The living link through whom the ascetic principles of hellenistic philosophers passed into monasticism, Evagrius molded christian asceticism through his own works and through his influence on John Cassian, Climacus, Pseudo 'Denis, and Saint Benedict.

The desert, the mountain, and the temple provide the focus of the anonymous author's reflections. He meditates on the wilderness experiences of such biblical persons as Jesus, John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalen. He considers the place held in the Christian story by Mount Sinai, the Mount of Olives, and Calvary. He ponders the idea of temples, using such images as our inner temple and Christ the temple, the foundation of the Church.

'My thoughts on the spiritual exercises proper to cloistered monks'; the ninth prior of La Grande Chartreuse ( '1180) articulates the monastic contemplative tradition in distinctively western terms.

'...reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation. These make a ladder for monks by which they are lifted up from earth to heaven. It has few rungs, yet its length is immense and wonderful, for its lower end rests upon the earth, but its top pierces the clouds and seeks heavenly secrets.'

Beauty consuming itself like incense burnt before God in solitude, far from the eyes of men, became the most stirring image of penance conceivable. Stories on conversion from extreme sinfulness to extreme holiness have always attracted humankind's attention, and this was especially so among the monks of the ancient and medieval world. In the literature of fourth-century Egypt, alongside the wise sayings of the desert fathers and the stories illustrating their way of life, there are also the accounts of the lives of the harlots, Pelagia, Maria, Thais, Mary of Egypt, and a number of lesser figures, all of which were copied, translated, and retold throughout the Middle Ages.

In this monograph, Benedicta Ward continues the work she began in The Sayings of the Desert Fathers and The Lives of the Desert Fathers, commenting on early monastic texts by discussing the theme of Christian repentance. She begins with May Magdalene, the archetypal penitent, and goes on to examine the desert tradition, concluding each chapter with new translations of those lives which were most influential in the early Church and on countless generations afterwards.

This practical guide to the spiritual life, cherished by monks, beguines, and lay folk for eight centuries, can still lead men and women to God.

The Golden Epistle first appeared in 1145 and has been ascribed to several different authors, among them Bernard of Clairvaux and Guigo the Carthusian. Today its author is known to have been William of Saint Thierry, a Cistercian monk of the abbey of Signy and a friend of Saint Bernard. After studying at one of the cathedral schools that flourished in the early twelfth century, William entered monastic life at the Benedictine abbey of Saint Nicaise in Rheims. By the early 1120's he became abbot of the abbey of Saint Thierry, just outside the royal city, and took a leading role in a reform movement aimed at greater simplicity of life. Resigning that post in middle age to enter the Cistercians, he found himself increasingly attracted to the solitary life and shortly before writing The Golden Epistle visited the nearby Charterhouse of Mont Dieu.

It was read continuously throughout the Middle Ages and into modern times, especially by lay men and women seeking guidance in their spiritual lives.

Spiritual Friendship is today the best known and perhaps most influential of the thirteen surviving works of Aelred, abbot of the great English Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx from 1147 '1167. During his abbacy he built Rievaulx into a place of spiritual welcome and physical prosperity, desiring to make it a mother of mercy to those in need. In a three-book Ciceronian dialogue Aelred defines human friendship as sacramental, beginning in creation, as God sought to place his own love of society in all his creatures, linking friends to Christ in this life and culminating in friendship with God in beatitude. This fresh new translation makes the work crisply readable, allowing the intellectual and Christian insight of this great Cistercian teacher and writer to speak clearly to today's seekers of love, wisdom, and truth.

In the year 394 seven monks from Palestine made a difficult journey through the Egyptian desert, drawn there by stories of remarkable men. What they found in the communities living far up the Nile Valley fully accorded with their expectations, and in the account written by one of their number we have a rare contemporary source of information about the lives of these Desert Fathers.

