaerere.

I always find the theology of the contemplative/cloistered life very beautiful. Verbi Sponsa is also an excellent source. It is brief but full of wisdom!

http://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/apost_constitutions/documents/papa-francesco_costituzione-ap_20160629_vultum-dei-quaerere_en.pdf

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccscrlife/documents/rc_con_ccscrlife_doc_13051999_verbi-sponsa_en.html

 

On 8/14/2016 at 4:28 PM, Sr Mary Catharine OP said:

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

 

 

Oh, a note: I was not one of the editors like Sr. Mary Catharine but my story was in there too.  

A fine book.

[Pax_et bonum]

So I work at a public library that is rather lacking in Catholic books. However, we have access with a library card to this website called Hoopla Digital, and there are more than a few Catholic ebooks and eaudiobooks on there. I was looking through the selection and came across this set of four books called Catholic Stories for Boys and Girls. I've found the stories adorable and edifying. 

Also, if your library doesn't have a book you want, you can ask to get it through an Inter-library Loan (ILL), and they will ask another library to send a copy to them for you to borrow. Just be prepared to wait a few weeks for it to get there. Aren't libraries great?! 

[Gabriela]

7 hours ago, miserere55 said:

The monastic community that I was in (for several years) banned all Merton books.  We were not allowed to read him, although I had read him before I entered.  I personally have nothing against him, but  I wouldn't suggest reading him.....or maybe you can start with the latest book on his life that tells about his affairs as a monk and his lack of obedience to his superiors.  Not a good example.  Sorry Gabriela.  I know I will be unpopular after posting this comment. 

I once lived with a sister who had an uncle that was a monk in Gethsemane with Merton.  I also have a friend who was a novice under Merton.  Too many stories......

No need to apologize to me. There are a lot of people who have wrong ideas about what Merton said. And if we refused to read anyone who was ever disobedient to their superiors, we'd never read anybody at all. Merton was a huge personality, so one expects his sins to be huge, too. But so were St. Augustine's, and St. Peter's, and we've no problem with them. As Catholics, we don't require people to be sinless, but only to acknowledge and repent of their sins—which Thomas Merton did more honestly than most Catholic authors I've ever read.

Once Merton started working in inter-religious dialogue, a lot of people became very suspicious of him and started calling him a heretic. It makes some people feel superior to call other Catholics heretics, and I expect that's what happened here. It was just after VII, and we Catholics didn't know how to do inter-religious dialogue, and it made a lot of people very uncomfortable. Merton was a pioneer in something that VII not only approved of but strongly encouraged. As a result, he gets maligned for "doing wrong" something that none of us knew how to do. He's a martyr in that sense, because if you look at what he said, you won't find anything heretical in it at all. And if he made errors—which no doubt he did—it's only charitable to forgive them considering he was working in pioneering territory, and with the best of intentions, at that. Why should we therefore not give him the benefit of the doubt, as we do so many other Catholic pioneers?

The biggest problem with Thomas Merton is that people "have heard" so much bad stuff about him that they don't bother to read him and judge for themselves. Which is not only lazy, but extremely unfair to Merton. And I daresay, not Christian, considering it is the blatant giving of credence to malicious hearsay.

As for becoming unpopular: No worries. You are not the first person to say these things on Phatmass, so I'm sure no one will think less of you!

[CountrySteve21]

Alone with God by Dom Jean LecLercq (turns out it has a preface by Thomas Merton!) Its one of my favorites; a quote from it

 

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Christ is the only master and the only book that contains all divine wisdom. My book should be Jesus Christ on the Cross: a book entirely written with His precious Blood that is the price of my soul and the redemption of the world. The five chapters of this book are the five sacred wounds. I want to study that one book alone, and other books only insofar as they comment on it. Did not Saint Paul say that he no longer knew anything but Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ Crucified? It is vain to wish to know anything else at all. But this one book must be read in silence.

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