A Monk in the World: Cultivating a Spiritual Life

Br. Wayne Teasdale inspires and encourages us to lead the mystic life, while living a life outside the walls of an abbey or convent. He is a loving revolutionist who entices us to be more than we thought we could be. His exemplary life is expressed beautifully within the confins of the book's covers. Br. Teasdale has chosen to walk in Christ's footsteps. I've walked next to him and was awed by the sincerity and kindness he shared with those in his 'neighborhood'. This world needs more men and women who want to incorporate his ideals into their lives. Teasdale has left us with his love and understanding of what we can aspire to. The book is a wonderful read. BATU: The Transformation

Well worth the read, by a well-respected advocate of interspirituality and dedication to the spiritual life. His own experience, and inspiration for others seeking to live a spiritual life in the modern world.

Great book. Neatly explores mysticism for those living in the world/outside of a monastery. And a parallel exploration of interspirituality. His familiarity with other interspirituality leaders is an important aspect of this book. He writes as a Catholic. However, since he is about as open minded a Catholic as might be found, his Catholicity will likely not trouble readers with an interspirituality bent.

This book was too repetitive for me. On the positive side, it was very insightful on many levels.

This was an excellent recounting of his personal experiences of trying the live the dedicated Christian life in the real world. He believes passionately that monks should be in the real world contributing (as Christ did) to the welfare of their fellow men. He does not see the need to hide in a monastary away from real life. He compared it to living in a hot house, which is an apt metaphor for the traditional monk's life.

Enjoying the book. Reading it like a devotional - bit by bit.

I like the simple way in which Teasedale moves to express the beauty of diversity we experience in the presence of the divine. I felt the best chapter was the one on "Interspirituality." It is so good that he did the work to show us how to go about being faithful in our relationships with friends of other religions.

Excellent product!!!

I wish I could rate this book higher but the book didn't live up to its name "A Monk in the World: Cultivating a Spiritual Life". Very few chapters dealt with the practicalities of living a contemplative life in a secular world. Most of the book consisted of the author's options on what should be done concerning the Catholic Church, social justice, interfaith sharing, friendship, and helping the homeless. All very important topics, but the author lost me on chapter 3, where he states that the Catholic Church should be more open in practicing and exploring other faiths (among other options about what the Church should do). I disagree, I think definitely there should be dialogue and support between all religions however the Church should not adopt practices from other religions, the Catholic Church should focus on becoming solidly Christian, following the Gospel. Christianity has such a rich history of Saints that we don't need to look elsewhere, all we need is to follow Christ. I enjoyed a few of his chapters: his intro was interesting and chapter 2 where he writes about spiritual practice and experiences was fun to read, and I enjoyed chapter 8 about the contemplative understanding of suffering. My opinion is that if you follow Christ, I don't think you need to read this book. If you are still searching, it might be an interesting read.