The witness of the monks in the face of a corrupt and declining, though nominally Christian Empire, and the roots of monasticism in fourth century Egypt, are subjects of steadily growing interest in the Church in the twentieth century. In her long and illuminating introduction Sister Benedicta Ward SLG explores the background of these traveller's tales and their encounters with the great men of the Desert, and places the account in its literary context alongside the complementary text of the 'Sayings' of the Fathers and the later, more sophisticated literature. She indicates throughout the social impact of the Fathers and the lasting truths discovered by these simple men in their way of holiness. This translation of the Historia Monachorum by Norman Russell is the first available in English, and will be of absorbing interest for the general reader as well as for students.

These eighty-six sermons are among the most famous and most beautiful examples of medieval scriptural exegesis. In them the modern reader can catch a glimpse of the genius an entire generation found irresistible.

This volume contains sermons 1 through 20.

Bernard of Clairvaux towered over the society of twelfth-century Europe. A brilliant preacher and a polished writer; he counselled kings and rebuked popes. He moved in the complicated affairs of men with a dexterity which brought him acclaim and adversaries, yet he exhorted Christians to turn from worldly affairs to serve God.

He remains a man of paradoxes. He crisscrossed Europe while insisting that monks have no place outside their monasteries. He inveighed against two of the most renowned scholars of his day, yet he helped support the education of numerous students. He persuaded two kings to take up a crusade against the Moslems, yet he preached that persuasion and not force should be used against unbelievers.

A profound mystic, Bernard sought, above all and in all, to be with God and to bring all persons to the experience of God. His Sermons on the Song of Songs are among the most famous and most beautiful examples of medieval scriptural exegesis. In them the modern reader can catch a glimpse of the genius which an entire generation found irresistible.

'I have plucked the finest flowers of the unmown meadow and worked them into a row which I now offer to you', wrote John Moschos as he began his tales of the holy men of seventh-century Palestine and Egypt. This translation offers readers contemporary insights into the spirituality of the desert.

Merton, whose own tortuous path to spiritual maturity is well known, here offers the knowledge gained during that experience. He discusses the meaning and purpose of spiritual direction, and how to profit from that direction.

These reflections by the preacher to the papal household coalesce biblical and doctrinal thought on the gifts conferred by anointing in the Spirit - kingly, prophetic, and priestly - onto Christ and through Christ to the Church. As one well accustomed to illuminating the Word to his audience, Father Cantalamessa bestows on readers an understanding of the Holy Spirit that is both practical and profound.

For centuries male celibates have described, expressed, and celebrated their love of God in the language of sex, most prolifically and characteristically in a thousand years' commentarial tradition on the Song of Songs. After analysing the tradition, its logic and its imagery, Turner provides translations of commentaries by Gregory the Great, Alcuin of York, Hugh of Saint Victor, William of Saint-Thierry, Alan of Lille, Thomas of Perseigne, Thomas Galus, Thomas Aquinas, Giles of Rome, Nicholas of Lyra, Denys the Carthusian, and John of the Cross.

The Song That I Am: On the Mystery of Music is a short but full-to-the-brim essay on the decisive role that great music (whether Bach, Tavener, or Gregorian chant) ought to play in the spiritual life. With admirable restraint Élisabeth-Paule Labat shares her interior experience of music and thus continually opens up fresh vistas through worlds of sound and spirit. With her uncanny gift of language, Labat precisely describes soundings and yearnings of the soul that many of us glimpse fleetingly. Because only the lover sings (St. Augustine), her final illumination is that the experience of profound music ought to transform us into the beauty that we hear.

It is often forgotten, in the centuries after scholastic systems and Reformation polemic came to dominate the study of theology; just how intimate was the familiarity the Church Fathers and monastic authors had of Scripture. It formed their prayer, their lives, and their teaching.

The author of a book on Pastoral Care, Gregory the Great (+604) reveals himself in these forty sermons on the gospel as both pastor and preacher. He pays careful attention to the historical details of Scripture, seeks out its moral application to daily Christian life, and through it reflects on the hidden reality of God. For the Christian, study of Scripture entails a personal engagement with mystery, and openness to transformation. This is not a form of escapism but an attempt to achieve a mystical, intuitive, experiential perception of the divine while one is still held bound by earthly and bodily ties. Everything Gregory thought or spoke or wrote leads to this goal. This is why he remains an effective guide for those who seek a religion that gives meaning to their lives.