Grace in the Desert: Awakening to the Gifts of Monastic Life - Hardcover

Slattery, Dennis Patrick

3.73

11 ratings by Goodreads

9780787971045: Grace in the Desert: Awakening to the Gifts of Monastic Life

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0787971049 ISBN 13: 9780787971045

Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 2004

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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.

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From the Back Cover:

A gentle and reflective introduction to the monastic life for anyone considering a spiritual retreat

"Dennis Patrick Slattery invites us to journey with him to experience the sacredness of everyday life at the monastic retreat centers he visits as well as on the paths and desert mountain ranges he walks. In this courageous journey of the heart, the author weaves his poetic reflections with the teachings of many writers. A stunning spiritual journey."
–maureen murdock, author, The Heroine’s Journey, Unreliable Truth, and Monday Morning Memoirs

"In his memoir, Dennis Patrick Slattery writes of a journey that is simultaneously inward and outward with an almost Augustinian appreciation of the ‘sweetness’ of things. With a writer’s relish and a mystic’s sensitivity, he describes . . . making his way from a stay at one monastic community after another."
–christine downing, author, The Goddess and The Long Journey Home

"Those who read Grace in the Desert have an opportunity to travel through the desert of the dark night of the soul to the mountain of the light of divine knowledge, to the cloud of unknowing which wraps us in the radiant darkness of divine love. It is one of the most reflective, richly poetic, and yes, spiritually uplifting ‘journals of the soul’ I have been privileged to read."
–peter c. phan, The Ignacio Ellacuria Professor of Catholic Thought, Georgetown University; author, Journeys at Margins

"This is a marvelous and inspiring book that serves not only as a practical and historical guide to contemporary monastic retreats in the American West but also as a reminder of how much we need to seek out periods of meditative solitude in our lives."
–evans lansing smith, author, The Modernist Nekyia and Sacred Mysteries

"Dennis reveals himself as a child of God at play in the fields of the Lord. His delight in the spiritual world is palpable, contagious. His decades-long habit of reflection has borne fruit in this compelling record of what continues to be a sacramental journey."
–allen tate wood, author, Moonstruck

From the Inside Flap:

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.

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