Saint Benedict on the Freeway: A Rule of Life for the 21st Century

How can we heal the rift between our daily lives and the sacred? How can we live a life capable of hearing "the still small voice" of God while experiencing the speed and sensory overload of modern life? This book is Ware's answer to these questions. She acknowledges that others have addressed the questions. On the one hand there are books which have significant depth but speak in academic or "in-group" language and provide little help adapting these insights to everyday life. On the other hand, there are practical "how-to" exercises which assist in very particular spiritual experiences but which do not offer integrated, sustainable, life-changing patterns. St. Benedict on the Freeway fills this gap. It "translates into twenty-first century life spiritually formative practices worked out in the past, creatively adapting those disciplines to contemporary daily life."

This adaptation is the heart of Ware's book. She attempts first to draw attention to our own awareness of God. She discusses how a "Rule" functioned for Benedict's time, and how it can function for us as a liberating reminder of God instead of as another repressive and burdensome taskmaster. Ware also asks how the hours of prayer--vigils, lauds, prime, terce, sext, none, vespers, compline--can increase our spiritual awareness even if our 'community' does not stop for prayer at designated times during the day. Also, Ware explores prayer in dimensions beyond the spoken word.

The author targets what she terms "something more"-people: those who want to grow spiritually but do not know how to do so. Typically these people go on retreats and hear inspirational speakers, but their everyday lives lack the luster of those occasional times. They go from one spiritual oasis to another, wishing for something that will sustain them in between. St. Benedict on the Freeway responds to this yearning as both a book for personal reading and a resource for small groups in the church.

Dr. Corrine Ware is Assistant Professor of Ascetical Theology at Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, and serves as Director of the Masters of Arts in Pastoral Ministry. Her prior published work includes Discover Your Spiritual Type and Connecting to God, both published by Alban Institute.