Un Psaume, une Abbaye. One Psalm, One Abbey

By photographer and author Marie-Line Burguiere

Publisher: Weyrich ISBN 978287 4898952

Foreword by the Right Rev. Gregory Polan, O.S.B

This extraordinary book, written in both French and English, is rich in images, both photographic and poetic. Its concept is Soriginal in that the work consists of twelve chapters, each of which offers the opportunity to the nuns or monks of a monastery to choose a psalm and then meditate upon it. The houses included are of the Benedictine, Cistercian, Carthusian and Premonstratensians. The compiler and photographer, Marie-Line Burguiere, has then put together an assembly of photos to reflect the psalm, the pictures being arranged to symbolize the cycle of life from sunrise to sunset.

Readers will not be surprised that I turned first to the Stanbrook chapter, with the chosen focus of Psalm 25 (24), To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. The photos are diverse in their choice of subject; church interiors and landscapes, daily activity and individual portraits of sisters at prayer, reflecting the progress of the day and the movement of light and dark. The photos are interlaced and illuminated by a text which offers meditation and reflection upon the psalm, giving the reader a glimpse into the spirituality of the monastery. This approach leads to a wonderful variety of meditations, leading the reader into the spirit of the place.

It is a book for slow reading and looking, marvelling at the depth and breadth of monastic traditions and their way of seeing and being.

A treasure of a book, a real source of inspiration, revelation, and peace.

Beverley Hallam, Oblate of Stanbrook

This review first appeared in the Stanbrook 400 year anniversary in 2025.

Balance of the Heart: Desert Spirituality for Twenty-First Century Christians

By Lois Farag

ISBN-13 978-1-55635-977-4
ISBN-10 1-55635-977-2

I came across this book in a most unlikely situation, on a public bookshelf on board a Nile steamer. As I am, firstly, interested in the Desert Fathers and Mothers, and secondly was at the time travelling through terrain that may have been known to them, I started to read it, and once started I struggled to put it down. It is rare that a spiritual volume has that effect for me, but the style is immediate and it is essentially extremely practical and useful.

Part 1 gives a brief introduction to monasticism and its foundation, and Part 2 is ‘Clothe Yourselves with a New Self: Daily life in the desert’ and has headings covering for example Scripture, Managing one’s thoughts, Prayer, Renunciation, Discernment and Control of the tongue. The ‘Why it is Important’ sections and brief accounts of sayings from different Desert Fathers and Mothers on each subject make it very readable. It is extremely well referenced, and many of the chapters end with a selection of Biblical verses for further contemplation, and Further Sayings for reflection.

The author is quoted on the flyleaf as saying through ‘presentation of the inner spiritual experience of the Desert Fathers and Mothers the reader will discover they are closer to us than we think’ and another comment is ‘This book is a reminder of their relevance and importance in every age’.

Marie Liveing

Light of the World.

The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times. A Conversation with Peter Seewald.

By Pope Benedict XVI

ISBN: 978-1860827099

I’d like to thank the New York Times and other secular media for helping me get my priorities straight. I had no plans to read right away Benedict XVI’s new book-length interview with Peter Seewald, as I was buried under final exams. I was saving the book for quieter times.

But between the international headlines generated by the New York Times and Associated Press reports, I stopped everything I was doing and picked up “Light of the World.” It was the best thing I did this semester, as his message of hope in the face of tremendous challenges offers calm amid chaos.

Not surprisingly, the secular media got the Pope’s message wrong. One would think with all the expensive educations milling around these news conglomerates, someone might have taken a class in reading comprehension. Ironically, the Associated Press claimed: “Pope’s remarks on condoms sow widespread confusion.” I would have gone with “Journalist illiteracy wreaks pandemonium.”

The point of contention is in Chapter 11, when the Pope speaks hypothetically of a prostitute using a condom as a sign of an awakening of his moral conscience. This tiny paragraph has now spawned novels — proving the Pope’s point in the preceding lines, that “concentrating on condoms alone banalizes sexuality.”

