As Peters explains, what we have known as monasticism for the past 1,500 years is actually a modified version of the earliest monastic life, which was not necessarily characterized by poverty, chastity, and obedience but rather by one's single-minded focus on God--a single-mindedness rooted in one's baptism...
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As records of the wisdom and purity of the "desert fathers and mothers" spread through the Roman Empire, Christians streamed to the caves of these desert hermits, seeking counsel on the interior life. The hermits' ascetic practices and wise words were a shining witness to a living faith that could be woven into the fabric of daily life.

This volume contains Athanasius' famous The Life of St. Anthony, St....
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On the periphery of the Roman empire, the sixth-century desert city of Gaza served as a crossroads between Palestine and Egypt. The nearby village of Tawatha was home to the thriving monastery of Abbot Seridos and the renowned anchorites Barsanuphius, known to the people as the Great Old Man, and his disciple John. The laity of the area looked to the monks for spiritual leadership, as did their brother monks, bishops, and religious leaders from as far away as Jerusalem and Constantinople. Having adopted a life of physical isolation, the monks communicated with others by letters, offering gu...
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The Universal Monk is about the monk in all of us. In today's fast- paced and often fractured culture we all seek inner peace and unity. The Universal Monk is a powerful way for everyone of any state of life to find it. It is written from John Michael Talbot's experience in public international ministry and as founder and spiritual father of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity, a new integrated monastic community of celibates, singles who can marry, and families who live in an integrated monastery or in their own homes. It walks us through a treatment of the current issues tha...
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Simple and direct, John of Forde writes in a way that is also profound and often distinctly original. He is a theologian with a flair for language that appeals to ordinary readers, a monk in a very masculine world who is not afraid of deep emotional feelings. Few other spiritual writers can achieve his poignancy without trailing into sentimentality. Yet for seven hundred years John has remained largely unknown and ignored. He passed much of his life at the Cistercian abbey of Forde in southwest England at the end of the twelfth century, active in the Order and well-known among his contempor...
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