An aspiring piano student at an exclusive Baltimore conservatory finds her musical education mirroring pivotal developments in her personal life and influenced by the experiences of her prestigious classmates

Daughters of Song

Literature & Fiction

Huston, Paula

United States

Random House]

Product Description 
Between World War II and Vatican II, as Italy struggled to rebuild after decades of Mussolini’s fascism, an eleventh-century order of contemplative monks in the Apennines were urged by Thomas Merton to found a daughter house on the rugged coast of California. A brilliant but world-weary ex-Jesuit, who had recently withdrawn from a high-intensity public life to go into reclusion at the ancient Sacro Eremo of Camaldoli, was tapped for the job. Based on notes kept for over sixty years by an early American novice at New Camaldoli Hermitage, The Hermits of Big Sur tellsthe compelling story of what unfolds within this small and idealistic community when medievalism must finally come to terms with modernism. It traces the call toward fuga mundi in the young seekers who arrive to try their vocations, only to discover that the monastic life requires much more of them than a bare desire for solitude. And it describes the miraculous transformation that sometimes occurs in individual monks after decades of lectio divina, silent meditation, liturgical faithfulness, and the communal bonds they have formed through the practice of the “privilege of love.” 
 Review \n"Absolutely fascinating, gorgeously written, frequently brilliant. In her story of how an ancient monastic order found a home in California, and how the author found a home with them, Paula Huston offers us an invitation into a world that few see, but all will want to experience."\nJames Martin, SJ, author of Learning to Pray\n"In 
The Hermits of Big Sur author Paula Huston uses her exceptional literary skills to introduce us to individuals who are hidden to us but who nevertheless pray for us constantly. Deftly, she weaves together the thousand-year history of the Camaldoli order with intimate details of monastic life at Big Sur. Above all Huston shows us the deep Christ-like community these hermits have been able to develop. 
"\nRichard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline and Sanctuary of the Soul\n"Paula Huston’s very readable history of the Camaldolese monastery at Big Sur gives a very clear picture of the challenges faced and overcome in establishing an eremitical monastery on the coast of California. She tells the story by focusing on the people involved, how they discovered monastic life and how the unique experience of each has contributed to the unfolding of the community’s charism. The result is a realistic and very human portrayal of this distinctive chapter of monastic history."\nMichael Casey, OCSO, author of Balaam's Donkey: Random Ruminations for Every Day of the Year\n"What an extraordinary gift Paula Huston’s 
The Hermits of Big Sur has revealed itself to be. Who would have thought a seventy-year history of a Camaldolese monastery that rose in the wilds of the California coast could turn out to be such a page-turner! Paula Huston is a truly gifted writer, as she has proven time after time with her fiction and her essays, and this book is no exception, especially because it has shaped her and in turn can shape us. There’s so much history here—world history, American history, Church history, the major movements from Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin to the opening dialogues between East and West, the aftermath of Vatican II, the worlds of Robinson Jeffers and Henry Miller, hippydom and radical feminism. And at the heart of it all, the need to find that necessary solitude and solace and true companionship which only the interior Mystery at the still point can provide."\nPaul Mariani, Biographer, poet, and author of Thirty Days: On Retreat with the Exercises of St. Ignatius and The Mystery of It All\n"The Hermits of Big Sur is a remarkable book. Meticulous in research and engaging in tone, it explores some of the most significant and turbulent moments in the history of Italy and America through the lens of the thousand-year-old Camaldolese Benedictine order in the mountains of Tuscany, and the order’s sometimes ch

The Hermits of Big Sur

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Liturgical Press

“Using the Christian tradition of solitude, silence and contemplation as her foundation, Huston offers one of the best books available on living the simple life.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “This book will give solace and guidance to those who, like Paula Huston, have felt the interior call to simplicity, the intense gravitational pull of the God within.” —Bruno Barnhart, Camaldolese monk and author, Second Simplicity An Invitation to a Simple, More Peaceful LifeIs leading a simple life possible in a world of chaos and complexity? Driven by this searching question, Paula Huston, a busy forty-something college professor, wife, and mother, embarked on a spiritual journey to find a peaceful, less cluttered kind of life.The Holy Way: Practices for a Simple Life is the fruit of Huston’s arduous search. Two discoveries sustained her: that she herself could experience simple living just as a nearby community of Catholic monks did and, more important, that she could find the keys to such a life in the lives and writings of the great monastic saints. Drawing on these discoveries, Huston examines a variety of measures that point the way toward the practical, day-to-day simplicity of a life that so many desire.

