Finding Sanctuary

Finding Sanctuary: monastic steps for everyday life, by Christopher Jamieson.

This book came out as a result of a BBC television series called The Monastery, in which five men from various backgrounds stayed at Worth Abbey for forty days, guided and helped by the monks who live there.
The book mentions the television series as a starting point, but its real focus is the Rule of St Benedict, which the monks live by. Benedict’s ‘Rule’ isn’t a set of rules, but a series of chapters in which the reader is encouraged to learn how to be more at peace in his or her daily life, whether that life is lived out inside a monastery or in the everyday world.
The book is simply written, and, as one reviewer says, Jamieson is ‘generous with his insights, but never self-righteous, smug or preachy.’ I read the book recently and found it valuable in thinking about how to keep the spiritual focus in my life more to the fore.
Orion Publishing Group 2006