A book about the insight, comfort, and direction our troubled age can find in monastic wisdom.

A book about the insight, comfort, and direction our troubled age can find in monastic wisdom. Erik Varden published The Shattering of Loneliness in 2018. Now, with the world in the throes of uncertainty and turbulence, he helps us interpret the signs of the times, convinced that the perennial experience of monks and nuns has much to teach us. The principles of monasticism have become attractive to many, awakened as we are to the importance of integrity, the pursuit of peace, asceticism as a path to freedom, hospitality and contemplative seeing. After a deeply personal introduction, Varden invites us to consider what makes a monk. He then takes us on a pilgrimage through the Church’s year, drawing on Scripture, tradition and literary and religious figures of our time. Varden lets the reader discover the generous breadth and depth of a monk’s outlook on life. In so doing he provides inspiration, enjoyment and enlightenment in equal measure.

"I have little doubt that this will also become a spiritual bestseller following on from his previous much acclaimed book, The Shattering of Loneliness." - Church Times

"Varden's work is the fruit from a tree for the healing of the nations, from a monk who has his feet firmly and incarnationally on the ground." - Lutheran Theological Journal

"[Erik’s] homilies are accessible – written in clear, standard English – but rich, sometimes breathtakingly, in their content." - Catholic Herald

"These [homilies] are as bracing and enlivening for the reader as they will have been for the congregations who heard them … Varden’s combination of extensive learning, passionate engagement with the history and demandingness of Christian life, and the sharp focus of a keen mind, make his preaching something from which many will benefit." - The Tablet

"Varden’s erudition in this edifying work of Catholic monasticism should earn him comparisons to Edith Stein. " - Publishers Weekly