Cyprian Consiglio

Moving and eloquent meditations on a range of spiritual themes: silence, hope, vocation, baptism, Eucharist, inclusivity, etc., drawing on the author's deep monastic wisdom, years of living in India, and immersion in spiritual traditions of East and West.

"His life suggested that one could be spiritually grounded and thriving in more than one tradition at the same time." --Marcus Braybrooke, for the Interfaith ObserverThis pioneering work harmonizes Hindu Vedanta philosophy with the Christian vision of the Word made flesh through the Spirit of God's love. An introduction to the Vedic scriptures and Christian mysticism that reveals how God lavished his riches on both Christians and non-Christians alike and the importance of our unity as a people if we are to become whole. "Without Christianity I don't think the oriental religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, can answer the needs of the modern world. But without the enrichment of the mystical tradition of Asia I doubt whether the Western Churches can really discover the fullness of Christ which we are seeking." (Bede Griffiths)

2022 Catholic Media Association honorable mention in mysticismOver time our ideas about God and religion tend to match the stage of our own maturity and the level of our own consciousness. In addition to our different ideas of God, there are also those who profess some form of monotheistic religion but worship other gods: the power of the economy, military strength, fame. Perhaps they even use––or misuse––the name of God or credit God with whatever is gained. Thus, the challenge for our times is this: how do we think of God as Jesus introduces God to us? While exploring Scripture, the thoughts of theologians, Benedictine monasticism, Jewish and Islamic traditions, along with his own personal reflections, Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam, shows us what it means to be church, to be a follower of Jesus, and to be like God: to imitate the self-emptying of God and Christ. We are called to show the world God as Jesus reveals God to be: merciful, compassionate, healer to all.

Swami Abhishiktananda was a French Benedictine monk who lived in India for more than two decades and strove to understand and live his Christian faith through the enlightening teachings of Hindu Advaita Vedanta. Even as he remained a faithful Catholic monk, he increasingly longed to live his life from the depths of both Christian and Hindu understandings of the ultimate Real. In contrast to his many powerful prose works for which he is known, Swami Abhishiktananda also employs free verse to explore, exhort, and expound, reporting in poetry on his long journey of interreligious spiritual discovery with little desire to justify himself systematically. In these poems, a fervent and devoted Christian mystic plunges into the riches of the Hindu religious genius and brings forth ecstatic, colorful, and profound wisdom charged with an acute awareness of the non-duality between the innermost self of the human being and the Absolute Reality. These poems, collected together for the first time, search and hope with the dire honesty characteristic of the greatest of the world's mystics. ""Henri Le Saux, OSB--Swami Abhishiktananda--was a renowned mystic, pilgrim, and theologian. A master of prose, he was also a passionate poet, by eloquent words probing the mystery of God, speech reaching from his heart to the heart of his readers. Jacob Riyeff has done us a great service in translating the poems into today's English: simple and spare, yet richly resonant of Sanskrit and Tamil poems sung through the ages. For those who know Swami's works, In the Bosom of the Father will be a welcome resource that fills out the great store of his teachings. For newcomers who browse these poems and then take them to prayer, it opens a sure path into the wisdom of an extraordinary man in a remarkable era of the Church in India."" --Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Harvard University ""These poems are of such depth, anguish, and intimacy that one must think of the Book of Job, of St. John of the Cross, of Meister Eckhart. Naked experience and hidden fermentation have forged a melding into words of what is most fundamental in Christianity and Hinduism--words powerful and raw enough to reduce you to silence."" --Paul Quenon o.c.s.o, Abbey of Gethsemani, ""Jacob Riyeff offers a highly inspirational work in this first collection of Swami Abhishiktananda's poems. This is an essential piece for all academics interested in the French Benedictine and precious to all Truth seekers. A reminder that great mystics often possess a poetic heart. Poetry is a crucial though rarely studied aspect of Swami's theological efforts to express what is ineffable and to grasp what is universal within the great variety of spiritual ways."" --Fabrice Blee, Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada Jacob Riyeff teaches in the English department at Marquette University. In addition to his scholarship on medieval vernacular poetry and monastic culture, he is a translator of Latin, Old English, Middle English, and French poetry and prose. His first book is a translation of St. thelwold of Winchester's Old English Rule of St. Benedict (2017).

