From time to time, we get requests for reading suggestions. In the last chapter of the Holy Rule, St. Benedict answered a similar request by exhorting his readers to turn to the scriptures. "For what page or what utterance of the divinely inspired books of the Old and New Testaments is not a most unerring rule for human life?" (RB 73)
St. Benedict also encourages reading the rule of St. Basil and the works of John Cassian, the lives of the saints and the writings of the "holy Catholic Fathers."
Other writings suggested by members of our community:
RB 1980: The Rule of Saint Benedict in English
Timothy Fry, OSB
Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1981
Benedict's Rule: A Translation and Commentary
Kardong, Terrence, OSB
Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1996
A Life Giving Way: A Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict
Esther De Waal
Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1995
The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture
Jean LeClerq, OSB
New York: Fordham University Press, 1961
Christ the Ideal of the Monk
Columba Marmion, OSB
St. Louis: Herder, 1926
Prayer and Community: The Benedictine Tradition
Columba Stewart, OSB
London: Darton, Longman, and Todd, 1998
Pax: The Benedictine Way
Ambrose Tinsley, OSB
Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1996
A Guide to Living in the Truth: Saint Benedict's Teaching on Humility
Michael Casey, OCSO
Petersham: St. Bede's Publications, 1999
Strangers to the City
Michael Casey, OCSO
Brewster: Paraclete Press, 2005
Living with Contradiction: Reflections on the Rule of St. Benedict
Esther De Waal
San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989
Monastic Practices
Charles Cummings, OCSO
Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1986
The Wisdom of the Benedictine Elders
Mark W. McGinnis
New York: BlueBridge, 2005
Thoughts Matter: The Practice of Spiritual Life
Mary Margaret Funk, OSB
New York: Continuum, 1998
The Intentional Life: The Making of a Spiritual Vocation
Cardinal Basil Hume, OSB
Brewster: Paraclete Press, 2003
The Monastic Journey
Thomas Merton
Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1992
Centered on Christ
Augustine Roberts, OCSO
Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2005
Vita Consecrata
John Paul II
Washington, D.C.: USCCB Publishing, 1996
Sacred Reading: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina
Michael Casey, OCSO
Liguori: Triumph, 1996
Praying the Bible: An Introduction to Lectio Divina
Mariano Magrassi, OSB
Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1998
The Liturgical Year
Adrien Nocent, OSB
Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1977
Seasons of Celebration
Thomas Merton
New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1977
The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West: The Origins of the Divine Office and Its Meaning for Today
Robert Taft
Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1993
The School of Prayer: An Introduction to the Divine Office for All Christians
John Brook
Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1991
Promising and the Good
Guy Mansini, OSB
Naples: Sapienta Press of Ave Maria University, 2005
Praying with Benedictines: A Window on the Cloister
Guerric DeBona, OSB
New York: Paulist, 2007
Conversations in the Abbey
Ruth Engs, editor
Booklocker.com Inc., 2007
Conversations in the Abbey, Volume 2
Ruth Engs, editor
Booklocker.com Inc., 2016
To Draw Down Heavenly Dew: 150 Years of Monastic Life, Prayer and Work at Saint Meinrad Archabbey
St. Meinrad: Abbey Press, 2004
To Prefer Nothing to Christ
Cyprian Davis, OSB, editor
St. Meinrad: Abbey Press, 2004
The Tradition of Catholic Prayer
The Monks of Saint Meinrad
Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2007