His remarks make perfect sense, the only mystery being why Catholics would look to the secular media for interpretation of the Pope’s teaching, especially those outlets that had spent most of this year trying relentlessly yet unsuccessfully to accuse him of complicity in the sex abuse crisis. Why not read Cardinal Raymond Burke, or papal biographer George Weigel, or a moral theologian such as Father Thomas Williams? Better yet, why not just read the Pope himself?

One thing is for sure — reading “Light of the World” will be more satisfying and fulfilling than any pundit’s pronouncements.

The book was meant to be read as a whole, not as sound bites. Peter Seewald conducts the interview as if embarking on an epic adventure, with Benedict XVI as our guide. Only in this journey we don’t travel through mythical lands, we navigate among the Scylla and Charybdis of the modern world. There are many things to fear, our own weaknesses included, but the gentle voice of the Holy Father helps us to look at the darkness of evil for what it is and then to forge ahead following the light of Christ.

The adventure opens with an intimate look at our guide; Benedict XVI reveals what it meant to answer the call to succeed St. Peter, sharing his feelings in the “Room of Tears,” when he accepted this heavy burden. He can also hit a lighter note, such as whether he practices a sport. The Holy Father gives himself unstintingly to the reader, as he prepares to lead us through the “dark wood” of the modern age where even Dante was lost.

Then, as in the “Divine Comedy,” we are standing at the gates of hell, looking at the sex abuse crisis in the Church. With no time to prepare or escape the turmoil, Chapter 2 brings us into the heart of the scandal. While we may look for others to blame, Benedict focuses the gaze inward. The media may have reported the story with bias, but it took a few bad Catholic priests who provided a story to tell. One can imagine sitting next to Cardinal Ratzinger in his office at the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith reading through report after report, studying how to combat the “filth” in the Church and, most importantly, praying, even weeping for the innocent victims.

The book is encyclopedic, covering everything from climate change to Islam and even the conversion of actress Raquel Welch. It dedicates an entire chapter to sexuality in the present era. His clear vision of the dangers of progress without ethics, sex as a “self-administered drug,” and the need for renewal in the Church is persuasive and inspiring. There are, however, moments when he makes one squirm, as we recognize ourselves to be part of the problem; at the same time the Holy Father offers us the means to be part of the cure.

He shows us many adversaries; from the real fatal persecutions taking place in many parts of the world, to the West where “tolerance might be abolished in the name of tolerance itself.” He also unmasks the many Catholics who claim to speak for the Church yet ignore Church teachings. The pitfalls are many and danger is omnipresent but our guide is so surefooted, one can only be grateful for the gift of Pope Benedict.

Two things in particular struck me about the book. The first was that for an interview, there is very little “I.” Amid the endless stream of first-person gushing in autobiographies, blogs and social networking pages — the bulk of our literary output — the Pope speaks for his Church or of his Church and most importantly, of the example of Christ. Benedict XVI states facts, recalls history and illustrates trends objectively. He limits his first person to opinions on questions outside of Church teaching, for example when asked about the Burqa law in France.
The second is how Benedict XVI startles with his humility and his hope. The secular media see the Pope as just another powerful political figure, yet the Holy Father lives his role quite differently.

At the end of the tempestuous week of the book release, the Church celebrated the feast of Christ the King. On this day we remember that our King does not march in triumphal parades at the head of gloating legions, nor does he force all nations to revere him through his visible awesome majesty. Our King walked among men as one of us; He was beaten, mocked and died a criminal’s death.

Even Rome itself, the See of Peter, had only turbulent waters for the early Christians. Benedict points out that “for the first three centuries of the Church, Rome was the fulcrum and capital of the persecution of Christians.” He alerts readers that “the Church, the Christian and especially the Pope, must be aware of the fact that the witness they must give may become scandal, and not be accepted and therefore he will find himself in the condition of the witness of the suffering Christ.”

