Listen To The Silence: A Retreat With Pere Jacques

by Jacques Bunel

First published in 1966, this book chronicles a full eight centuries of the Carmelite tradition, from the orders beginnings as a group of lay hermits on Mount Carmel through St. Teresa of Avilas Discalced Carmelite Reform in the 16th century, to Carmels rich diversity today.

Genres: Spirituality, Devotional, Catholic

122 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[booklady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I was reading this primarily in search of quotes for our Carmelite community, it is the consummate retreat and I quickly forgot about my search and fell under the sway of Pere Jacques. Fourteen conferences on various topics but all relating to Prayer and the vital importance of Silence to Prayer. A lovely book, retreat, reference, inspiration for prayer and guide for all, not just Carmelites.

[Cralls · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a Carmelite monk nor even Catholic, so it should not be expected that this book would be entirely relevant to me. And in fact a lot of it was not particularly useful or enlightening for me. That being said, in general I did enjoy the little conferences and there were definite gems in there. I particularly liked how he started with the remembrance of the presence of God. I enjoyed reading these each day. I don’t think I’ll feel the desire to go through again for while a while but wouldn’t be surprised if someday I did.

If you’re more the target the audience then i feel this would be a fairly good work. Even if you expect to disagree with major aspects, you may still find it worth the read.