Repetition is the key mechanism of habit formation, and the distinctive Benedictine vow of stability ensured that monks would stay long enough to gain the full benefit of such repetition. As Benedicta Ward has observed… Continue reading How a Monk Learns Mercy – Thomas Merton & the Rule of St. Benedict
The quest for holiness was one of the most important aspects of medieval life and thought. To compress the variety of its spiritual experience within the compass of a few thousand words is not only difficult; it can be misleading. All too easily a specific example can pass to a sweeping generalisation, and before long an utterly distorted portraiture emerges of spiritual life in the Middle Ages. Continue reading Medieval Spirituality
St. Mary’s Hermitage 