Letters to Jacob ― Mostly About Prayer

For thirty years, Fr. John-Julian has practiced contemplative prayer daily as a monk of the Order of Julian of Norwich. The book is a record of letters of advice written to a young seminarian who was interested in investigating the practical dimensions of the contemplative way for himself, full of questions: “What is all this contemplative prayer people are talking about these days? I never heard anything about that back in my parish. Is this really part of the Christian tradition or some New Age import from Buddhism or some other -ism?” The answering letters have been edited, re-written, expanded, and polished intoLetters to James: Mostly About Contemplative Prayer (with a nod to C.S. Lewis)—a rare look at the contemplative life from the inside, with a series of cautions and warnings based on the realities of the contemplative way, not some intellectual concept. It faces into the unpopular but essential dynamics that few others have dared to present, with all the masks removed. There are a few theological side trips as well, exploring subjects like the nature of God, sin and repentance, salvation, good liturgy, the keeping of rules, and the spiritual value of bad posture.

Father John-Julian, OJN, is an Episcopal priest and monk. He has been an actor, a professor (University of Rhode Island and Hampshire College), a parish priest (Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Connecticut), a TV commentator, a camp director, a bookseller, the Dean of a seminary (Seminary of the Streets in New York), a contemplative monk, a director of Social Worker training (Social Service Institute in Connecticut), an organizational consultant, an author of fifteen books, a founder of a religious order (the contemplative, semi-enclosed monastic Order of Julian of Norwich in Wisconsin which incorporates both monks and nuns with equal status under the same traditional vows), a waiter, a human relations trainer, a carpenter, a founder of a theater, a psychotherapist, a spiritual director, a hermit, a builder of three churches, an anti-war activist, a member of NAACP—all of this perfect background for a contemplative! Fr. John-Julian has tasted virtually everything the world has to offer and, finally, has chosen to live a life directly contrary to all that, a life constituted of the silence and solitude of contemplative monasticism. He has studied Julian of Norwich each day for over a quarter century.