An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic OrderPublicAffairs, 2007 M03 13 - 272 pages In 1960, five young men arrived at the imposing gates of Parkminster, the largest center of the most rigorous and ascetic monastic order in the Western world: the Carthusians. This is the story of their five-year journey into a society virtually unchanged in its behavior and lifestyle since its foundation in 1084. An Infinity of Little Hours is a uniquely intimate portrait of the customs and practices of a monastic order almost entirely unknown until now. It is also a drama of the men's struggle as they avoid the 1960s -- the decade of hedonism, music, fashion, and amorality -- and enter an entirely different era and a spiritual world of their own making. After five years each must face a choice: to make "solemn profession" and never leave Parkminster; or to turn his back on his life's ambition to find God in solitude. A remarkable investigative work, the book combines first-hand testimony with unique source material to describe the Carthusian life. And in the final chapter, which recounts a reunion forty years after the events described elsewhere in the book, Nancy Klein Maguire reveals which of the five succeeded in their quest, and which did not. |
Contents
one Arrivals July 1960March 1961 | 9 |
two The Order 10841965 | 21 |
three Parkminster 18831965 | 37 |
four Inside the Charterhouse 19601961 | 45 |
seven The Long Walk May 8 1961 | 80 |
eight Alone March 1962 | 97 |
nine Desire Summer 1962 | 119 |
eleven Monks Off Pitch | 140 |
thirteen Outside the Walls August 15 1964 | 164 |
fourteen Perseverance | 172 |
seventeen | 180 |
September 29October 6 1965 | 216 |
Dramatis Personae | 239 |
Glossary of Religious and Monastic Terms | 246 |
Reading Group Guide | 259 |
twelve The Noonday Demon April 1964 | 156 |
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Common terms and phrases
altar Anselm antiphon asked bell rope Bernie bishop Bonaventure brothers Bruno Cantor Carthusian monks Catholic cell century chant chapel Chapter Charterhouse Chartreuse choir stalls Christ Christmas Chuck church cloister clothes cold Columba cowl cubiculum Damian Dave didn’t Divine Office Dom Columba Dom Damian Dom Ignatius Dom Joseph Dom Leo Dom Malachi Dom Philip Doms Malachi door Emmanuel garden Gatehouse God’s going Grande Chartreuse Gregory Guest House hair shirt hermit holy Hugo-Maria Ignatius Joseph keep knew Latin leave letter Little Hours liturgy live looked Lord Lorenzo loved Ludolph Mass Matins monastery monastic monk’s monks sang never Night Office Novice Master novitiate Paddy Parkminster Philip felt pitch postulant pray prayer priest Prior Prior’s side psalms religious Reverend Father singing solemn profession solitude spiritual talk thought told took Trappists Vatican II Vespers voice walk wall wanted week window wooden young