Saint Benedict’s Wisdom: Monastic Spirituality and the Life of the Church

Monastic spirituality has much to offer Christians who live far beyond monastery walls. In Saint Benedict’s Wisdom Luigi Gioia, OSB, demonstrates that monastic spirituality is a gift for the whole Church. Because monastic vows are fundamentally a deep dive into one’s baptismal commitments, monastic experience speaks to all the faithful who wish to do the same within different lifestyles. As an expression of divine wisdom, monasticism offers a way of deeply integrating spirituality with the rest of life, teaching us to seek holiness, not only in prayer, but also through work, sharing of food, sleep, and life in community.

Written by one of the most insightful commentators on monastic life today, Saint Benedict’s Wisdom shines the light of monasticism on many aspects of contemporary Christian living, including evangelization, leadership, suffering, authentic chastity, the experience of God, reform of structures, and the practice of theology. It will appeal to anyone seeking to live a more authentic Christian life in addition to vowed monastics, monastic oblates, and associates.

Luigi Gioia, OSB, is a research associate at the Von Hugel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry at Cambridge University and a professor of systematic theology at the Pontifical University of Sant'Anselmo in Rome. In great demand as a retreat leader all over the world, he is the author several books, including Say It to God: In Search of Prayer (the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2018) and Touched by God: The Way to Contemplative Prayer.