Tradition, and history are a large part of the Church but not the secular media, which feed on the here and now. We carry a rich, often heavy past of experience and custom, errors made and lessons learned and continuity through the most devastating times. The papacy has never been about triumphal parades, but navigating the Barque of Peter until it reaches safe haven.

Benedict XVI has great hope in God’s ability to transform our lives and world. The door is open and the light is on and Benedict is on the path pointing the way. The media may try to twist and confound his message, but in God’s wondrous way, the foolishness of men (and women) will bring many to read the Pope’s message and to learn that Christianity really is “Light of the World.”

Elizabeth Lev

Finding Stability in Times of Change

With a Foreword by Andrew Nunn, Dean of Southwark, “Finding Stability in Times of Change” considers how the winds and waves of a storm symbolises periods of change, transition and difficulty and how we might find calmer waters. The book includes stories and insights from others and practical and achievable suggestions for readers to consider in their own life.

David Runcorn, writer, speaker and spiritual director wrote ‘This is a timely and helpful book. It is about change. Life is full of it of course… It leaves us de-stabilised. Off balance. For many, quite a lot of life feels like that right now.’

I’m delighted that the book is the very first publication of a new, traditional, publishing house Endulini Publishing and builds on some of themes that underpinned Life with St Benedict.

Click here for more details, a video interview and to read the first chapter.

An eBook and paperback are available on Amazon. The paperback is also available direct from Richard

Richard Frost

The Vicarage, 3 Moors Park, Bishopsteignton, Teignmouth TQ14 9RH

workrestpray.com

richardfrostauthor.com

Looking to Move On

By Richard Frost

Richard’s debut novel, “Looking to Move On” is a contemporary story of loss and love, conflict and resolution, tears and laughter. The title reflects the message of the book which is one of hope over adversity and that moving on, rebuilding life, is always possible. In the course of his work and personal life, he has had the privilege of meeting many people who experience difficulties. Their stories have inspired much of this one.

Click here for more details, a video interview and to read the first chapter.

Published by the award-winning, Chronos Publishing, the paperback is available from Waterstones or directly from Richard (£9 plus P&P). An eBook is available on Amazon.

Richard’s also written a special blog post to celebrate this occasion.

The Monastery of the Heart: Benedictine Spirituality for Contemporary Seekers

By Sister Joan Chittister ,OSB

ISBN: 978-1629190204

OK, I admit it! I am a fan of Joan Chittister, and an avid reader of her books and articles. I love her honesty, her directness, her ability to ask critical and germane questions of both politicians and churchmen, indeed of all of us, based on a lifetime immersed in the Gospels and the Rule of St Benedict.     I think that in “The Monastery of the Heart” she is at her best. I don’t think I have ever come across a book that so seamlessly weaves together monastic and oblate life, contemplation and action, detachment and involvement, the tightrope that is the Christian and Benedictine vocation. She truly brings alive Benedict’s little school for the service of the Lord for those on either side of the monastic enclosure. I could quote her endlessly, but I think the first sentence of her book sums it up beautifully: “To live the God-life, Benedictine spirituality asserts as its foundation that we must immerse ourselves in the Word of God as model and guide, as vision and measure, of the good and happy life…. It is the gentle, tender invitation to go down deep into the self in order to find there the God who urges us to come out of ourselves to do the work of God, to live in union with God in the world around us….”   The layout of the book is very attractive – almost like poetry, with dense lapidary sentences and short chapters, as though to encourage the practice of Lectio. Like the Rule of St Benedict, it progresses from Our Search, to Our Interior life, Our Community, to Our Service, Our Promise and Our Spiritual Growth. It is a wonderful summary of the Christian journey as depicted in the Rule, and is the product of fifty years steeped in Benedictine life.  Don’t just take my word for it; read it for yourselves.

Revd Gerry Reilly Oblate

Stumbling into Grace: How we Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy

By Mary Pezzulo

I chose this book at random and rather regretted my decision when I read the reviews which mentioned the authors ‘desperate straits’ and ‘despair’. I had enough stress in my own life without taking on someone else’s as well! Having read the book, I am glad that I did so.

