Here, the charming, mature stories from the internationallly beloved monk are accompanied by original art. Like the parables of Jesus, these tales repeatedly unfold new levels of meaning if we are willing to sit with them.

For many years, congregations have been inspired, challenged and charmed by the homilies given by the monks who live at St Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado. This collection of homilies captures the vitality, wit and spiritual wisdom of the monks as they explore the Christian calendar.

The Magic Monastery differs from its predecessors in that it contains not only traditional tales--mostly unpublished--but also stories specially written by Shah to complete the book as 'a course in non-linear thinking.'

During the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries a group of monks with occult interests donated what became a remarkable collection of more than thirty magic texts to the library of the Benedictine abbey of St. Augustine’s in Canterbury. The monks collected texts that provided positive justifications for the practice of magic and books in which works of magic were copied side by side with works of more licit genres. In Magic in the Cloister, Sophie Page uses this collection to explore the gradual shift toward more positive attitudes to magical texts and ideas in medieval Europe. She examines what attracted monks to magic texts, in spite of the dangers involved in studying condemned works, and how the monks combined magic with their intellectual interests and monastic life. By showing how it was possible for religious insiders to integrate magical studies with their orthodox worldview, Magic in the Cloister contributes to a broader understanding of the role of magical texts and ideas and their acceptance in the late Middle Ages.