Book 48

Ladder of Monks and Twelve Meditations

by Guigo

Published 1 November 1981

'My thoughts on the spiritual exercises proper to cloistered monks'; the ninth prior of La Grande Chartreuse ( '1180) articulates the monastic contemplative tradition in distinctively western terms.

'...reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation. These make a ladder for monks by which they are lifted up from earth to heaven. It has few rungs, yet its length is immense and wonderful, for its lower end rests upon the earth, but its top pierces the clouds and seeks heavenly secrets.'


The Ladder of Monks

by Guigo, Edmund Colledge, and James Walsh

Published 1 January 1978