How to Be
A Monk and a Journalist Reflect on Living & Dying, Purpose & Prayer, Forgiveness & Friendship
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, work. It is a book that provides insight and inspiration for those walking the spiritual path — particularly for those interested in the contemplative path.
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. She is a former correspondent for PBS’s Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly and senior correspondent for investigative reporting and long features at the NPR affiliate in central Illinois. She was also a special correspondent covering faith and values and arts and culture for Chicago Public Radio. Valente contributes articles to US Catholic magazine and National Catholic Reporter. She lives in Normal, Illinois. Learn more at www.judithvalente.com.
Brother Paul Quenon, OCSO, entered the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani in 1958 at the age of 17. Thomas Merton was his novice master and spiritual director. Quenon is the author of 9 collections of poetry. His memoir, In Praise of the Useless Life, was praised by Sue Monk Kidd, Pico Iyer, and Kathleen Norris.
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