In the Coracle

Finding Sanctuary by Abbot Christopher Jamison (Book Summary)

May 22nd, 2009, 1 Comment

“Finding Sanctuary: Monastic Steps for Everyday Life” (Abbot Christopher Jamison)

Finding Sanctuary
by Abbot Christopher Jamison
Liturgical Press (2006)

Description of the Book
Modern life is characterized by an overwhelming sense of busyness. The Rule of St. Benedict, written 1500 years ago for an Italian abbey, provides practical insights about Christian living that can be applied today and provide sanctuary [...]

To Pause at the Threshold (Part 3)

May 17th, 2009, No Comments

“To Pause at the Threshold: Reflections on Living on the Border” (Esther De Waal)

The final chapter of this book is the one I enjoyed and appreciated the most.
Titled The Time Between The Times, it looks at how we live with those twilight moments when something is dawning or is in its dusk phase (whether that [...]

To Pause at the Threshold (Part 2)

May 16th, 2009, No Comments

“To Pause at the Threshold: Reflections on Living on the Border” (Esther De Waal)

There is a traditional saying of ancient wisdom: “A threshold is a sacred thing.” (p. 1)

We have thresholds, transition points, throughout our lives. In our culture, we tend to rush through them, or not even notice that we’re blasting through thresholds. However, [...]

To Pause at the Threshold (Part 1)

May 13th, 2009, No Comments

“To Pause at the Threshold: Reflections on Living on the Border” (Esther De Waal)

Esther de Waal is one of those writers that I deeply respect. She writes mostly about Benedictine spirituality, but also deeply about Celtic spirituality. She approaches monastic spirituality from the perspective of a layperson, incorporating different streams into her everyday life. This [...]

Perhaps

April 22nd, 2009, 2 Comments

In the Introduction to their translation of the Rule of St. Benedict published as “The Rule of St Benedict” (Anthony C Meisel and M L Del Mastro), the authors describe the single-minded pursuit of union with God that a monk displays.

Since his primary goal was union with God, the material results of his work were [...]

Relic of St. Benedict and 39 other saints found in British Museum

March 26th, 2009, 2 Comments

THE NEW medieval gallery at the British Museum in London is full of beautiful images of saints in ivory, stone, gold and wood – but invisible to visitors, it also holds the bones of 39 real saints, whose discovery came as a shock to their curator.
The relics, packed in tiny bundles of cloth, including one [...]

… to Pray Constantly

March 22nd, 2009, No Comments

Abbot Christopher Jamison of Worth Abbey, which was the home from the BBC documentary called The Monastery, writes:

Christian prayer is the simple act of addressing God as “you.”
The great aim of the monastic life by Benedict was as simple as it was demanding: the aim was to pray constantly, in the general sense of keeping [...]

Preserving Words and Worlds [Speaking of Faith® from American Public Media]

January 17th, 2009, No Comments

The Hill Museum & Monastic Library rescues manuscripts from across the centuries and across the world. And there are worlds in this place on palm leaf and papyrus, in microfilm and pixels — stories of ordinary life as well as the rise and fall of civilizations. We explore this with a Benedictine monk and an [...]

Rule of St. Benedict Wordle

October 8th, 2008, No Comments

I’m a big fan of Wordles, as you may be able to tell recently :-)  Any way to flip perspectives a bit and give us a way to see reality in a different way gets a thumbs-up in my book.
Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give [...]

Final problem statement

September 21st, 2008, 2 Comments

I’ve gotten approval for this final version of my problem statement (I earlier posted works in progress):
I am studying Celtic, Benedictine and Orthodox monasticism because I want to discover what frameworks these spiritualities provide so that my reader may understand how spiritual formation serves God’s mission.