Swami Abhishiktananda was a French Benedictine monk who lived in India for more than two decades and strove to understand and live his Christian faith through the enlightening teachings of Hindu Advaita Vedanta. Even as he remained a faithful Catholic monk, he increasingly longed to live his life from the depths of both Christian and Hindu understandings of the ultimate Real. In contrast to his many powerful prose works for which he is known, Swami Abhishiktananda also employs free verse to explore, exhort, and expound, reporting in poetry on his long journey of interreligious spiritual discovery with little desire to justify himself systematically. In these poems, a fervent and devoted Christian mystic plunges into the riches of the Hindu religious genius and brings forth ecstatic, colorful, and profound wisdom charged with an acute awareness of the non-duality between the innermost self of the human being and the Absolute Reality. These poems, collected together for the first time, search and hope with the dire honesty characteristic of the greatest of the world's mystics. ""Henri Le Saux, OSB--Swami Abhishiktananda--was a renowned mystic, pilgrim, and theologian. A master of prose, he was also a passionate poet, by eloquent words probing the mystery of God, speech reaching from his heart to the heart of his readers. Jacob Riyeff has done us a great service in translating the poems into today's English: simple and spare, yet richly resonant of Sanskrit and Tamil poems sung through the ages. For those who know Swami's works, In the Bosom of the Father will be a welcome resource that fills out the great store of his teachings. For newcomers who browse these poems and then take them to prayer, it opens a sure path into the wisdom of an extraordinary man in a remarkable era of the Church in India."" --Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Harvard University ""These poems are of such depth, anguish, and intimacy that one must think of the Book of Job, of St. John of the Cross, of Meister Eckhart. Naked experience and hidden fermentation have forged a melding into words of what is most fundamental in Christianity and Hinduism--words powerful and raw enough to reduce you to silence."" --Paul Quenon o.c.s.o, Abbey of Gethsemani, ""Jacob Riyeff offers a highly inspirational work in this first collection of Swami Abhishiktananda's poems. This is an essential piece for all academics interested in the French Benedictine and precious to all Truth seekers. A reminder that great mystics often possess a poetic heart. Poetry is a crucial though rarely studied aspect of Swami's theological efforts to express what is ineffable and to grasp what is universal within the great variety of spiritual ways."" --Fabrice Blee, Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada Jacob Riyeff teaches in the English department at Marquette University. In addition to his scholarship on medieval vernacular poetry and monastic culture, he is a translator of Latin, Old English, Middle English, and French poetry and prose. His first book is a translation of St. thelwold of Winchester's Old English Rule of St. Benedict (2017).

Communicates the depth and power of the Christian 'wisdom tradition', and the promise of its dramatic rebirth in our time

A perennial problem for spiritual traditions of all sorts is dualism—either a positing of a false distance between the Divine and the created or a rejection of creation and the human body. Many contemporary spiritual seekers have sensed this problem and sought to remedy it through myriad solutions drawn from various spiritual traditions and secular wisdom, both Eastern and Western. Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam, explores Christianity’s contribution to the discussion. He offers a revisioning and rearticulation of this teaching, based on the prophetic seminal work of Bede Griffiths, toward a practical and integral spirituality that reverences all aspects of our being human—spirit, soul, and body.

Prayer is an art that cannot just be taught. It must be experienced, lived, and practiced. In Prayer in the Cave of the Heart, Cyprian Consiglio draws on his experience as a Camaldolese monk to give readers an accessible reflection on prayer that is based on Bede Griffith's universal call to contemplation." In this text, the contemplative traditions of East and West intersect to invite readers into prayer that makes them "present to the Spirit who is already present to us."