Read more
Erik Varden published
The Shattering of Loneliness in 2018. Now, with the world in the throes of uncertainty and turbulence, he helps us interpret the signs of the times, convinced that the perennial experience of monks and nuns has much to teach us. The principles of monasticism have become attractive to many, awakened as we are to the importance of integrity, the pursuit of peace, asceticism as a path to freedom, hospitality and contemplative seeing.
After a deeply personal introduction, Varden invites us to consider what makes a monk. He then takes us on a pilgrimage through the Church's year, drawing on Scripture, tradition and literary and religious figures of our time. Varden lets the reader discover the generous breadth and depth of a monk's outlook on life. In so doing he provides inspiration, enjoyment and enlightenment in equal measure.
List of contents
List of IllustrationsIntroduction
PART ONE: WHAT MAKES A MONK1 Vows
2 Patrimony
3 The Heart's Expansion
PART TWO: A MONASTIC YEAR4 Seasons
5 Ordinary Time
6 Saints
Appendix: VisionNotes on the TextNotes
About the author
Erik Varden is a monk and bishop. Norwegian by birth, he was, before entering Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. He has published several translations and scholarly monographs and is much in demand as a preacher, spiritual director and lecturer. In 2019 Pope Francis appointed him to the see of Trondheim. He is the author of
The Shattering of Loneliness (Bloomsbury Continuum, 2018).
Summary
A book about the insight, comfort, and direction our troubled age can find in monastic wisdom.
Erik Varden published The Shattering of Loneliness in 2018. Now, with the world in the throes of uncertainty and turbulence, he helps us interpret the signs of the times, convinced that the perennial experience of monks and nuns has much to teach us.
The principles of monasticism have become attractive to many, awakened as we are to the importance of integrity, the pursuit of peace, asceticism as a path to freedom, hospitality and contemplative seeing.
After a deeply personal introduction, Varden invites us to consider what makes a monk. He then takes us on a pilgrimage through the Church's year, drawing on Scripture, tradition and literary and religious figures of our time.
Varden lets the reader discover the generous breadth and depth of a monk's outlook on life. In so doing he provides inspiration, enjoyment and enlightenment in equal measure.
Foreword
A book about the insight, comfort, and direction our troubled age can find in monastic wisdom.
Additional text
Varden's erudition in this edifying work of Catholic monasticism should earn him comparisons to Edith Stein.
