The Monastery of the Heart: An Invitation to a Meaningful Life - Softcover

""The monastic archetype is embedded in every soul . . . Joan Chittister understands and communicates this to her contemporaries with rare insight and power. Her book will help more people discover this personally." --Laurence Freeman, author", The Selfless Self

""Lyrical in its prose, "The Monastery of the Heart" reads like a holy distillation of all that Joan Chittister has written to date." --Ephrem Hollermann, author, " The Reshaping of a Tradition

""Joan Chittister has emerged as a wisdom figure for our time. Here she takes her wise monastic tradition and takes it on the road for all to love and enjoy." --Richard Rohr, author, " The Naked Now

""This marvel of a book sings in the heart and makes the mind quiet with reverence, even as it instructs both of them with a holy gladness. "The Monastery of the Heart" is a gift to all seekers everywhere." --Phyllis Tickle, compiler, " The Divine Hours

"Joan Chittister has emerged as a wisdom figure for our time. Here she takes her wise monastic tradition and takes it on the road for all to love and enjoy." --Richard Rohr, author, "The Naked Now"

"Lyrical in its prose, " The Monastery of the Heart" reads like a holy distillation of all that Joan Chittister has written to date." --Ephrem Hollermann, author, "The Reshaping of a Tradition"

"Chittister's new work reflects the creation of a new kind of quasi-monastic spirituality suited for the age of liberalization--and technology." --"Library Journal"

"The monastic archetype is embedded in every soul . . . Joan Chittister understands and communicates this to her contemporaries with rare insight and power. Her book will help more people discover this personally." --Laurence Freeman, author, "The Selfless Self"

"This marvel of a book sings in the heart and makes the mind quiet with reverence, even as it instructs both of them with a holy gladness. "The Monastery of the Heart" is a gift to all seekers everywhere." --Phyllis Tickle, compiler, "The Divine Hours"

"Every time, every culture has sought the spiritual dimensions of life in particular ways, in language and symbols and lifestyles it could embrace. Across the ages, countless men and women in East and West chose the path of monastic life, either in solitude or in community. One of them was Benedict of Nursia, the sixth-century founder of communal monasticism in the Western world. For Benedict, the spiritual life lay in simply living this life, our daily life, well. He turned the ordinary into an experience of the extraordinary, a union with the sacred in the here and now. His enduring legacy--Benedictine spirituality based on the Rule of Benedict--exists to this day, around the world. The Monastery of the Heart is Joan Chittister's powerful spiritual guide for all of us who are seeking a more purposeful life today, in a time of social upheavals and global transformations. It is written for seekers of any faith or none--individuals, couples, families, and small groups--who are looking for true meaning while facing seemingly countless options, both spiritual and secular, and are feeling overwhelmed by choices. It builds on the ancient Rule of Benedict to show us new ways of meaningful living in the very center of our own world--without ever withdrawing from it. The Monastery of the Heart is anchored in the Rule, rooted in its values, but attempts to redefine it for seekers today. Fresh in its form and focus, it invites us to become within ourselves monastics of the heart"--