An unprecedented look inside a secretive world unchanged since the eleventh century.
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In 1960, five young monks arrived at the imposing gates of Parkminster, the largest center of the most rigorous and ascetic monastic order in the Western world: the Carthusians. This is the story of their five-year journey into a society that had maintained the same beliefs and lifestyle since St. Bruno initiated the order in 1084.
An Infinity of Little Hours is a uniquely intimate portrait of the customs and practices of a monastic order almost entirely unknown until now. It is also a drama of the men’s struggles as they avoid the 1960s—the decade of hedonism, music, fashion, and amorality—and enter an entirely different era and a spiritual world of their own making. After five years each faces a choice: if he stays to make “solemn profession,” he will never leave. But if he leaves, he must turn his back on his journey to find God in solitude—his life’s ambition. A remarkable investigative work, the book combines first-hand testimony with unique source material to describe the Carthusian life. And the final chapter recounts a reunion forty years later revealing who succeeds and how the others incorporated their monastic experience as they rejoined the world outside. |
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Press Reviews
The level of detail is astonishing, and the book does what all great non-fiction does, paints a picture of a world with strokes so well-defined one feels as if he or she has visited it. Reading “An Infinity of Little Hours” is almost like praying. |
Maguire’s book is also superbly understated, but clings to the reader’s thoughts like the scent of incense. . . Maguire also is a sensitive chronicler of how the place actually feels: “Nothing is quite clean, dust is in the air, and the damp is pervasive and permanent, getting deeper into the walls each decade … Always there is the smell of damp, sweaty, wool habits.” |
An outstanding work of cultural anthropology and oral history. An Infinity of Little Hours does what the best books do: it probes, it teaches, it unsettles, it amazes. |
Interview: NPR Talk of the Nation with Michelle Martin
A Monk's Life
Excerpts
Introduction
Carthusians mark time, not by decades, years, hours, or days, but by the liturgical year, the seasons of the Church. Their time is out of time, directed, not by business opportunities, not by social engagements, but by the tolling of the immense church bell. . . . In the microcosm of his cell, the novice observes the changes of the natural year in his garden, secluded from any other view. After the dead of winter, he sees shoots springing up in the garden, and he plants, digs, and weeds. During the few hot spells in summer, he carries buckets of water from the bottom floor of his cell to keep the garden alive. In December, he watches the last rose in his garden fade and crumple. The novice strains to hear the silence. A bird flies overhead, a cricket chirps, he drops a hoe, his boots squeak as he walks around his garden, a pear drops from the espaliered tree, he hears the scurry of a mouse . . .
Chapter 11: Monks off Pitch
As pragmatic as he was, on this night even Dom Philip resonated with Dom Damian’s excitement of being alone in the universe, standing guard while others slept, on duty during the time the devil prowled the earth like a lion. Dom Philip wondered if Dom David was again fretting over Christmas away from his family, without presents, or other observances. He had told Dom Philip that during Night Office, he started to get almost visual flashes and smells of home, jumping right out of the office books. But Dom Philip walked back to his cell, cowl up, holding his lanthorn in his right hand, savoring the cold crispness of this particular Christmas morning. In the midst of all his intense work, Night Office had done its work and produced harmony. God had spoken to him. Quies.
Epilogue: Later
When I last met with Dom Columba, he explained that when he rereads Theresa of Avila’s Interior Castle, he stops to pray: “because she makes you see that God loves you—the whole point of Carthusian life.” Then, from memory, he quoted St. John of the Cross: “what will take place on the other side when all for me will be overturned into eternity; I don’t know. I believe, I believe only that a great love awaits me.” As most old people would say, he commented, “It’s not hard to die when everyone you know is dead.” In his words, he is “so old and coming to an end.” I walked with him from the extern Guest House to the Gatehouse door where forty years earlier five young men had rung the bell; when we parted, he shook my hand and said very factually and non-emotionally, “see you in another place.”
Carthusians mark time, not by decades, years, hours, or days, but by the liturgical year, the seasons of the Church. Their time is out of time, directed, not by business opportunities, not by social engagements, but by the tolling of the immense church bell. . . . In the microcosm of his cell, the novice observes the changes of the natural year in his garden, secluded from any other view. After the dead of winter, he sees shoots springing up in the garden, and he plants, digs, and weeds. During the few hot spells in summer, he carries buckets of water from the bottom floor of his cell to keep the garden alive. In December, he watches the last rose in his garden fade and crumple. The novice strains to hear the silence. A bird flies overhead, a cricket chirps, he drops a hoe, his boots squeak as he walks around his garden, a pear drops from the espaliered tree, he hears the scurry of a mouse . . .
