Christ: a depiction of the writer as an English Benedictine Novice (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781502445650)

Truthful and autobiographical, this short novelrecounts the vocational journey, which led meto become a postulant, and then, a novicemonk of the English Benedictine Congregation, at the Abbey of the Adonai, in rural WestBerkshire in England, when I was 26.Strongly influenced by the temperamentsdelineated in the companion poems 'L'Allegro'and 'Il Penseroso', by John Milton, I joined tobecome a scholar-monk, and sang GregorianChant in the monastic choir stalls, to rebuildin verbal prayer and liturgical worship, thethe logos destroyed by James Joyce in hishis novel 'Finnegans Wake'.Received into the monastic communityduring Eastertide of that year, this shortand highly accessible book, tells of the joyof learning Gregorian Chant, the offices andrhythms of monastic life, and the deeper calltoo, to the hidden contemplative life, lived inanother monastery on Thomas More's 'holy isle of Utopia' on the Isle of Wight.Evoking monastic history, from Pope Gregorythe Great, who sent mission monks fromRome to evangelize England in 575AD, to the Venerable Bede, this is the firstvolume of 'The Chrysolite Collection', a seriesof three books, designed to be read together, preparatory, to a new epic poem and literarygospel in seven books, 'The Christ Colloquy', a didactic summa, inspired by Dante's'The Divine Comedy'.

Author: Andrew Joseph Grattan
ISBN-10: 1502445654
ISBN-13: 9781502445650
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Language: English
Published: 02/15/2026
Pages: 160
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.36lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.34d