The Holy Way: Practices for a Simple Life

Loyola Press

For many years, author Paula Huston had been in a faith struggle. Having returned to Christianity and converted to Catholicism, she realized one morning that God was calling her to a deeper experience of holiness, which would require of her arduous work that led to the simplest surrender.By Way of Grace is Huston's artfully written account of what she learned during her struggle to grow in faith and to accept God's grace. The book contends that the spiritual life firmly rests on saints and virtues, and each chapter focuses on how a great saint of the mystical Catholic tradition explains and exemplifies one of the traditional Christian virtues. For anyone stuggling with how to move forward in his or her faith, this book demonstrates how to know, love, and serve God in holiness.

By Way of Grace: Moving from Faithfulness to Holiness

We live in a culture that tells us there are few things worse than aging, that we should avoid aging at all costs, and that we must shun death. And yet, no matter how much money we spend on health supplements, no matter how many gurus we consult, the fact remains unchanged: We will grow old. In A Season of Mystery, 60-year-old Paula Huston—a grandmother, and also a caretaker for her own mother and for her in-laws—shares with readers a far more fulfilling way to approach how we live and how we think about the second half of life. Each chapter offers a spiritual practice that is particularly suited to nurturing us in ways we would never have recognized in our younger lives. For example, the practice of “listening” helps us quit superimposing our own take on every situation before we have a chance to hear and see what is truly there; the practice of “delighting” encourages us to notice and be thankful for what is small and seemingly insignificant. Each of the 10 practices serves as an antidote to the classic afflictions of old age, such as close-mindedness, complaining, and fear of change. A Season of Mystery is not intended to be a selection of self-improvement secrets; the goal of Huston’s work is to encourage people in the second half of life to become “ordinary mystics” who are no longer bound by the world’s false ideas on aging but instead be freed by God’s grace to embrace the riches that come only with growing older.

A Season of Mystery: 10 Spiritual Practices for Embracing a Happier Second Half of Life

Self-Help

Are you able to forgive those who have hurt you? If you find it difficult to forgive, this book is your encouragement. If you’re having trouble accepting forgiveness for something you have done, this is your inspiration. With honesty, writing about her own failings, Paula Huston examines the intellectual, psychological, social, and spiritual meanings of forgiveness. She asks tough questions and then offers possible solutions, drawing a portrait of a truly forgiving person. “One of Jesus’ most mind-boggling declarations is that we who hope to follow him must first be willing to forgive the people who have hurt us. Not only does this injunction show up at the heart of the prayer he offers to his disciples (“Give us this day our daily bread…”) but he restates it as a requirement for salvation: “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” (Mt. 6:11-15) “He also tells us that if we wish to live in relationship with God, we must first seek forgiveness from those we’ve hurt: “Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Mt. 5:23-24). Our damaged relationships with other people, especially when we are responsible for that damage, have a direct effect on our friendship with God.”

Forgiveness: Following Jesus Into Radical Loving

Paraclete Press

Award-winning author and Benedictine oblate Paula Huston invites readers to de-clutter their minds, hearts, relationships, and souls in a book of daily Lenten practices woven from the gospels, the Desert Fathers, and the author's own wealth of spiritual experience.
 "What are you giving up for Lent this year?" It's the expected question amongst Christian friends each spring. In Simplifying the Soul, Paula Huston asks her readers a deeper, alternative sort of question: "How will you rid your life of excess this Lent?" Huston encourages readers to see Lent as a time to seek out silence and free themselves of "stuff"; to de-clutter minds, hearts, and lives; and to acknowledge the connections between what they pray about and what they do. 
With honesty, vulnerability, and grace, Huston challenges readers to move outward and act, showing them how everyday actions like cleaning out a junk drawer, giving away something no longer used, or spending fifteen minutes in silence can be surprisingly powerful ways of experiencing a more meaningful Lent and a simpler life. Whether cutting up a credit card, visiting someone at the hospital, or forgiving someone with whom they are angry, readers experience, under Huston's gentle and expert care, how such practices lead to a more authentic Christian faith.