Chapter 11: Monks off Pitch
As pragmatic as he was, on this night even Dom Philip resonated with Dom Damian’s excitement of being alone in the universe, standing guard while others slept, on duty during the time the devil prowled the earth like a lion. Dom Philip wondered if Dom David was again fretting over Christmas away from his family, without presents, or other observances. He had told Dom Philip that during Night Office, he started to get almost visual flashes and smells of home, jumping right out of the office books. But Dom Philip walked back to his cell, cowl up, holding his lanthorn in his right hand, savoring the cold crispness of this particular Christmas morning. In the midst of all his intense work, Night Office had done its work and produced harmony. God had spoken to him. Quies.
Epilogue: Later
When I last met with Dom Columba, he explained that when he rereads Theresa of Avila’s Interior Castle, he stops to pray: “because she makes you see that God loves you—the whole point of Carthusian life.” Then, from memory, he quoted St. John of the Cross: “what will take place on the other side when all for me will be overturned into eternity; I don’t know. I believe, I believe only that a great love awaits me.” As most old people would say, he commented, “It’s not hard to die when everyone you know is dead.” In his words, he is “so old and coming to an end.” I walked with him from the extern Guest House to the Gatehouse door where forty years earlier five young men had rung the bell; when we parted, he shook my hand and said very factually and non-emotionally, “see you in another place.”
Reviews
Chicago Tribune
“Maguire’s book is also superbly understated, but clings to the reader’s thoughts like the scent of incense. Using letters, journals and interviews, she retraces the steps of five young men in the 1960s who aspired to be Carthusian monks. Her visits to the Parkminster, their ancient home in Britain, provided “a portal to the eleventh century,” Maguire writes. The spiritual musings of these young men — who will stay, who will wash out? — are intriguing, but Maguire also is a sensitive chronicler of how the place actually feels: “Nothing is quite clean, dust is in the air, and the damp is pervasive and permanent, getting deeper into the walls each decade … Always there is the smell of damp, sweaty, wool habits.” - Julia Keller (November 2007)
Washington Post
“In An Infinity of Little Hours, a riveting and sympathetic account, Maguire has reconstructed the experience of Henley and four other men who made their way to Parkminster, the center of British Carthusian life, in 1960.” - Lauren F. Winner (April 2006)
Los Angeles Times
“…to Maguire’s credit, she avoids the more competitive, reality-show aspects of the challenge, focusing instead on the spiritual process. Some cannot bear the cold. Others languish from the loneliness and feel acutely that their life is wasting away… Still it is fascinating to enter, if only for a few hours, into this way of life, where extreme devotion forms at least a bit of a bulwark against humanity’s digressions.” (March 2006)
National Catholic Reporter
“What Ms. Maguire has set herself to do-and she does it brilliantly-is to make real to us what one might call “the Carthusian experience,” but the experience of an order that, in 1960, was still almost exactly as it had been in the 11th century, when St. Bruno built his hermitages on the mountain of the Grande Chartreuse… Thomas Merton writes of the stress endured by a musician who must cope with the pressures of the plainsong, but Ms. Maguire makes this pressure even more understandable than Merton himself. The three hours of the night chant, from about 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., become very real to the reader." - Sr. Wendy Beckett (July 2006)
CRISIS Magazine
“The hours and years Maguire spent tracking down, e-mailing, interviewing, and finally meeting these reclusive men have borne a deliciously intimate fruit; the book reads like the very best sort of psychological novel.” - Elizabeth Thecla Mauro (May 2006)
Publishers Weekly
“Through painstaking research including countless phone conversations, 5,000 pages of e-mails and a reunion of the five men in France, Maguire creates a personal, sympathetic and amazingly detailed description of an ancient order and its contemporary adherents, traveling ‘toward inner space within the confines of their solitary cells.'” (December 2005)
Kirkus
“A moving look at the human search for communication with God at perhaps its most extreme.” (January 2006)
The San Diego Union-Tribune
“Nancy Klein Maguire immerses us into the mysterious world of this ascetic order with admirable detail and clarity.” - Sandi Dolbee (March 2006)
The Seattle Times
“Maguire’s years’ of labor bore fine fruit. She preserves the hermetic, harsh life of the Carthusian monks-fiercely defended by adherents; piercingly difficult for those who stayed and those who ultimately left its confines.” - Kimberly Marlowe Harnett (April 2006)
