Monkfish Book Publishing

“Poetry is the voice of the soul, and in this beautiful collection, Colette Lafia brings us into the joys and sorrows of life, revealing how God''s enduring love is present in all we experience.” —Richard Rohr, author of The Tears of Things Poems and related practices for a more contemplative life. Leaving the Shore is a collection of poems with the intent of creating contemplative experiences for readers. The author has added guided Lectio Divina (sacred readings) and writing/journaling prompts, so that readers can pray and reflect with the poems. Each poem is about some aspect of living the spiritual path: the desire to reach beyond what we know, the longing to step into the Divine Mystery, and the commitment to live in an intimate exchange of love with the Holy. An experienced spiritual director, Lafia draws on her commitment to the contemplative life. These poems are an expression of contemplation in action as they explore the Holy in moments of daily living: within a marriage, while assisting a loved one dying, in the creative act of painting, and more. They are inspired by writings of the mystics, in particular Mechthild of Magdeburg and St. John of the Cross, and suffused with surrender, love, and awe. They invite the reader into prayer, self-reflection, and seeing their own lives as sacred texts. 

“An engaging and alluring introduction to what contemplation is, why we need it, and how to go about doing it.” —Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB, monk of Monastery of the Ascension in Jerome, Idaho and scholar of medieval monasticism “We have a contemplation problem,” and here’s what to do about it. Jacob Riyeff draws on 1,600 years of contemplative tradition in the West to show how humans are contemplative beings, what it means to contemplate in different areas of life, and how embracing a contemplative life can help lead anyone to a fuller experience of self, world, and communion with the Divine. This is a volume of “spiritual theology,” using theological principles and understandings but exploring how to apply those principles and understandings to shape one’s daily living. Drawing on the ways that John Cassian, St. Benedict, Gregory the Great, William of Saint-Thierry, Dame Gertrude More, and others shaped and passed on the Christian inheritance, Contemplate brings this directly to bear on contemporary social and cultural situations. It seeks to answer the question, what does the contemplative tradition of the Latin west have to offer Christians living post-industrial, digitally-saturated, ecologically fraught lives? This book is first in a new series, “Beyond Our Instincts”: succinct, multi-disciplinary, countercultural stances in an environment that sells us the idea that happiness is whatever you want now. These authors—all scholars of religion who are also religiously involved—suggest there are more important things, including some we may have forgotten.      Coming in future publishing seasons:      *Join (being together; refusing too much solitariness)      *Imagine (on opting out of technique-obsessed culture)      *Wait (the lost value of open questions and not-knowing)