This book is an excellent example of how one can use one’s own struggles to help other people and, in doing so, give meaning to one’s own life and experiences. The author tells us about her life of poor health and extreme poverty but not in order to elicit our sympathy and support. Rather, she is saying ‘I really know what I am talking about here, so please listen to my advice on how you can help other people like me’. She divides the book into chapters based roughly on Matthew 25:35-36 ‘For I was hungry and you gave me food …’. Each chapter has two parts. In the first part, the author uses her own life experience to discuss the problem of hunger, homelessness etc in her community and steps that this community have taken to address the problem. The second part is a list of specific things that we as individuals can do in our own communities. Being involved in my local food-bank, I was interested to see what she would say about feeding the hungry. I was impressed by her list, which showed a real understanding of the practicalities involved – cash is often the best gift to the organisers because then they can buy what they most need; do not donate ‘out-of-date’ food; do not give a homeless person something difficult to chew – they probably have bad teeth.

This practical attitude continued in the other chapters – only donate clothes that you would wear yourself; be hospitable to your neighbours; check up on friends or neighbours who are ill; make your voice heard in your politics. The book is more than just a manual for being a good neighbourEach chapter talks about how these practical steps are ways of expressing our love of Jesus and reflecting His love of us.

In summary, I was very impressed with this book. It would be a useful handbook for any parish group wanting to be able to hear Jesus saying ‘Come, you whom my father has blessed.’ (Matt 25:34)

Jane Coll

Grace-filled moments with Sr. Joan (365 Reflections on Life, Loss, Healing and Joy.)

Joan Chittister

The author of over 50 books and 700 articles, Sr Joan has won 16 Catholic Press Association awards in the USA.  Considered “one of the most influential religious and social leaders of our time” Sister Joan was Prioress for 12 years of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania, President of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, and is currently co-chair on the UN sponsored Global Peace Initiative of Women.  Her life’s work is a journey towards finding God and inner peace in the midst of today’s turbulent world.  Sister Joan says that when we fail “to see the whole world in one ray of light” as St Benedict did, we imprison ourselves inside our own small selves, without ideas, without experience, and without love.  Once we begin to look at the world as oblates, as God looks at the world, we see every person in it as unique, precious, all absorbing.  People cease to be numbers, stereotypes and races and sexes – they become individuals to us.  Each and every one of them on their twisted, limping way to God.  Life’s major problem, according to Sister Joan, does not lie in choosing between good and evil.  No, life’s real problem lies in choosing good from good.  When values are in conflict always choose the higher one.

Her book, “Grace-filled moments with Sr. Joan” published in 2021 by Twenty-third Publications is an all-new collection of wisdom, for each day of the week, helping the reader to “listen with the ear of the heart,” learning to cultivate happiness and find joy in moderation, while developing a deeper prayer life in our ongoing search for communion with God. “Appreciation for the small goods of life – the taste of warm, fresh bread, the birthday card in the mailbox, the hour of quiet that returns us to ourselves – is itself a spiritual exercise.”

An excellent book – I found particularly poignant her words of pearly wisdom written for the day of my birthday –  “As we grow we learn that ignorance is our greatest internal enemy. But it is writers who make us learners all our lives. They set out to awaken the rest of the world to situations that, without them, we would either ignore or deny.”

Sr Joan reminds us that, as oblates,  we are keepers of a great spiritual tradition, which we must pass on or it will wither and die.  We are companions on the way, carrying our wisdoms, to share with one another, along the spiritual pathway towards greater understanding and meaning in our lives, spreading gospel values and the Rite of St Benedict in everyday life.  For her the “Wisdom we seek with one another can lead us to the truth.  Our needs have to include the needs of others.  We are ambassadors for a vision for the future.”

John G McKinlay MA, MBA, DPSE, DipEd (Oblate of Pluscarden Abbey, Elgin, Scotland).

Handmaids of the Lord: Women Deacons in the Catholic Church

Jane Coll, who lives in the North of Scotland, is an oblate of Pluscarden Abbey and a valued member of the UK Oblates team.

