Truly Seeking God

Bonowitz's book, written in a very agreeable style and with much humor, will stimulate a desire in young people to embrace the monastic life. It shows the way that a monk's experience develops over the course of a lifetime, with both its struggles and its joys. Reading it, many will discover their thirst for God, as well as their yearning to find their true self and the way to genuine freedom and life. Not only religious men and women, but lay Christians will also find new impetus to live out their vocation.

As a Benedictine nun who has profited from the works of Cistercian authors, I would say, `Take up and read!'

This is a fresh, modern book on personal spirituality. So many of us are taken up with the distractions of our work, our phones, and our own inner chatter, that it is hard to find a path back to ourselves. Bonowitz shows how aspects of monastic life can help. He begins quite simply with the power of silence and sustaining solitude. From this base, one can develop other practices (meditating on a word, prayer, the focus that comes from cooking and communal work) that can still the mind and open the heart to a spirituality of deeper self-understanding.

Dom Bernardo has the rare gift for distilling decades of experience in formation work into real gems of wisdom and insight, at once deeply contemplative and eminently practical. This book is a precious gift to those seeking God with St. Benedict as their guide.

How does the Christian reach those lofty summits of love to which St. Benedict directs us in his Rule? In this book we listen in to the guidance Abbot Bernard Bonowitz has given his own novices. He offers sound, realistic, and compassionate advice of a spiritual father delivered with love and a touch of humor. He never takes his eye off the goal, but outlining the essentials of monastic spirituality, gently leads every novice-Christian out of self, towards others and into communion with God. This is a rich handbook spiritual growth.

Although the author intends this book for anyone provided only that he or she is committed to ‘truly seek God’ (Introduction), and it is a rather slender volume of only 150 pages, it is not one that should be skimmed over lightly. The fruit of lived experience, each chapter probes deeply and merits careful reading and reflection.

Bonowitz writes simply. None of the chapters is long; most are about four pages. In them, you will find introductions to the elements of monastic life – prayer, work and community – that flow as clear as mountain springs. But they are not shallow.

A gem of a book on the basics of Benedictine spirituality and the spiritual journey of monastic life. I encourage vocation directors, Benedictine spiritual directors, novice masters, oblate group facilitators, those in monastic leadership, or any monk or nun wishing to renew his or her own practice of our shared monastic values to add this book to their library.

All seekers will benefit from Truly Seeking God. An easy read, it nevertheless contains much food for thought.