Back to Asceticism (Paperback) | Released: 11 Oct 2019

"His De la Saintete is unquestionably one of the most important works of post-medieval Cistercian writing and occupies a major place in the history of spirituality" ‒David N. Bell medievalist, theologian, professor at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, author of Everyday Life at La Trappe Under Armand-Jean Rancé, Understanding Rancé, etc.

Back to Asceticism: The Trappist Option, Vol. 1 is an updated translation of this work De la Sainteté et des Devoirs de la Vie Monastique by the Abbé Armand-Jean de Rancé was originally published in Paris in 1683. In 1830 it was translated and titled On the Sanctity and the Duties of the Monastic State by Abbot Vincent Ryan, founding abbot of Mount Melleray in Capoquin, Ireland. This derivative edition has been re-typeset, re-titled, edited, updated, heavily annotated, and its many citations both substantially corrected and expanded. Moreover , it has been supplied with a contemporary introduction, with 52 illustrations as well as an Image Index and an Index of Scriptural Citations.
Although Abbé de Rancé, the founder of the Trappists, originally wrote for his monks, many laity of 17th c. France enthusiastically adopted much of his spirituality, and to wonderful effect. With asceticism re-appearing now as a corrective to our self-indulgence and softness, his incisive book is a badly needed, bracing corrective for the Christians of our time. Back to Asceticism: The Trappist Option will likely accomplish spontaneously all that The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher envisioned, and far more.
On the Sanctity and Duties of the Monastic State was the soul of Trappist spirituality until very recently, and the very implosion of the Trappists suggests that survival of the order depends on an about-face, a return to the wisdom of its founder. In fact, the entire Church is badly in need of the ascetic wisdom that de Rancé has distilled from Saint Benedict, Saint Bernard, Saint Basil, Saint John Climachus and other desert fathers.
Volume I contains the following fifteen chapters:
1 The Obligations of Religious Life in General
2 The Institution of the Monastic State
3 Of the Origin of the Solitary Life
4 Of the Different Forms of Life Which Were Established among the Ancient Solitaries
5 Of the Essence and Perfection of the Cenobitical State
6 Of the Principal Means by Which Religious Persons May Attain to the Perfection of Their State
7 On the Love of God
8 Of Loving the Superiors and Having Confidence in Them
9 Of the Charity and Duty of Superiors
10 Of the Charity that the Brethren Should Have for One Another
11 On Prayer
12 On Penance, On Humiliations
13 On the Meditation of Death
14 On the Judgments of God
15 On Compunction
Volume II contains the additional eight chapters:
16 On Retirement
17 On Silence
18 On Abstinence and Austere Food
19 On Manual Labor
20 On Night Watchings
21 On Poverty
22 On Patience under Sickness and Infirmities
23 On Mitigations
Although Volume II has fewer chapters it is a slightly longer book. In all, the two volumes comprise 700 pages of monastic wisdom compiled and commented on by the immensely learned Abbé de Rancé in light of his own decades long experience as the re-founder of Our Lady of la Trappe monastery in France. That monastery under his rule was by all accounts a kind of Heaven on earth.
Back to Asceticism: the Trappist Option is an outstanding gift for any priest or religious, for anyone interested in the devout life, in monasticism, in discerning a vocation, in prayer or in getting to Heaven.