Based on a series of lectures given to the Cistercian monks of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky, this book explores the "reality that grabs one from within."

In an engaging conversational style, the author explores the wisdom of the Christian spiritual tradition and attempts to reestablish for our time the meaning of such timewon concepts as recollection and contempla-tion, spiritual poverty and love for the creature, the imita-tion of Christ and suffering, and passive purgation and illumination.