Monday 19th July, 2021
Peter-Damian Belisle, The Language of Silence: The Changing Face of Monastic Solitude (DLT, 2003), 19.
Image: Jakob Owens, LA, directorrjakobowens.com
This quote is by Peter-Damian Belisle from The Language of Silence: The Changing Face of Monastic Solitude (Darton, Longman and Todd, 2003), 19, which is now out of print but available second hand here. Belisle is a hermit-monk at the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California. He has written a variety of books, particularly about Camaldolese spirituality. This term derives from the Holy Hermitage at Camaldoli, high in the mountains of Central Italy, near the city of Arezzo, where the order was established by the Italian monk, Saint Romauld (c.950-c.1025/27). Monks and nuns in this tradition spend much of their time in their individual cells but within a monastic community where they worship and share in Eucharist together daily. An excellent book about Camaldolese spirituality is Belisle's The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality, see here.