"Riverhead hardcover edition, April 1996"--T.p. verso.

Dawn -- September 3: Gregory the Great -- St. John's abbey liturgy schedule -- The rule and me -- September 17: Hildegard of Bingen -- September 29: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Archangels -- The difference -- September 30: Jerome -- October 1: Th�er�ese of the Child Jesus -- October 2: Guardian angels -- Jeremiah as writer: the necessary other -- November 1 and 2: All Saints, All Souls -- November 16: Gertrude the Great -- Exile, homeland, and negative capability -- New York City: the trappist connection -- Los Angeles: the O antiphons -- Borderline -- The Christmas music -- January 2: Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus -- Passage -- The paradox of the psalms -- Baptism of the Lord: a tale of intimacy -- January 10: Gregory of Nyssa -- February 2: Candlemas/presentation of the Lord -- Celibate passion -- February 10: Scholastica -- Good old sin -- Acedia -- Pride -- Anger -- Noon -- Degenerates -- New melleray abbey liturgy schedule -- Chicago: religion in America -- The war on metaphor -- March 18: Mechtild of Magdeburg -- April 2: Mary of Egypt -- Saved by a rockette: Easters I have known -- Triduum: the three days -- Triduum notes -- Cinderella in Kalamazoo -- The Virgin Martyrs: between "point vierge" and the "usual spring" -- Minneapolis: cocktails with Simon Tugwell -- A story with dragons: the Book of Revelation -- May 15: Emily Dickinson -- Maria Goretti: cipher or saint? -- Evening -- Genesis -- Road trip -- Places and displacement: rattlesnakes in cyberspace -- Learning to love: Benedictine women on celibacy and relationship -- The cloister walk -- The garden -- The church and the sermon -- June 9: Ephrem the Syrian -- Small town Sunday morning -- At last, her laundry's done -- Dreaming of trees -- Monks and women -- July 11: Benedict's cave -- A glorious robe -- Women and the habit: a not-so-glorious dilemma -- The Gregorian brain -- Oz -- Generations -- Monastic park -- August 28: Augustine -- The lands of sunrise and sunset -- The nursing home on Sunday afternoon -- One man's life -- "It's a sweet life" -- Coming and going: monastic rituals -- "The rest of the community" -- "The only city in America" -- Night.

A study of the monastic world assesses the meaning of the cloistered life in modern times, journeying through a liturgical year to capture the relevance and spiritual significance of the religious life.