Science and Spirit
“Forty years after their final days in the Charterhouse, the four former monks reunite. They confess that their re-entry into the outside world was painful and disorienting. Yet in their old age, they still carry their time in the Charterhouse with them, believing, as one of the ex-monks tells Maguire, that ‘the graces received have changed something deeply within.” - Bill Williams (July-August 2006)
Deseret Morning News
“The five young men she writes about saw what they wanted in the faces of the oldest Carthusians. They wanted a life that lights a man from the inside.” - Susan Whitney (May 2006)
Busted Halo.com
“An Infinity of Little Hours is too nuanced and layered a book, too deeply humane, to be called sad or defeatist: starkly beautiful might be more accurate. Maguire is a wonderfully erudite and sensitive guide to the Carthusian worldview. Through her clear, intelligent prose, we come to understand why her five novices are willing to risk everything in a mad, exhilarating search for the divine.” - Robert Anthony Siegel
"Nancy Klein Maguire achieved something truly monumental through her account of five young men who entered the Carthusian novitiate at Parkminster in the in the 1960s. This personal and moving companion piece cuts through the romance to the stark and yet beautiful reality of a life, a husband, a marriage and a death shaped by that cloistered experience... those who loved ‘An Infinity…’ should pick up this volume in order to know how the search for God, for meaning and relationship, had to continue beyond the monastery walls.' - Father Robert Martin, Anglican UK
"Nancy Klein Maguire gave us a fascinating look into the secretive life of Carthusian monks in her beautifully written book, An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World’s Most Austere Religious Order.” The book followed five Catholic men who entered the Carthusian monastery, called a charterhouse, at Parkminster in England, and how they coped with the difficulties of the Carthusian life. The effects of this solitary life of prayer and penance of these men followed them throughout their lives, even if they left the charterhouse." - Unknown
“Maguire’s book is also superbly understated, but clings to the reader’s thoughts like the scent of incense. Using letters, journals and interviews, she retraces the steps of five young men in the 1960s who aspired to be Carthusian monks. Her visits to the Parkminster, their ancient home in Britain, provided “a portal to the eleventh century,” Maguire writes. The spiritual musings of these young men — who will stay, who will wash out? — are intriguing, but Maguire also is a sensitive chronicler of how the place actually feels: “Nothing is quite clean, dust is in the air, and the damp is pervasive and permanent, getting deeper into the walls each decade … Always there is the smell of damp, sweaty, wool habits.” - Julia Keller (November 2007)
Washington Post
“In An Infinity of Little Hours, a riveting and sympathetic account, Maguire has reconstructed the experience of Henley and four other men who made their way to Parkminster, the center of British Carthusian life, in 1960.” - Lauren F. Winner (April 2006)
Los Angeles Times
“…to Maguire’s credit, she avoids the more competitive, reality-show aspects of the challenge, focusing instead on the spiritual process. Some cannot bear the cold. Others languish from the loneliness and feel acutely that their life is wasting away… Still it is fascinating to enter, if only for a few hours, into this way of life, where extreme devotion forms at least a bit of a bulwark against humanity’s digressions.” (March 2006)
National Catholic Reporter
“What Ms. Maguire has set herself to do-and she does it brilliantly-is to make real to us what one might call “the Carthusian experience,” but the experience of an order that, in 1960, was still almost exactly as it had been in the 11th century, when St. Bruno built his hermitages on the mountain of the Grande Chartreuse… Thomas Merton writes of the stress endured by a musician who must cope with the pressures of the plainsong, but Ms. Maguire makes this pressure even more understandable than Merton himself. The three hours of the night chant, from about 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., become very real to the reader." - Sr. Wendy Beckett (July 2006)
CRISIS Magazine
“The hours and years Maguire spent tracking down, e-mailing, interviewing, and finally meeting these reclusive men have borne a deliciously intimate fruit; the book reads like the very best sort of psychological novel.” - Elizabeth Thecla Mauro (May 2006)
Publishers Weekly
