A new book edited by Good Samaritan Sister Dr Carmel Posa, which seeks to honour the contribution that Australian Cistercian Monk Michael Casey has made to Cistercian and Benedictine life over the past 40 years, will be launched in Sydney and Melbourne this month.
A Not-So-Unexciting Life: Essays on Benedictine History and Spirituality in Honour of Michael Casey, OCSO, will be launched in Sydney by Sister Clare Condon SGS on December 12, and in Melbourne by Dr Margaret Smith SGS on December 14.
Sister Carmel Posa said the book came about through her own reflections on the “enormous contributions to Benedictine and Cistercian life that Michael has made over the years”.
“This Festschrift… honour[s] Michael’s unstinting service to the Cistercian and Benedictine world in particular, and the Christian community in general,” Carmel wrote in the book’s introduction.
Acclaimed as one of the most significant writers in the Benedictine and Cistercian tradition, Michael Casey OCSO has published over 100 articles and reviews in various journals, written more than 18 books, and edited many more books and journals. He is a world-renowned retreat master, lecturer, and formator.
A Not-So-Unexciting Life includes essays written by 18 monks, nuns, and lay scholars from seven countries and four continents.
Contributors include: Carmel Posa SGS; David Tomlins OCSO; Helen Lombard SGS; Manuela Scheiba OSB; David Barry OSB; Mary Collins OSB; Brendan Thomas OSB; Elias Dietz OCSO; Constant J. Mews; Bernardo Bonowitz OCSO; Terrence Kardong OSB; Elizabeth Freeman; Austin Cooper OMI; Katharine Massam; Margaret Malone SGS; Bernhard A. Eckerstorfer OSB; Columba Stewart OSB; Francisco Rafael de Pascual OCSO; and Bishop Graeme Rutherford.
“This volume is a ringing testimony to the return to the sources of Benedictine monasticism stimulated by the renewal of Vatican II, and also to the remarkable contribution to that effort by Australia, which provides over half the authors for this collection,” said Father Jerome Kodell OSB of Subiaco Abbey, Arkansas, in his endorsement of the book.
“No one will question the expression of gratitude to Michael Casey, who has been at the heart of this movement both worldwide and locally.
“With these essays readers will be able to catch up on research of recent years and also to share the excitement of new investigations. The book is clear evidence that the renewal in Benedictine studies is far from over.”
Dr Carmel Posa SGS has been a Sister of the Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict since 1989. She earned her master’s degree from Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, in 1996 and was awarded a doctorate from the Melbourne College of Divinity in 2009. She has been a senior lecturer in theology at Notre Dame University, Australia, and is a founding dean of the New Norcia Institute for Benedictine Studies and co-editor of Tjurunga: An Australasian Benedictine Review.
A Not-So-Unexciting Life: Essays on Benedictine History and Spirituality in Honour of Michael Casey, OCSO, Liturgical Press, 2017, can be purchased online through various publishers and bookstores including Cistercian Publications,
Garratt Publishing, Booktopia, and Pauline Books and Media.
For details about the Sydney launch of click here.
For details about the Melbourne launch of click here.
