The Monastic Heart by Joan Chittister

Over the archways of medieval Benedictine monasteries shone one phrase: Pax intrantibus - Peace to those who enter here. Beyond the great doors lay a world of calm and kindness where men and women called to the service of God spent their days praying, working and studying without all the distractions that trouble the minds of those outside.

Monastic communities belonging to The Benedictine Order still follow the Rule of St Benedict (originally written in the year 516) because it still offers the best advice on how monks and nuns can live a fulfilling life. Although very few of us would wish to spend our lives in an enclosed order, there are many aspects of The Rule that could help us find a little peace in the midst of the noise that fills our lives.

I saw this book on the library shelves a little while ago, but I passed it over as I thought it would be another of those books like The Secret that cherry picks wisdom from all manner of sources and then packs it altogether as though it's something new. I was wrong about that. Joan Chittister is a nun who lives by the Rule of St Benedict and she has written out fifty practices in a form of language that can be understood in relation to modern life.

Joan explains that, these days we manage to make faith more complex than it need be '...we turn God into a child's myth. We make God a warrior, a magician, a vending machine, a judge, the remote puppeteer of the universe.' and all the while faith can just be there, sitting quietly, amongst all things.

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