An Infinity of Little Hours Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order
, by Klein Maguire, NancyNote: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.
- ISBN: 9781586484323 | 158648432X
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 3/13/2007
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 Hoursis 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 1960sthe decade of hedonism, music, fashion, and amoralityand 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.