Having completed a BA Divinity through the Maryvale Institute, she has now written a book on the role of women in the Church.  The book has been granted an Imprimatur by the author’s bishop.

The following comments on it come from a Benedictine nun who is herself an author:

“Jane Coll’s book is an important contribution to the debate over the role of women in the Church. It is a ‘must read’ for many reasons –

● It is loyal to Church teachings

● It takes an academic approach, avoiding personal, emotional bias

● It presents a doctrinally sound argument from Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium for retaining the all-male priesthood

● It explores in-depth the possibilities of reintroducing the order of deaconesses in the Church of the third millennium;

● It takes up the challenge of Pope Francis to investigate further the role of women in the Church”.

‘Handmaids of the Lord:  Women Deacons in the Catholic Church’ is published by Gracewing and can be purchased through their web page, www.gracewing.co.uk., bookshops or on Amazon.

Life with St. Benedict

Richard Frost (Bible Reading Fellowship)

ISBN: 9 78057 468130

Richard Frost is a Reader in the Church of England and an oblate of the Benedictine community at Alton Abbey in Hampshire. His recent book provides reflections on the daily readings from the Holy Rule and is prefaced by an excellent short introduction to Benedictine Spirituality and a useful glossary.

The subtitle to this volume is ‘The Rule re-imagined for everyday living’ and that is exactly what the author has achieved in his reflections on each daily reading from the Holy Rule, which explore relationships, the workplace, our own church and our attitudes and actions towards others in a modern context. The reflections also include searching questions for the reader to think about and there is also a short prayer at the end of each section.

He also provides an opportunity for the reader to work through the 150 psalms in order over the four months of reading the Holy Rule.

Overall this is an excellent introduction to the Holy Rule and the author bridges the gap between a 1,500 years old spiritual document and modern lives. It helps the reader to get into the habit of trying to apply St Benedict’s teaching to their own life, that process of daily reflection which is so essential to our progress on the Benedictine way. It is therefore an ideal volume for the novice oblate and all who are beginning the Oblate life. I certainly wish Richard Frost’s book was available when I took my own first steps towards becoming an oblate. It is also an ideal volume for the busy oblate of whatever experience!

The book is available from Christian bookshops and BRF. Richard writes a blog at www.workrestpray.com and is available to lead Quiet Days based on the themes of the book.

Neil Zoladkiewicz, Ealing Abbey

Our Father: A Biblical Meditation on the Lord’s Prayer

Sister Claire Waddelove OSB (Gracewing, 2020)

As Lent begins we naturally think about renewing our spiritual lives. Where better to begin than with the prayer that our Lord himself taught us? The “Our Father” should be the prayer par excellence of Christians, but how many of us, through routine or distraction, say it without paying much attention to the meaning of the words? A fine new book by a Benedictine nun of St Cecilia’s Abbey on the Isle of Wight can provide excellent help.
Sister Claire looks at each phrase of the prayer through the lens of the whole of Scripture, showing how all the Old Testament points to and is fulfilled in Christ. She explains how a great part of Christian doctrine is implied in the Lord’s Prayer, as well as direction for Christian living and a piercing examination of conscience.

In guiding us wisely through each clause of the prayer, she provides rich and nourishing theology, supported by quotations from (among others) the Fathers of the Church, monastic writers, St John Henry Newman and Pope Benedict. Despite the author’s learning, the book is accessible and engaging. She writes that, when all else fails, the prayer of desperation, “Lord, I’m helpless; please do something,” is always answered. Her advice on dealing with temptation is detailed and practical.

Sister Claire also presents all the demands inherent in the “Our Father”, reminding us, for example, that indifference towards others is a sign that we do not love God, and that sins of omission will be judged severely. In this way her book can be an excellent preparation for the sacrament of confession.

This is an outstanding book that is best read slowly and meditatively, in the monastic tradition of lectio divina. Sister Claire has done us a great service by writing it. It deserves a wide readership.

John Hayes, Oblate of Prinknash