“Through painstaking research including countless phone conversations, 5,000 pages of e-mails and a reunion of the five men in France, Maguire creates a personal, sympathetic and amazingly detailed description of an ancient order and its contemporary adherents, traveling ‘toward inner space within the confines of their solitary cells.'” (December 2005)
Kirkus
“A moving look at the human search for communication with God at perhaps its most extreme.” (January 2006)
The San Diego Union-Tribune
“Nancy Klein Maguire immerses us into the mysterious world of this ascetic order with admirable detail and clarity.” - Sandi Dolbee (March 2006)
The Seattle Times
“Maguire’s years’ of labor bore fine fruit. She preserves the hermetic, harsh life of the Carthusian monks-fiercely defended by adherents; piercingly difficult for those who stayed and those who ultimately left its confines.” - Kimberly Marlowe Harnett (April 2006)
Science and Spirit
“Forty years after their final days in the Charterhouse, the four former monks reunite. They confess that their re-entry into the outside world was painful and disorienting. Yet in their old age, they still carry their time in the Charterhouse with them, believing, as one of the ex-monks tells Maguire, that ‘the graces received have changed something deeply within.” - Bill Williams (July-August 2006)
Deseret Morning News
“The five young men she writes about saw what they wanted in the faces of the oldest Carthusians. They wanted a life that lights a man from the inside.” - Susan Whitney (May 2006)
Busted Halo.com
“An Infinity of Little Hours is too nuanced and layered a book, too deeply humane, to be called sad or defeatist: starkly beautiful might be more accurate. Maguire is a wonderfully erudite and sensitive guide to the Carthusian worldview. Through her clear, intelligent prose, we come to understand why her five novices are willing to risk everything in a mad, exhilarating search for the divine.” - Robert Anthony Siegel
"Nancy Klein Maguire achieved something truly monumental through her account of five young men who entered the Carthusian novitiate at Parkminster in the in the 1960s. This personal and moving companion piece cuts through the romance to the stark and yet beautiful reality of a life, a husband, a marriage and a death shaped by that cloistered experience... those who loved ‘An Infinity…’ should pick up this volume in order to know how the search for God, for meaning and relationship, had to continue beyond the monastery walls.' - Father Robert Martin, Anglican UK
"Nancy Klein Maguire gave us a fascinating look into the secretive life of Carthusian monks in her beautifully written book, An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World’s Most Austere Religious Order.” The book followed five Catholic men who entered the Carthusian monastery, called a charterhouse, at Parkminster in England, and how they coped with the difficulties of the Carthusian life. The effects of this solitary life of prayer and penance of these men followed them throughout their lives, even if they left the charterhouse." - Unknown
Reader Responses
And thank you for allowing me to shamelessly use your "poetry". On my Swedish account, the quote got praised for the brilliant use of words, "like an exhalation, losing and gaining it all". By the way, I'm reading your new book now, totally mesmerized! What an excellent work you've done!
@hermitage_of_st_bruno (July 2021)
A starkly beautiful insight into the Carthusian order, a monastic tradition which I believe is most important. This little phrase, Secretum meum mihi, from the incredible "An Infinity of Little Hours" by @nkmaguireauthor sums up my interior life and faith in three words now etched in the deepest part of my being. Thank you Nancy for such an inspiring read, I am savouring every page.
Jason Harringan (June 2021)
You've given us all a tremendous gift in the sensitive and beautiful accounts of a life most devout people will never know, but wish for a taste of.
Rev. Alexander MacPhail (April 2021)
As a business development professional, I purposely sought out this book about monastic life to see what I could do to lessen the noise in my daily life. An Infinity of Little Hours will make the religious and non-religious understand better that long, lonely walk up to the main road to leave everything behind. I visited La Grande Chartreuse in France during my last trip to Geneve to breath their air and to consider whether I am mentally strong enough for life in the desert. This book is been an inspiration about limits, silence, and the commitment required for any path.
John Zahaitis, International Business Development at Export Portal (December 2019)
I read An Infinity Of Little Hours three times. I’m super excited to hear there will be a continuation of the story of one of these young men. I’ve always been fascinated with religious life, the more austere the better. I often pick it up to “spot read“ when my soul need a respite In a contemplative monastery.
