Lectio Divina

Lectio Divina

Author: Duncan Robertson

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0879072385

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During the Middle Ages the act of reading was experienced intensively in the monastic exercise of lectio divina 'the prayerful scrutiny of passages of Scripture, savored in meditation, memorized, recited, and rediscovered in the reader's own religious life. The rich literary tradition that arose from this culture includes theoretical writings from the Conferences of John Cassian (fifth century) through the twelfth-century treatises of Hugh of St. Victor and the Carthusian Guigo II; it also includes compilations, literary meditations, and scriptural commentary, notably on the Song of Songs. This study brings medievalist research together with modern theoretical reflections on the act of reading in a consolidation of historical scholarship, spirituality, and literary criticism. Duncan Robertson has taught French and Latin, language and literature, at Augusta State University since 1990. Previous publications include The Medieval Saints' Lives: Spiritual Renewal and Old French Literature (Lexington, KY: French Forum, 1995), and The Vernacular Spirit: Essays on Medieval Religious Literature, with Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski and Nancy Warren (New York: Palgrave, 2002). His articles have appeared in Romance Philology, French Forum, Cahiers de Civilisation Madiavale, and other journals in the United States and abroad.


Monastic Sermons

Monastic Sermons

Author: Bernard of Clairvaux

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2016-08-18

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 0879071680

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Saint Bernard was born in 1090 near Dijon, France. He joined the fifteen-year-old monastery of Cîteaux in 1113. In 1115 he became the founding abbot of Clairvaux Abbey, whence his name, Bernard of Clairvaux. Saint Bernard was a gifted and prolific writer of theological treatises, Scriptural commentaries, letters, and many sermons. The sermons in the collection published here, styled Sermones de diversis (Sermons about Various Topics), lack the specific point of departure that characterizes his other sermons. That is, whereas the sermons on the Song of Songs are a verse-by-verse commentary on that biblical book and his Sermons for the Year follow the liturgical calendar, this collection of sermons deals with his various pastoral concerns. Since Scripture is always Bernard’s point of departure and inspiration, the sermons often read like a Scripture study, but what comes through equally is the voice of an understanding spiritual father who is a masterful student of Scripture, biblical language, and the needs of his monks.


Monastic Practices

Monastic Practices

Author: Charles Cummings

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 0879070501

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For three decades, Monastic Practices has been a valued resource for English-speaking aspirants to monastic life. In this revised edition, updated and expanded, Charles Cummings, OCSO, explores the common practices of the monastic life in order to rediscover them as viable means of leading persons to a deeper encounter with God. How do monks and nuns occupy themselves throughout the day? Have they modernized their lifestyle or is it still cluttered with medieval customs? Could any of the monastic practices be of use to those outside the monastery? A certain wisdom is necessary to know how to use such practices and how to give oneself to them until they lead one to God. After long monastic experience, Cummings shows us how the ordinary things we do constitute our path to God. In the art of living life, he argues, we are always beginners, searching for God through our concrete circumstances and actions.


The Praktikos & Chapters On Prayer

The Praktikos & Chapters On Prayer

Author: Evagrius Ponticus

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2022-12-17

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 0879071923

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The living link through whom the ascetic principles of hellenistic philosophers passed into monasticism, Evagrius molded christian asceticism through his own works and through his influence on John Cassian, Climacus, Pseudo 'Denis, and Saint Benedict.


Moral Reflections on the Book of Job

Moral Reflections on the Book of Job

Author: Pope Gregory I

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 0879072490

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Gregory the Great was pope from 590 to 604, a time of great turmoil in Italy and in the western Roman Empire generally because of the barbarian invasions.Gregory s experience as prefect of the city of Rome and as apocrisarius of Pope Pelagius fitted him admirably for the new challenges of the papacy. "The Moral Reflections on the Book of Job" were first given to the monks who accompanied Gregory to the embassy in Constantinople. This first volume of the work contains books 1 5, accompanied by an introduction by Mark DelCogliano."


Wholly Animals

Wholly Animals

Author: David N. Bell

Publisher:

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13:

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Donkeys and dogs, foxes and lions, cats, crocodiles, cows and cranes, hares and horse, fleas and flies -- all make their appearance in these delightful, and often edifying, tales from the medieval religious literature of three traditions : Christian, Jewish, and Islamic. Most of the human beings who make their appearance in these tales represent the best of their kind, and Professor Bell warns that no animal who reads this book should unwarily assume that the majority of humankind resembles them.


Northern Light

Northern Light

Author: The Cistercian Nuns of Tautra Mariakloster

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2020-09-15

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0879071605

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For at least eight centuries, the Norwegian island of Tautra in the Trondheim fjord has been known for its spiritual waves and special light. In the Middle Ages, Cistercian monks established the northernmost monastery of the Order, living God-centered lives and developing skills such as land use and animal husbandry until the Reformation. In 1999, Cistercian nuns reestablished Tautra Mariakloster, the monastery of Our Lady of the Safe Island. Visitors to the modern monastery, distinguished by its glass-roofed church, quickly sense the silence, peace, and light of the place. Four of the women who live at Tautra have contributed to this volume of monastic wisdom from the north. They write of their experiences as monastics living close to the land, sky, and water on this island, following the liturgical year of the monastery with its enduring rhythm while experiencing the changing seasons and landscape that help to shape their life of faith and light. Includes color photos. The nuns of Tautra Mariakloster are a group of women from eight countries who have been called to monastic life at Tautra, in central Norway.


The Cistercians in the Middle Ages

The Cistercians in the Middle Ages

Author: Janet E. Burton

Publisher: Boydell Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 184383667X

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The Cistercians (White Monks) were the most successful monastic experiment to emerge from the tumultuous intellectual and religious fervour of the 11th and 12th centuries. This book seeks to explore the phenomenon that was the Cistercian Order.