Customer Reviews for Brazos Press Cloister Talks: Learning from My Friends the Monks - eBook

"We can show you how to be quiet, how to listen, but only God can show you the other stuff," Father Ambrose told Jon Sweeney long ago. "What stuff?" he replied. "You."

This is just one of the many conversations Sweeney shares in Cloister Talks-a series of glimpses into his decades-long friendships with Cistercian and Benedictine monks in various monasteries across the country. The contemplative way embodied by these communal brothers has been the single greatest source of guidance in Sweeney's journey of faith. Here he shares with poignant honesty the wisdom and insight for everyday living he has gained along the way.

Sweeney's conversations with monks engage various universal areas of life, including life, death, love, work, play, and spirituality. Readers will emerge with a deeper understanding of this ancient way of Christianity-a much needed antidote to the hurry of contemporary life. The monastics who populate these pages have spent a combined century and a half in their sacred vocation. They hold the keys to many of the things we all yearn for: stillness, solitude, simplicity, contemplation, and clarity of purpose.