Try a Little Lowliness: Memoir of a Cistercian Novice / Paddy Lyons

Try a Little Tenderness might have been a nicer title for this book had the songwriter not claimed it first. Benedictine spirituality is known for the gentleness with which it patiently massages away at the monk's hardness of heart. The flowing robes they wear, the flowing chant they sing, the endless repetition of the day's structure based on prayer, manual labour and spiritual reading; all bear witness to a seamless process of conversion, the lowly contemplatives ever waiting on God's quiet voice within their hearts. However, it's not as easy as it sounds, so when Brother Daniel fled the world, back in the sixties, he was in no way prepared for a conflict of such dimensions with the worldly self he had forgotten to leave behind.

Try a Little Lowliness traces his journey, strewn with stumbling blocks and banana skins, with a mischievous humour, but also with great insights into monastic spirituality. It lovingly paints the diversity of characters peopling the abbey, especially the irrepressible Father Lawrence, Daniel's novice-master and mentor, the wise old Prior, the inscrutable Abbot, the incorrigible cook, the lovable Sam. Both the author and Father Robert O'Brien, fellow novice and friend from Caldey Abbey, hope that Try a Little Lowliness will appeal to men and women, both young and not so young, providing a signpost to the contemplative life on their spiritual journey.