LeeAnn Williams, Religious Educator (October 2019)
An Infinity of Little Hours hits it out of the park on all levels. So much “new” information to absorb about a world (before you!) closed to all, and such a beautiful sensitive portrait of what the five young men experienced at Charterhouse, before entering and after. WOW! I truly hated to be finishing “the savoring” of your the book –as I did last night. I feel like I’ve left a close and intimate friend behind. (For me) your writing is much like the late Bill Maxwell’s: clean and clear—yet with multiple levels of complexity and information on any one page. Truly extraordinary! What a tour de force. Congratulations!!
Rebecca Lambert, NED Biosystems (March 2019)
“I just finished reading An Infinity of Little Hours. One of the most astonishing and affecting books I’ve ever read. Thank you.”
David Popely, Liminstter, UK (July 2017)
“I’m Jewish, and I don’t really understand the religious references for the most part…but the human relations aspect of this story—how these men adapted or didn’t adapt—how they experienced this life, and each other—was absolutely fascinating. I had trouble putting the book down. I found a sick plate select pages four through seven one of the most interesting books of nonfiction that I’ve read in recent years.”
Charles E. Becker, Chatham County North Carolina
“Maguire knows when to pause and when to continue in her pacing of her narrative, and her academic preparation does reveal itself—if not in citations—then in the attention to the telling detail, the crafting of a vignette, and the focus on the tumultuous inner quest relentlessly pitted against the deceptively serene outer silence.”
John L. Murphy, Los Angeles, California
“Religious differences evaporate as we join the universal search for understanding of a higher power. This is a coming of age true story that will appeal to all ages, young and old.”
Unknown
“It’s a page-turner, reading like a novel. It is a cultural history, a coming of age story, a mystery all in one. I was surprised to find myself clarifying my own spiritual beliefs as I read…”
J. Zieger
“An Infinity of Little Hours” hits it out of the park on all levels. So much “new” information to absorb about a world (before you!) closed to all, and such a beautiful sensitive portrait of what the five young men experienced at Charterhouse, before entering and after. WOW! I truly hated to be finishing “the savoring” of your the book –as I did last night. I feel like I’ve left a close and intimate friend behind. (For me) your writing is much like the late Bill Maxwell’s: clean and clear—yet with multiple levels of complexity and information on any one page. Truly extraordinary! What a tour de force. Congratulations!!
Rebecca Lambert, NED Biosystems (March 25, 2019)
I read An Infinity Of Little Hours three times. I’m super excited to hear there will be a continuation of the story of one of these young men. I’ve always been fascinated with Religious life, the more austere the better. I often pick it up to “spot read“ when my soul need a respite In a contemplative monastery.
LeeAnn Williams, Religious Educator (October 2019)
As a business development professional, I purposely sought out this book about monastic life to see what I could do to lessen the noise in my daily life. An Infinity of Little Hours will make the religious and non-religious understand better that long, lonely walk up to the main road to leave everything behind. I visited La Grande Chartreuse in France during my last trip to Geneve to breath their air and to consider whether I am mentally strong enough for life in the desert. This book is been an inspiration about limits, silence, and the commitment required for any path.
John Zahaitis, International Business Development at Export Portal (December 9, 2019)
“I just finished reading An Infinity of Little Hours. One of the most astonishing and affecting books I’ve ever read. Thank you.”
David Popely, Llminstter, UK (7/2017)
“I just finished reading, for the second time, “An Infinity of Little Hours” by Nancy Maguire. I will place this book among others in my book case….and probably will take it down another time to re-read it. I don’t think I have ever been moved so much by a book with the exception of Merton’s: ” Seven Story Mountain“
Claude King
I loved the book and very much admire the author’s mastery of nonfiction narrative, as well as the seeming simplicity of her writing. The “voice” in this book beautifully matches the subject matter. We actually lived near the South Downs when we were in England the first time, so I could picture much of what the author was describing.
Elizabeth Rimer
Reading “An Infinity of Little Hours” will take your breath away. Nancy Klein Maguire’s carefully chosen words beckons the reader to a simpler world. Maguire captures the routine of the Carthusian monks, revealing their cloistered days in such detail that they appear to be walking through the book, imparting deep spiritual wisdom as they go. This book him him is a “must” for any serious reader, especially those him on spiritual journeys. I stayed up until 1:30 a.m. to finish reading it, and now I’m reading it a second time.
Nancy Wright Beasley, Author of Izzy’s Fire: Finding Humanity in the Holocaust.
Maguire’s book is a thorough view into the hopes, struggles and beliefs of novices entering a charterhouse in the 1960s…a voyage through words, taking a reader to where my film may take the viewer through images and time. A remarkable and touching book.”
