Books

When he was Abbot of Pluscarden Abbey, our Bishop Hugh Gilbert published two books based on the conferences he had delivered over the years to his monastic community, along with a few homilies. The first book, Unfolding the Mystery, covers the main seasons and solemnities of the liturgical year; the second, Living the Mystery, deals with the Christian life and how to live it more authentically.

Unfolding the Mystery

GRACEWING PUBLISHING | ISBN 978 0 85244 093 3 | £9.99

The Liturgy is the summit and source of the Church’s life, said the Second Vatican Council, and the liturgy unfolds its riches within an annual pattern: the Church’s year. Here our life, lived in time, can meet and mingle with the life of Christ communicated in time. In Benedictine monasteries, the liturgical year shapes the whole life of the community. In these community conferences and homilies a Benedictine abbot shares with fellow-monks and fellow-Christians something of the wealth of the mystery of Christ as the liturgy unfolds it.


 Living the Mystery

GRACEWING PUBLISHING | ISBN 978 085244 692 8 | £9.99

In this book, Abbot Hugh reflects before his monastic brethren on some of the elements common to the life of all Christians – from baptism to the hope of eternal life. Here it is a question of Living the Mystery, of allowing the revelation of Christ in us, present in the Church, to take possession of our whole life, personal and social. These reflections “are no more than ‘markers’ on the Christian way, attempts to say something, while we wait, about ‘the gifts that lie within our comprehension’.”


To order copies of Unfolding the Mystery (on The Tablet Books of the Year list) and Living the Mystery (£12 each, incl. P&P) please contact Br Matthew at Pluscarden Abbey, Elgin, Moray IV30 8UA.

     

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