God, Where Are You?: Practical Answers to Spiritual Questions (Voices from the Monastery)

Discussion around the bestseller The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher has led many people to want to know more about monastic principles. This book by the modern monastic prior Enzo Bianchi (of the Bose Community in Switzerland) focuses on the human cry, “God, where are you?”

This has been the cry of humankind since time began, and Enzo Bianchi finds God’s traces in the searching of significant figures from the Old Testament. We are challenged to question our own certainties like Abraham, suffer torment like Jacob, or falter and become discouraged in the face of a daunting task like Moses. The search for God involves exploring what is profoundly human, and ultimately the greatest manifestation of humanity is to be found in the figure of Christ. That is why we cannot think of God today without turning our minds to Jesus. It is the divine within us who really poses the question, “God, where are you?”, so, when we truly begin to search for an answer, we discover that God is already looking for us!

As a young Catholic layman, Enzo Bianchi founded the ecumenical monastic Bose Community in Italy in 1965 in the fervor of renewal of the Second Vatical Council. He is still the Community's prior. His books on the spiritual life have been translated into many languages.