Philip Gröning, Filmmaker, Director of INTO GREAT SILENCE
Being a cradle Catholic, monastic life has always held a mysterious aura for me. So, too, has contemplative prayer. This year, I have been part of a church group studying this particular type of prayer. When I heard about An Infinity of Little Hours, I was instantly interested. The book was very easy to read. The characters were developed well, so I really cared about what happened to them. And I especially loved all the pictures. They brought the monastery to life. As I was reading, I often thought of friends I wanted to share the book with. In the end, I bought 20 copies. Everyone’s response was the same as mine. We couldn’t get enough of those monks. I, for one, had to read it again. Thanks, Nancy Klein Maguire for sharing all you learned.
Genny Powers, Arlington Heights, Illinois
“When my wife is weary, I read to her. An Infinity of Little Hours has been an inspiration to us… there is something of the spirituality you capture so brilliantly that speaks to us in our present state … I read it as a confused Christian, and am greatly sustained by its power and empathetic exploration of the relationship of Carthusian and God… It is wonderful.”
Husband of wife dying of cancer
“About a week ago, I finished reading An Infinity of Little Hours, but I haven’t finished thinking about it. It was one of the most personally satisfying books I have read. It is also one of the most useful books as well. Without simplifying too much your efforts, it causes me to question more frequently whether a decision or ‘fight’ is really that important or worth it in the context of one’s life.”
Carol Morrison, Morrison Associates, Ltd.
“If you want to see inside the mind of the solitary contemplative or if you want to be inspired by human determination to succeed in the face of spiritual trials, you will be as moved by this book as I am. Ex-members of religious orders (and they are many!) will be delighted and encouraged by the way this book presents apparent vocational failures as a stage in a lifelong journey of the soul. . . .The monastic contemplative life is here exposed, warts and all, in the form of a thoroughly compelling read. It is also bursting with quotes from the Carthusian tradition and actual statements from the monks (and ex-monks) of Parkminster that give much material for meditation and reflection.”
Norman R. Davies, Granada, Spain, Visitor to Parkminster in 1974
“I think the minutiae of monastic life is where the book gets its start and its energy. Those that stay, now those are the interesting ones, even those who stay for a few years because they take this routine and this new life experience, and mingle it all in their growth and new experiences at the monastery. These men are real and interesting to know about.”
Julie Van Doren, Editor
“I kept on reading. All the unfamiliar Catholic words just swept right by me. I am fascinated that these men vowed to silence liked to talk so much! They each had different ways of coping. Dom Philip seemed to use his brain to cope.”
Dr. Patricia Hammick, Corporate Director
Nancy Klein Maguire’s latest book is a tapestry of impeccable research, design, and writing workmanship. It tells the dramatic story of a rich and mysterious way of contemplative life, which may well soon disappear forever, and to which no one outside the Carthusian Order had ever before been granted such intimate access. It is a spiritually uplifting book, and should be, I believe, of particular interest to those who know little about monastic and contemplative life, and may be curious because they themselves are so “interconnected” that they barely have time to retire into their own thoughts. It is a superb history of religious rites dating back, almost unchanged, to the 11th century. Most of all, it is a suspenseful adventure story about five young men, who during the era of Vietnam and the Cold War, undertook a remarkable quest, and about what they encountered along the way. It is a rare and pleasurable reading experience to encounter all those elements artfully and powerfully combined in one book. I have reread it several times, and will do so again.
Tom Cody, Author and Management Consultant
“An Infinity of Little Hours had special meaning for me because I left high school in 1961 to enter the seminary at a Benedictine Monastery in Cullman, Alabama. . . . The contemplative monastic routine is an attractive escape from the survival pressures of world living. Having finally chosen the chaotic worldly course and by society’s standard becoming highly successful, I found An Infinity of Little Hours reinforcing the basic values that underlie my life successes causing me to re-focus on those foundation years at St. Bernard’s.”
John C. Erickson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Erickson Retirement Communities
“An Infinity of Little Hours was a great help to John when he was dying. He was fascinated by the austere life which almost seemed a prison of God. He felt it was great to capture the monks’ thoughts.”
Widow of ALS Victim
One woman wrote: “my husband suggested that I read your book. To be honest, I was not enthusiastic-a history of monks did not appeal to me. However I gave it a try and was absolutely enthralled.”
