Truly Seeking God

Bernard Bonowitz (1949-2025), was born into a Jewish family in New York City. In 1968, during his studies of classics at Columbia College, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1973 and was ordained a priest in 1979. In 1982, he transferred to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists) at Saint Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. There he served as novice master from 1986 to 1996. That year he was elected prior of the Trappist monastery of Our Lady of Novo Mundo in Brazil and became its first abbot in 2008. Bonowitz has published books and articles in English and Portuguese on monastic spirituality. His most recent book in English is Saint Bernard’s Three-Course Banquet (Cistercian Publications, 2013).

"Bonowitz's book, written in a very agreeable style and with much humor, will stimulate a desire in young people to embrace the monastic life. It shows the way that a monk's experience develops over the course of a lifetime, with both its struggles and its joys. Reading it, many will discover their thirst for God, as well as their yearning to find their true self and the way to genuine freedom and life. Not only religious men and women, but lay Christians will also find new impetus to live out their vocation. As a Benedictine nun who has profited from the works of Cistercian authors, I would say, `Take up and read!'"Sister Teresa Paula Perdigão, OSB, Mosteiro do Encontro, Paraná, Brazil

• ContentsIntroduction   viiFrom the Rising of the Sun to Its SettingChapter One. Silence   3Chapter Two. Prayer: A General Introduction   7Chapter Three. The Divine Office   11Chapter Four. Lectio Divina   16Chapter Five. Personal Prayer: Listening to God   20Chapter Six. Work   24Chapter Seven. Asceticism   28Chapter Eight. Otium Sanctum   32Chapter Nine. Community   36Chapter Ten. The Abbot—and Other Fathers   40Chapter Eleven. Separation from the World, Communion with the World   44Chapter Twelve. Self-Knowledge   48Chapter Thirteen. Manifestation of Thoughts: The Spiritual Director   52Chapter Fourteen. The Transmission of Freedom   57Chapter Fifteen. Humility and Confidence   61Chapter Sixteen. Compassion   65Chapter Seventeen. To Love as God Loves   69Chapter Eighteen. To Love as God Loves, Part 2   73Chapter Nineteen. Salve Regina   77The Making of a MonkChapter Twenty. The Monastic Vocation: An Exchange of Experiences   83Chapter Twenty-One. The Birth of a Monastic Vocation   87Chapter Twenty-Two. For This Was I Born 91Chapter Twenty-Three. Observership   95Chapter Twenty-Four. Fervor Novitius   99Chapter Twenty-Five. The First Major Crisis   103Chapter Twenty-Six. The First Major Crisis, Part 2   107Chapter Twenty-Seven. For Our Good and the Good of All His Holy Church   111Chapter Twenty-Eight. “From Now On I Will Be with You Forever”   115Chapter Twenty-Nine. The Years of Simple Profession   119Chapter Thirty. Solemn Profession   123Chapter Thirty-One. First Steps in Spiritual Fatherhood   127Chapter Thirty-Two. The Possibility of Priesthood   131Chapter Thirty-Three. God Gives the Growth   135Chapter Thirty-Four. Looking in a New Direction   139Chapter Thirty-Five. The Beautiful Old Man   143Chapter Thirty-Six. Death and the Far Side of Death   147