Paperback: Father Benedict tells of his calling to the life of a cloistered contemplative monk, his training in a Spanish monastery, and his being sent to only Carthusian monastery in the US.
He was trained to live to the letter of the rule, and compares that training to what he actually lived as a fully trained monk, including the several positions of authority he exercised within the monastic community, up to his eventual departure and ultimate severance of ties with the Carthusian Order.
This work of love will guide you into the intimate life of a Carthusian monk by an author who has experienced this life. Rarely, if ever, does the Carthusian monk write about his life but our author takes us with him on his interior journey of how to love God and one another in a genuine way.
They rise at 11.30pm for prayer while the rest of the world begins their sleep. The Carthusian monastery is alive with the sounds of the monks, chanting their prayers in Latin. They are before God for others who do not take the time to pray, and for those who do not pray enough. The author takes us into the intimate struggle between good and evil and the light and darkness of the human heart. It is a struggle we all have to face. This work will inspire many to enter into a deeper prayer life with God, Who is not satisfied with just Sunday worship. He wants our whole heart in word and work.
CARTHUSIANS
Through what long heaviness, assayed in what strange fire,
Have these white monks been brought into the way of peace,
Despising the world's wisdom and the world's desire,
Within their austere walls no voices penetrate;
A sacred silence only, as of death, obtains;
Nothing finds entry here of loud or passionate;
From many lands they came, in divers fiery ways;
Each knew at last the vanity of earthly joys;
And one was crowned with thorns, and one was crowned with bays,
And each was tired at last of the world's foolish noise.
A cloistered company, they are companionless,
None knoweth here the secret of his brother's heart:
They are but come together for more loneliness,
Whose bond is solitude and silence all their part.
(From a poem by Ernest Dawson)
Sounds of Silence...A Monk's Journey was published in 2005 by Author House.
About the author: The author was a cloistered contemplative monk for a total of twenty years in the most strict and austere Order of the Church, the Carthusian Order. He writes under the name Father Benedict out of continuing respect for Carthusian anonymity. In his first published book, he tells of his calling to the religious and monastic life, his training in a Spanish Carthusian monastery, and his being sent to the Carthusian monastery in Vermont soon after it opened. He was trained to live to the letter of the rule, and compares that training to what he actually lived as a fully trained monk. He was appointed to the offices of Novice Master and Vocation Director soon after his arrival in Vermont, and exercised several other positions of authority within the community. Unfortunate difficulties within that monastic community contributed to his eventual departure and ultimate severance of legal ties with the Carthusians. By a special determination of the pope, he was released from the obligations of his vows and the priesthood. Now married, he lives in Florida with his wife and Shih Tzu, Rudolph.
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