Wife of an historian
“Having been fascinated by the Carthusians for many years now, I was particularly keen to read about the sort of people who were called to their lifestyle. I was not disappointed. It was a glorious read-spiritual and yet human.”
Amazon.com.uk
“[Maguire] seems to feel a genuine rapport with the people whose lives and thoughts she describes. She really gets into their skin and explains both their pleasures and their pain with affection and understanding.”
Newhousenewnewjob.blogspot.com (June, 2007)
“We are cloistered nuns. Your book is amazing! You have been able to get to the core of contemplative life like no outsider ever has. I saw myself in every page… my struggles, joys, boredoms and crisis were all there. I laughed at the infinity of details that we have in common with the Carthusians. And, yes, I’m very familiar with “the dark force” that him him him reappearing throughout the book as regularly as it does around here! Thank you for writing such a wonderful book. I think it should be “required reading” in our Novitiate!”
A Discalced Carmelite
“You know that wonderful sensation of reading an extremely well written book–how it just seems to flow effortlessly as you read, and then lingers with you when you’re done? That was Infinity for me. In the end, we are enchanted by the monks who persevere in the life, but also embrace the men who leave, fully sharing their relief. Maguire is a gifted writer; her prose is like freshly made butter, smooth and delicious. I think I could read anything she chose to write next, and plan to.”
Mark Asselin, Government Manager and Independent Scholar command, Bethesda, MD
“I just finished An Infinity of Little Hours and it knocked my socks off. I live with a former monk; he read it as well and in typical understated fashion pronounced it pretty accurate.”
Janet Reid, Literary Agent, New York, New York
@hermitage_of_st_bruno (July 2021)
A starkly beautiful insight into the Carthusian order, a monastic tradition which I believe is most important. This little phrase, Secretum meum mihi, from the incredible "An Infinity of Little Hours" by @nkmaguireauthor sums up my interior life and faith in three words now etched in the deepest part of my being. Thank you Nancy for such an inspiring read, I am savouring every page.
Jason Harringan (June 2021)
You've given us all a tremendous gift in the sensitive and beautiful accounts of a life most devout people will never know, but wish for a taste of.
Rev. Alexander MacPhail (April 2021)
As a business development professional, I purposely sought out this book about monastic life to see what I could do to lessen the noise in my daily life. An Infinity of Little Hours will make the religious and non-religious understand better that long, lonely walk up to the main road to leave everything behind. I visited La Grande Chartreuse in France during my last trip to Geneve to breath their air and to consider whether I am mentally strong enough for life in the desert. This book is been an inspiration about limits, silence, and the commitment required for any path.
John Zahaitis, International Business Development at Export Portal (December 2019)
I read An Infinity Of Little Hours three times. I’m super excited to hear there will be a continuation of the story of one of these young men. I’ve always been fascinated with religious life, the more austere the better. I often pick it up to “spot read“ when my soul need a respite In a contemplative monastery.
LeeAnn Williams, Religious Educator (October 2019)
An Infinity of Little Hours hits it out of the park on all levels. So much “new” information to absorb about a world (before you!) closed to all, and such a beautiful sensitive portrait of what the five young men experienced at Charterhouse, before entering and after. WOW! I truly hated to be finishing “the savoring” of your the book –as I did last night. I feel like I’ve left a close and intimate friend behind. (For me) your writing is much like the late Bill Maxwell’s: clean and clear—yet with multiple levels of complexity and information on any one page. Truly extraordinary! What a tour de force. Congratulations!!
Rebecca Lambert, NED Biosystems (March 2019)
“I just finished reading An Infinity of Little Hours. One of the most astonishing and affecting books I’ve ever read. Thank you.”
David Popely, Liminstter, UK (July 2017)
“I’m Jewish, and I don’t really understand the religious references for the most part…but the human relations aspect of this story—how these men adapted or didn’t adapt—how they experienced this life, and each other—was absolutely fascinating. I had trouble putting the book down. I found a sick plate select pages four through seven one of the most interesting books of nonfiction that I’ve read in recent years.”
Charles E. Becker, Chatham County North Carolina
“Maguire knows when to pause and when to continue in her pacing of her narrative, and her academic preparation does reveal itself—if not in citations—then in the attention to the telling detail, the crafting of a vignette, and the focus on the tumultuous inner quest relentlessly pitted against the deceptively serene outer silence.”
