The Ladder of Monks: a Letter on the Contemplative Life and Twelve Meditations (Cistercian Studies Series) (Cistercian Studies Series)

'My thoughts on the spiritual exercises proper to cloistered monks'; the ninth prior of La Grande Chartreuse ( '1180) articulates the monastic contemplative tradition in distinctively western terms.

'...reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation. These make a ladder for monks by which they are lifted up from earth to heaven. It has few rungs, yet its length is immense and wonderful, for its lower end rests upon the earth, but its top pierces the clouds and seeks heavenly secrets.'

Jerome T. Walsh, PhD, is a professor of theology and religious studies at the University of Botswana. He is the author of 1 Kings in the Berit Olam (The Everlasting Covenant) Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry series for which he is also an associate editor.