How would you explain monasticism to Protestants who feel Christians should be out in the world, seeking to convert lost souls? To them, monks/nuns are hiding from society’s ills, not helping to mend ...

The monastic alternative, at least in the West, has become so deeply unfashionable that most people no longer consider the possibility, but there is, at least to me, something deeply appealing about ...

Part two of a three-part series. The dwindling number of vocations to priesthood, religious orders and monastic life make it clear that traditional religious life no longer speaks to newer generations ...

When Judith Valente, a Benedictine oblate, leads contemplative retreats both online and in monasteries around the country, she has been noticing that laypeople — whether Catholic or ...

"The good of all concerned, however, may prompt us to a little strictness in order to amend faults and to safeguard love." The first monks who tried to live under Benedict's direction hated his ...

Much copy and debate has been generated by the Pew Foundation's recent snapshot of American religion. A lot of the conversation has sounded like the daily roundup of a religious stock market: who is ...

It was a joy to spend the month of June at my alma mater in Atchison, Kan., as my husband continues his formation with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (Focus). Nearly every classroom ...

This scholarly work is a valuable contribution to the overall history of monasticism in Ireland as it explores “the hidden years” of that tradition, following its much vaunted “golden age” when, as ...

The idea of the nazir always raises questions and problems. The idea of monasticism is certainly not a basic Jewish value. Just the opposite seems to be true from the ideas and statements of the ...