How to Be: A Monk and a Journalist Reflect on Living & Dying, Purpose & Prayer, Forgiveness & Friendship

Judith Valente · Paul Quenon, OCSO

Nov 2021 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Pam Ward

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4 hr 56 min

Unabridged

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About this audiobook

The spiritual seeker's guide to living with authenticity and integrity in troubled times. This book is a dialogue between two spiritual seekers-one a Trappist monk and the other a married professional woman. It is two people "stuttering to articulate life's universal questions from diverse contexts and perspectives." Brother Paul writes as one steeped in silence and the daily rhythms of the ancient prayer practices of monasticism. Judith Valente writes as a professional woman attempting to bring a sense of prayer and contemplation to a scattered life in the secular world. Valente uses the story of Brother Paul's interview for a PBS documentary as a jumping-off point: When asked the purpose of the Trappist life in the modern world, he said that it is "to show you don't need a purpose." The purpose of life, he said, is life. "You're to live your life." How to Be offers a window into two people living their lives on purpose (or not) and struggling to come to terms with the big issues everyone faces: faith, mortality, mystery, prayer, and work. It is a book that provides insight and inspiration for those walking the spiritual path-particularly for those interested in the contemplative path.

About the author

Judith Valente is a former staff writer for the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in journalism. Valente contributes articles to US Catholic magazine and the National Catholic Reporter. She lives in Normal, Illinois. Visit her online at judithvalente.com.

Paul Quenon, OCSO, entered the Trappists in 1958 at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, where Thomas Merton was his novice master. Quenon is a photographer and the author of several books of poetry, including Unquiet Vigil-named a "Best Spiritual Book of the Year" by Spirituality & Practice.

Pam Ward has performed in dinner theater, summer stock, and Off-Broadway, as well as in commercials, radio, and film. An experienced narrator, Pam has recorded many titles for the Library of Congress Talking Books program. She is the recipient of an AudioFile Earphones Award and the prestigious Alexander Scourby Award.

Kathleen Norris is the author of Journey: New & Selected Poems, as well as Dakota, The Cloister Walk, and Acedia & Me.

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