Monastic practices

the long version

"The following chapters study our common monastic practices as still viable means of leading contemporary monks and nuns to a deeper experience of God in faith, hope and love. These traditional practices are still viable, in the sense of being at the service of life, if we know how to use them and how to give ourselves to them until they lead us to God. This will be a 'how to' book more than a theological or historical study of monastic customs. It is not only newcomers who need to learn how. All of us need to rediscover deeper levels of meaning in the things we do every day: our interactions with other in the community, the time we spend alone in our cell, the common rituals we perform as we move through the daily schedule, our living and our dying. In the art of being monks and nuns, we are always beginners, beginning once again to seek and find, because there is always more of the living God to be experienced." [Introduction].