Simplifying the Soul: Lenten Practices to Renew Your Spirit

Ave Maria Pr

Winner of the 2017 Association of Catholic Publishers Excellence in Publishing Award: General Interest Books (First Place) and the Catholic Press Association Book Award: Popular Presentation of the Catholic Faith (First Place). The popular, award-winning writer Paula Huston draws on her spiritual wisdom and her talent as a novelist to provide both moment-by-moment record of her experience of one particular Mass on one particular Sunday in her home parish in California and a theologically and historically rich exploration of the origin and meaning of the liturgy. For Catholics, the Mass is the "source and summit of the Christian life," as the documents of the Church put it. Yet many Catholics might confess to not understand in any depth what goes on in an "ordinary" celebration of the Eucharist. In perhaps her most compelling and original book to date, novelist and spiritual writer Paula Huston guides us through a Mass on the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time at her home parish in Arroyo Grande, California. Huston's personal and spiritual reflections offer fresh and often unexpected insights into the profound mystery at the heart of the Catholic faith. A natural storyteller, Huston deftly illuminates what might seem either mysterious to those unfamiliar with the Mass or overly familiar to those who have lost an appreciation of its mystery. In the Mass "we are healed and restored and spiritually fed," she writes. "We are handed strong armor against evil. We are unified and made whole as a people and as a Church. We get a little taste of heaven." Readers of this book will learn <ul>
 <li>how our confession of sins at the beginning of the Mass differs from the sacrament of Penance;</li>
 <li>what it means to say that the Mass is a sacrifice;</li>
 <li>why the prayers of the Mass, especially the Gloria, are full of scriptural allusions;</li>
 <li>what the purpose of the Eucharistic Prayer is; and</li>
 <li>what happens at the consecration of bread and wine and how it is the most profound mystery and miracle of the Mass. </li>
 
</ul>
 This is a book for all Catholics, especially those who have questions about the basic practices of their faith, who are new to the Church and still somewhat baffled about its rituals of worship, or who have left the Church behind but still feel like part of the family.

One Ordinary Sunday: A Meditation on the Mystery of the Mass

Are you able to forgive those who have hurt you? If you find it difficult to forgive, this book is your encouragement. If you’re having trouble accepting forgiveness for something you have done, this is your inspiration. With honesty, writing about her own failings, Paula Huston examines the intellectual, psychological, social, and spiritual meanings of forgiveness. She asks tough questions and then offers possible solutions, drawing a portrait of a truly forgiving person. “One of Jesus’ most mind-boggling declarations is that we who hope to follow him must first be willing to forgive the people who have hurt us. Not only does this injunction show up at the heart of the prayer he offers to his disciples (‘Give us this day our daily bread…’) but he restates it as a requirement for salvation: ‘If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.’” (Mt. 6:11-15) “He also tells us that if we wish to live in relationship with God, we must first seek forgiveness from those we’ve hurt: ‘Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.’ (Mt. 5:23-24). Our damaged relationships with other people, especially when we are responsible for that damage, have a direct effect on our friendship with God.”

Forgiveness: Following Jesus into Radical Loving

As revolutionary forces gather in the Lacandon jungle of southern Mexico in the fall of 1993, an idealistic American priest vanishes from his post in San Cristobal de Las Casas. The Church, immersed in trying to negotiate a peaceful solution to the escalating conflict between wealthy landowners and poverty-stricken indigenas, remains strangely silent in the face of his disappearance. When his sister, Eva, only thirty-four but already a hardened battlefield photojournalist, finds out what's going on, she flies to Central America to find him, taking a job assisting a taciturn Dutch Mayanist in order to provide herself with a cover. But as it turns out, he, too, is on a secret quest. From the great pyramids of Tikal and the graceful palaces of Palenque to the shadowy guerrilla camps of the vast Lacandon, A Land Without Sin is a modern-day journey into the heart of darkness.

Land Without Sin

Reference

Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

Slant Books

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