Spirit of Solesmes

The Abbey of Solesmes is famous above all for its Gregorian chant and the contribution it has made to the liturgical renewal that has borne fruit in the present century. It has also been at the forefront of spiritual renewal in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This book presents a coherent view of the Christian life as expressed in the writings (most of which are appearing here in English for the first time)-from letters, conferences, retreats and published works-of three major figures at the centre of this liturgical and spiritual renewal.

All three are concerned with the life of prayer, the liturgy, participation in the Church as communion of saints, the mysteries of love and suffering-the whole spectrum of Christian life-as well as themes more directly pertaining to the religious life. They reveal a spirituality luminous, penetrating, and eminently practical, and a passion for what Dom Delatte calls "the transforming power of the truth."

Exiled under a hostile republican French government, the monks of Solesmes established a foundation on the Isle of Wight, where a community still thrives at Quart Abbey. The nuns settled at Ryde, where a community of the Congregation still exists, to which the editor of this book belongs.

For those inclined to suspect nineteenth-century French spirituality of sentimentality, the strength, relevance, and often humour, of these three great figures will come as an eye-opener.