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    Practicing Silence: New and Selected Verses
    Practicing Silence: New and Selected Verses
    Practicing Silence: New and Selected Verses
    Ebook122 pages1 hour

    Practicing Silence: New and Selected Verses

    By Bonnie Thurston

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    About this ebook

    This book of poems is about the spiritual life and is organized according to a monastic logic. The compact and powerful language speaks to the lifelong Christian or to the spiritual seeker.

    “Practicing Silence bears every evidence of a poet who has done precisely that, and bespeaks monastic experience with true authenticity. The poetry emerges from a mind given over to the One hidden in silence.” -Brother Paul Quenon ocso, poet, author of Unquiet Vigil: New & Selected Poems

    “Bonnie Thurston’s entire Practicing Silence allows that Light abides in the core, yet there is darkness always in the edges. The recognition of such encroachment gives this pure and intense collection an added sense of urgency. These holy verses will draw us inexorably in.” -Sofia M. Starnes, Poet Laureate of Virginia, 2012-2014

    “With masterly craft and authentic voice, Thurston offers us poems that both challenge and comfort, that dance on the living waters of wisdom and offer a midrash of insight for our tempestuous world. Practicing Silence is a brilliant and most welcome offering!” -Dr. Michael S. Glaser, Professor Emeritus, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Poet Laureate of Maryland, 2004-2009

    “The old desert monks insisted that staying in one’s cell would teach you everything. Bonnie Thurston shares, in finely crafted language, what she has learned in these deeply contemplative poems welling up from her own solitude. It is sheer grace to receive the fruit of her own spiritual journey.” -Lawrence S. Cunningham, The University of Notre Dame

    Formerly a professor of New Testament, Bonnie Thurston is a poet and spiritual director who lives quietly in her home state of West Virginia. She also writes theological works and travels to give lectures and retreats.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherParaclete Press
    Release dateOct 1, 2014
    ISBN9781612616100
    Practicing Silence: New and Selected Verses
    Author

    Bonnie Thurston

    Bonnie Thurston is an experienced retreat leader, New Testament scholar, and poet. She is a founding member and past president of the International Thomas Merton Society. A frequent contributor to popular and scholarly periodicals, she is author or editor of twenty-three theological books and seven collections of poetry. Thurston earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Bethany College and master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Virginia. She has done post-doctoral work in the New Testament at Harvard Divinity School; Eberhard Karls University in Tuebingen, Germany; and the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem. An ordained Protestant minister since 1984, Thurston taught at the university level for thirty years and has also served as a pastor at five churches and two overseas ministries. Thurston lives in West Virginia.

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    • 5/5
      This collection of poems focuses on monastic life and an attitude of contemplative prayer. Each section of the collection begins with a quote or two from "The Rule of St. Benedict," and each have a theme, such as "Lectio divina" or "Interior Prayer." While the author is not part of monastic life, she takes a lot of her inspiration from that and Thomas Merton. She explains in her introduction that she has lived alone for some time and that "I try in a quiet way to conduct my 'ordinary' life monastically, and I can attest that living a monastic spirituality 'in the world' is challenging. Various aspects of this experiment have resulted in some of the poems collected here, which are organized according to what I hope is a sort of monastic logic" (xvii). Not coming from a Christian tradition including monasticism myself but being drawn lately to the idea of silent or "listening" prayer, I can't speak to her success in the "monastic logic," but I very much enjoyed the feeling of quiet, silence, and contemplation that comes with reading this kind of poetry. One of my very favorite poems in the collection, "Suppliant," ends with these lines: "But in history's white light / I see myself as I am, / loitering at heaven's back door / empty-handed and hungry, / waiting with the multitudes / for some disciple / to bless, break, and give / God's good bread" (6). This and other poems left some beautiful imagery in my mind to ponder, and I wrote several down to be able to reflect on again.

    Book preview

    Practicing Silence - Bonnie Thurston

    Practicing Silence

    Practicing Silence

    New and Selected Verses

    Bonnie Bowman Thurston

    FOREWORD BY BR. DAVID STEINDL-RAST, OSB

    2014 First printing

    Practicing Silence: New and Collected Verses

    Copyright © 2014 by Bonnie Thurston

    ISBN 978-1-61261-561-5

    The Paraclete Press name and logo (dove on cross) are trademarks of Paraclete Press, Inc.

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Thurston, Bonnie Bowman.

    [Poems. Selections]

    Practicing silence : new and selected verses / Bonnie Thurston ; foreword by Br. David Steindl-Rast, OSB.

    pages cm — (Paraclete poetry)

    Summary: «Although the literary form is poetry, this is a book about the spiritual life. Think of it as an armchair visit to a monastery. Focused around monastic themes, it speaks to the spiritual seeker and curious bystander alike by presenting a range of spiritual experiences in accessible language. The poems are grouped according to a monastic logic. A section on visits to monasteries is followed by poems on questions of vocation or spiritual calling that such visits often raise. Then the reader will follow the horarium, or monastic day, and encounter some fruit of lectio divina, the practice of prayerful reading of scripture. The poems on interior prayer will speak to contemplatives in any religious tradition. The collection closes by exploring the experience of anchorites and solitaries.

    "— Provided by publisher.

    ISBN 978-1-61261-561-5 (paperback)

    1. Spiritual life--Poetry. 2. Monastic and religious life--Poetry. 3. Hermits—Religious life—Poetry. 4. Contemplation—Poetry. I. Title.

    PS3620.H888P73 2014

    811›.6—dc23                2014016657

    10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

    All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

    Published by Paraclete Press

    Brewster, Massachusetts

    www.paracletepress.com

    Printed in the United States of America

    Contents

    Foreword BY BR. DAVID STEINDL-RAST, OSB

    Author’s Note

    MONASTERIES

    Their Light Shines in Darkness

    Suppliant

    All Saints Convent

    Lucubrations

    Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Conyers, Georgia

    Strays

    VOCATION

    What Do You Do?

    Offering

    Through and Beyond

    Forest Dweller

    Veil of Tears

    Building on Sand

    Late Vocation

    Dialogues of the Deaf

    HORARIUM

    Daily Horarium

    Offices

    Vigils

    Before Lauds

    Lauds

    Paradox

    Absence and Emptiness

    Monk’s Prayer

    Plainchant

    Untitled

    Between Vespers and Compline

    Vigil Light

    Psychic Horarium

    Compline

    Great Silence

    LECTIO DIVINA

    The Sixth Day

    Sarah

    Abram at Haran

    Peniel

    The Chosen People

    Moses

    Rahab’s House

    Jonah

    Job

    God has set eternity in human hearts …

    Godmaking

    Isaiah 49:25; 54:1–3

    Isaiah 55:8

    The Mat

    Well Water

    Feeding Miracle

    The Stone

    Thanksgiving for St. Thomas

    Precious Rocks

    INTERIOR PRAYER

    Prayer

    Za Zen in Gethsemani Abbey

    School of the Heart

    A Burning Deep Within

    Darkness at the Edges

    Praying into Darkness

    Inside Out

    Remember I Am Fragile

    Genesis Within

    De profundis: Interior Prayer

    Acquiescence

    Supplication

    Be Thou My Vision

    Fiery Impulse

    It Must Be Prayer

    ANCHORITES, HERMITS, SOLITARIES

    Solitude

    The Anchorite: A Sequence

    Hermit Lessons: A Sequence

    Little Rule for a Minor Hermitage

    Notes

    Thanksgivings

    Foreword

    BR. DAVID STEINDL-RAST, OSB

    This book of poems by Bonnie

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