Grace in the desert : awakening to the gifts of monastic life / Dennis Patrick Slattery ; foreword by Thomas Moore.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Slattery, Dennis Patrick, 1944-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slattery, Dennis Patrick, 1944---Travel--United States.

Slattery, Dennis Patrick.

Slattery, Dennis Patrick, 1944-.

Monasteries--United States.

Monasteries.

Monastic and religious life--United States.

Monastic and religious life.

Travel.

United States--Description and travel.

United States.

Physical Description:

xv, 153 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, [2004]

Summary:

What does it mean to be alone in silence, in prayer, and in relation to the divine without the distractions that normally attend formal worship? How can our own way of being be affected by living among monks, hermits, and seekers who cultivate a deeper spirituality and a fuller sense of their relation to themselves and others? How can these encounters enhance further reflection, contemplation, and self-expression? In this powerful book, travel along with Dennis Patrick Slattery as he sets off on a three-month pilgrimage during which he struggles with his identity, his role as a father and husband, teacher and believer, as well as the life and death of his father. Throughout his stays at twelve monasteries and retreat centers, Slattery seeks the refuge of the monastic life where silence and solitude open an extraordinary window on the human soul. Against the backdrop of Slattery's personal story, Grace in the Desert offers vivid descriptions of monastic life and practice at Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and Buddhist monasteries and retreat centers.

Slattery's journey evokes life's most profound questions and his rich Catholic heritage, enriched with wisdom drawn from contemporary and classic spiritual writers like Thomas Merton, Julian of Norwich, and Thich Nhat Hanh. Grace in the Desert clearly shows the subtle and often surprising ways God speaks to us and how to become more spiritually fulfilled by opening to the richness of monastic life. It also shows how a monastic attitude or disposition can be cultivated in moments of retreat during one's busy daily life. Slattery attempts to bring a monastic sense of space to the reader, which one can enter outside the structure of a formal retreat. If you are considering taking your own spiritual retreat, Grace in the Desert includes an appendix with descriptions of nine additional retreat centers, a list of online retreat and monastery directories, and suggested reading to enhance your own contemplative solitude.

Contents:

A need to reconnect : preparing for the pilgrimage

The road on no map : New Camaldoli Hermitage, Big Sur, California

An isolato dogged by divinity : the Carmelite House of Prayer, Oakville, California

Meditations out of time : Sonoma Mountain Zen Center, Santa Rosa, California

Loneliness does not retreat : Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Redwood Valley, California

Nature's mystical muse : Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey, Lafayette, Oregon

Sisters who make much of time : Shalom Prayer Center, Queen of Angels Monastery, Mount Angel, Oregon

St. Francis and a spider's web : Franciscan Renewal Center, Portland, Oregon

Lowing cows and abandoned heifers : Our Lady of Trinity Trappist Monastery, Huntsville, Utah

Breathless in the darkness of God : Nada Hermitage, Crestone, Colorado

A hermit in the fridge : Dominican Retreat House, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Christ and the Hohokam people : Picture Rocks Retreat Center, Tucson, Arizona.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (143-152).

ISBN:

0787971049

OCLC:

53361140

Online:

Publisher description