Prayer book. Wisdom based meditations. From Abandonment to Zeal, this akphaabet of monastic values will help you to experience peace and love in the midst of life's pressures and problems.

This dictionary of monastic wisdom offers an A-Z on how to be in the world, but not of it. In Chittister's initimitable style, she eschews the spiritual quick fix in favor of a solid spiritual direction that has stood the test of time.

Each entry illuminates a spiritual quality we can cultivate, from Awareness to Zeal, Community to Interiority, Enlightenment to Yearning--and many more. Each open with a story from the desert mystics, then seques into a practical application of that value for our tumultuous times.

Readers hungry for ancient wisdom that is ever new will find it in abundance in Illuminated Life.