Charles Cummings is a Trappist-Cistercian monk and priest of Holy Trinity Abbey, Huntsville, Utah. He grew up in northern Minnesota and joined the monastery in 1960. He has a master’s degree in formative spirituality and has been engaged in writing, editing, teaching, counseling, chaplain ministry, and monastic interreligious dialogue for most of his monastic life.
As an aspiring monk, I found the first edition of Monastic
Practices to be a treasury of both wisdom and practical information
for living the monastic life. Each chapter covers an aspect,
beginning with `Sacred Reading' and concluding with `From Death to
Life.' And now, as a professed monk of several years and vocation
director of New Melleray Abbey, I am excited to have the
opportunity to recommend the new edition of this fine book to the
next generation of aspiring monks.
Br. Paul Andrew Tanner, OCSO, New Melleray Abbey, Peosta, Iowa
"The author's personal, conversational style are very engaging and
it is obvious that he has a mastery of the subject, having lived it
since 1960. Whether you have a monastic library or are looking to
build one up, or you wish to the book to someone who is seeking to
deepen their spirituality, you can't go wrong with this book."Karl
A. Schultz
"Fr. Charles Cummings's revised Monastic Practices is an
insider's guide to life in the monastic world. Although
specifically directed at monastics, it offers secular readers much
worthy of pondering value. Drawing on his lifetime in a Trappist
abbey, Fr. Charles offers a richly austere, very beautiful volume.
For many topics, Fr. Charles provides both the historical practice
and the ways in which it has been modified more recently, assisting
someone living in community to understand some of the more
mystifying customs, or a secular reader to comprehend something of
the way monks adapt to the changing world. The meditative bits that
appear scattered throughout-discussion of silence, the quality of
the cell, and the presence of death-add to the overall balance
between instruction and reflection, history and now, individual and
community that make Monastic Practices a distinctive and
valuable contribution to the body of monastic literature."Marjory
Lange, Western Oregon University
"The revised edition of Monastic Practices continues to
be useful for forming human lives, monastic or lay. In re-reading,
I have found myself deepening my own understanding and renewing my
own commitment to these fundamentals of our life. I continue to be
grateful for the wisdom and charm of this book. Thank you, Fr.
Charles."Cassian Russell, OCSO, Cistercian Studies Quarterly
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