Synopses & Reviews
A gentle and reflective introduction to the monastic life for anyone considering a spiritual retreat
"Dennis Patrick Slattery invites us to journey with him to experience the sacredness of everyday life at the monastic retreat centers he visits as well as on the paths and desert mountain ranges he walks. In this courageous journey of the heart, the author weaves his poetic reflections with the teachings of many writers. A stunning spiritual journey."
maureen murdock, author, The Heroines Journey, Unreliable Truth, and Monday Morning Memoirs
"In his memoir, Dennis Patrick Slattery writes of a journey that is simultaneously inward and outward with an almost Augustinian appreciation of the sweetness of things. With a writers relish and a mystics sensitivity, he describes . . . making his way from a stay at one monastic community after another."
christine downing, author, The Goddess and The Long Journey Home
"Those who read Grace in the Desert have an opportunity to travel through the desert of the dark night of the soul to the mountain of the light of divine knowledge, to the cloud of unknowing which wraps us in the radiant darkness of divine love. It is one of the most reflective, richly poetic, and yes, spiritually uplifting journals of the soul I have been privileged to read."
peter c. phan, The Ignacio Ellacuria Professor of Catholic Thought, Georgetown University; author, Journeys at Margins
"This is a marvelous and inspiring book that serves not only as a practical and historical guide to contemporary monastic retreats in the American West but also as a reminder of how much we need to seek out periods of meditative solitude in our lives."
evans lansing smith, author, The Modernist Nekyia and Sacred Mysteries
"Dennis reveals himself as a child of God at play in the fields of the Lord. His delight in the spiritual world is palpable, contagious. His decades-long habit of reflection has borne fruit in this compelling record of what continues to be a sacramental journey."
allen tate wood, author, Moonstruck
Review
In 1998, Slattery, a faculty member of Pacifica Graduate Institute, turned a professional sabbatical into a personal pilgrimage, traveling to 11 monasteries and retreat houses throughout the western United States. He dedicates one chapter to each of his destinations, which are diverse in tradition and style and include a Russian Orthodox monastery, an urban prayer center run by Benedictine sisters and a Zen center. Slattery describes the flavor of each retreat center, but spends the bulk of each chapter recounting the spiritual musings prompted by each place he visited. At times, his account is pointed and compelling, as when he shares his unfolding comprehension that his own life is re-manifesting the patterns, if not the specifics, of his alcoholic father’s excessive behavior, or when he observes this personal transformation after weeks of pilgrimage: “I no longer believed in God.... Instead, I felt his presence in every corner of my life.” At other times, however, his ruminations tend toward the generalized and hypothetical. Moreover, Slattery’s style undermines his effectiveness: he has a fondness for stretching metaphors paper-thin, and his prose is frequently self-conscious, even affected, as when he describes monks arriving in chapel as “silent, sacred specters in white robes that whooshed.” Slattery’s sensitivity to spiritual matters is clear, but ultimately the book leaves the reader wanting a more satisfying, focused account of what was obviously a powerful pilgrimage journey. (Apr.) (Publishers Weekly, March 8, 2004)
Synopsis
In this powerful book, travel along with Dennis Patrick Slattery as he sets off on a three-month pilgrimage, during which he struggles with his identity; his role as a father and husband, teacher and believer; as well as the life and death of his father. Throughout his stays at twelve monasteries and retreat centers, Slattery seeks the refuge of the monastic life where silence and solitude open an extraordinary window on the human soul. Against the backdrop of Slattery’s personal story, Grace in the Desert offers vivid descriptions of monastic life and practice at Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and Buddhist monasteries and retreat centers.
Synopsis
What does it mean to be alone in silence, in prayer, and in relation to the divine without the distractions that normally attend formal worship? How can our own way of being be affected by living among monks, hermits, and seekers who cultivate a deeper spirituality and a fuller sense of their relation to themselves and others? How can these encounters enhance further reflection, contemplation, and self-expression?
In this powerful book, travel along with Dennis Patrick Slattery as he sets off on a three-month pilgrimage during which he struggles with his identity, his role as a father and husband, teacher and believer, as well as the life and death of his father. Throughout his stays at twelve monasteries and retreat centers, Slattery seeks the refuge of the monastic life where silence and solitude open an extraordinary window on the human soul. Against the backdrop of Slatterys personal story, Grace in the Desert offers vivid descriptions of monastic life and practice at Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and Buddhist monasteries and retreat centers.
Slatterys journey evokes lifes most profound questions and his rich Catholic heritage, enriched with wisdom drawn from contemporary and classic spiritual writers like Thomas Merton, Julian of Norwich, and Thich Nhat Hanh. Grace in the Desert clearly shows the subtle and often surprising ways God speaks to us and how to become more spiritually fulfilled by opening to the richness of monastic life. It also shows how a monastic attitude or disposition can be cultivated in moments of retreat during ones busy daily life. Slattery attempts to bring a monastic sense of space to the reader, which one can enter outside the structure of a formal retreat. If you are considering taking your own spiritual retreat, Grace in the Desert includes an appendix with descriptions of nine additional retreat centers, a list of online retreat and monastery directories, and suggested reading to enhance your own contemplative solitude.
About the Author
Dennis Patrick Slattery is a poet and professor in the Mythological Studies Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria, California. He has written over 200 articles and reviews for books, journals, magazines, and newspapers as well as authored and edited several books. Contact him at
[email protected].
Table of Contents
Foreword (
Thomas Moore).
Acknowledgments.
1. A Need to Reconnect: Preparing for the Pilgrimage.
2. The Road on No Map: New Camaldoli Hermitage, Big Sur, California.
3. An Isolato Dogged by Divinity: The Carmelite House of Prayer, Oakville, California.
4. Meditations out of Time: Sonoma Mountain Zen Center, Santa Rosa, California.
5. Loneliness Does Not Retreat: Monastery of Mount Tabor, Redwood Valley, California.
6. Nature’s Mystical Muse: Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey, Lafayette, Oregon.
7. Sisters Who Make Much of Time: Shalom Prayer Center, Queen of Angels Monastery, Mount Angel, Oregon.
8. St. Francis and a Spider’s Web: Franciscan Renewal Center, Portland, Oregon.
9. Lowing Cows and Abandoned Heifers: Our Lady of Trinity Trappist Monastery, Huntsville, Utah.
10. Breathless in the Darkness of God: Nada Hermitage, Crestone, Colorado.
11. A Hermit in the Fridge: Dominican Retreat House, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
12. Christ and the Hohokam People: Picture Rocks Retrea t Center, Tucson, Arizona.
Other Monastic Stays.
St. Andrew’s Priory, Valyermo, California.
Serra Retreat Center, Malibu, California.
Mt. Calvary Monastery and Retreat Center, Santa Barbara, California.
La Casa de Maria, Santa Barbara, California.
Our Lady of Peace Retreat Center, Beaverton, Oregon.
Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico.
Holy Trinity Monastery, St. David, Arizona.
St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery, Florence, Arizona.
Monastery of Christ in the Desert, Abiquiu, New Mexico.
Websites Offering Directories of Retreat Centers and Monasteries.
Notes.
Further Reading.
About the Author.