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Cristiana Piccardo, Living Wisdom

Cristiana Piccardo, Living Wisdom: The Mission and Transmission of Monasticism, translated by Erik Varden (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2014)

From the introduction by Fr David Foster OSB:

The vitality of Christian life is the work of the Spirit in the hearts of human beings drawn together into communities of faith and bearing witness to the living power of Christ by their faith, hope, and love. This witness has an inner or inter-subjective dimension of communion, but it also reaches out in mission, in order to meet all men and women, to accompany them on their journey, and to share with them the experience of the Risen Lord. It is a profoundly personal and utterly human experience, and, in that sense, it is a matter of individual stories and particular circumstances. It is not in the end about policies, strategies, or generalities. This is, at bottom, how the Gospel is preached to the ends of the earth. Cristiana Piccardo tells such a story in this book, translated by Erik Varden, a fellow Cistercian monk, who knows her monastic community well. […] This book is a witness to her vision of the vibrancy of monastic life at the heart of the Church.

‘In this short but highly substantial book, Mother Cristiana Piccardo shares the treasures of her teachings, which have been so effective in the growth of her community and its foundations. Passages open onto a pedagogy of clarity and an analysis of stages of affective growth that are original and profound. They are words not only to be pondered in the heart but to be embraced and enfleshed in our lives.’ Cistercian Studies Quarterly.

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