About the Book
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.
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.
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 Dennis@pacifica.edu.
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)
