
- 150 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
We’re Just Novices
About this book
Four individuals join a prairie religious community for a year in the mid-twentieth century. A hippie type delights in playful antics and earthy jokes; another, a musician, finds his joy in Gregorian chant; a farmer delights in nature; and a business executive looks forward to running the whole monastery. These men follow the Rule of St. Benedict, oriented to beginners: they rise early every morning to meditate, keep silence, and obey a superior. Written without self-pity and with a certain merriment, We're Just Novices traces their simple ideal--eat, sleep, and pray. But there are challenges: the rigor of learning to read Latin publicly, eye-rolling humor, and dealing with human desires. Personal life and private possessions become part of the communal. These monks have a moderate program so that they can grow and, mostly, stay balanced. They do not try to become heroes. Their spirituality is ordinary and even tedious; their prayer and work, not primarily that of individuals but that of a community. But in their togetherness there is some growth and depth, a holiness, the sanity of a well-tempered life.
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Information
Table of contents
- Title Page
- Introduction
- Entering the monastery
- Snuffing: to laugh or not to laugh?
- The porcupine’s dilemma
- More on intimate relationships
- Black Madonna
- New names
- Reading
- Monastic garb: the habit
- Work is prayer, prayer is work
- The Divine Office
- The Tyrocinium
- Benedictine vows
- Benedictine medal
- Art and monastic life
- Antiquarian nature of the monastery
- The liturgical year
- Teachings on the mystical body and liturgy
- More on the liturgy
- Hermit life
- Night lights
- Less than serious talk
- The future
- Conclusion