John L. Murphy, Los Angeles, California
“Religious differences evaporate as we join the universal search for understanding of a higher power. This is a coming of age true story that will appeal to all ages, young and old.”
Unknown
“It’s a page-turner, reading like a novel. It is a cultural history, a coming of age story, a mystery all in one. I was surprised to find myself clarifying my own spiritual beliefs as I read…”
J. Zieger
“An Infinity of Little Hours” hits it out of the park on all levels. So much “new” information to absorb about a world (before you!) closed to all, and such a beautiful sensitive portrait of what the five young men experienced at Charterhouse, before entering and after. WOW! I truly hated to be finishing “the savoring” of your the book –as I did last night. I feel like I’ve left a close and intimate friend behind. (For me) your writing is much like the late Bill Maxwell’s: clean and clear—yet with multiple levels of complexity and information on any one page. Truly extraordinary! What a tour de force. Congratulations!!
Rebecca Lambert, NED Biosystems (March 25, 2019)
I read An Infinity Of Little Hours three times. I’m super excited to hear there will be a continuation of the story of one of these young men. I’ve always been fascinated with Religious life, the more austere the better. I often pick it up to “spot read“ when my soul need a respite In a contemplative monastery.
LeeAnn Williams, Religious Educator (October 2019)
As a business development professional, I purposely sought out this book about monastic life to see what I could do to lessen the noise in my daily life. An Infinity of Little Hours will make the religious and non-religious understand better that long, lonely walk up to the main road to leave everything behind. I visited La Grande Chartreuse in France during my last trip to Geneve to breath their air and to consider whether I am mentally strong enough for life in the desert. This book is been an inspiration about limits, silence, and the commitment required for any path.
John Zahaitis, International Business Development at Export Portal (December 9, 2019)
“I just finished reading An Infinity of Little Hours. One of the most astonishing and affecting books I’ve ever read. Thank you.”
David Popely, Llminstter, UK (7/2017)
“I just finished reading, for the second time, “An Infinity of Little Hours” by Nancy Maguire. I will place this book among others in my book case….and probably will take it down another time to re-read it. I don’t think I have ever been moved so much by a book with the exception of Merton’s: ” Seven Story Mountain“
Claude King
I loved the book and very much admire the author’s mastery of nonfiction narrative, as well as the seeming simplicity of her writing. The “voice” in this book beautifully matches the subject matter. We actually lived near the South Downs when we were in England the first time, so I could picture much of what the author was describing.
Elizabeth Rimer
Reading “An Infinity of Little Hours” will take your breath away. Nancy Klein Maguire’s carefully chosen words beckons the reader to a simpler world. Maguire captures the routine of the Carthusian monks, revealing their cloistered days in such detail that they appear to be walking through the book, imparting deep spiritual wisdom as they go. This book him him is a “must” for any serious reader, especially those him on spiritual journeys. I stayed up until 1:30 a.m. to finish reading it, and now I’m reading it a second time.
Nancy Wright Beasley, Author of Izzy’s Fire: Finding Humanity in the Holocaust.
Maguire’s book is a thorough view into the hopes, struggles and beliefs of novices entering a charterhouse in the 1960s…a voyage through words, taking a reader to where my film may take the viewer through images and time. A remarkable and touching book.”
Philip Gröning, Filmmaker, Director of INTO GREAT SILENCE
Being a cradle Catholic, monastic life has always held a mysterious aura for me. So, too, has contemplative prayer. This year, I have been part of a church group studying this particular type of prayer. When I heard about An Infinity of Little Hours, I was instantly interested. The book was very easy to read. The characters were developed well, so I really cared about what happened to them. And I especially loved all the pictures. They brought the monastery to life. As I was reading, I often thought of friends I wanted to share the book with. In the end, I bought 20 copies. Everyone’s response was the same as mine. We couldn’t get enough of those monks. I, for one, had to read it again. Thanks, Nancy Klein Maguire for sharing all you learned.
Genny Powers, Arlington Heights, Illinois
“When my wife is weary, I read to her. An Infinity of Little Hours has been an inspiration to us… there is something of the spirituality you capture so brilliantly that speaks to us in our present state … I read it as a confused Christian, and am greatly sustained by its power and empathetic exploration of the relationship of Carthusian and God… It is wonderful.”
Husband of wife dying of cancer
“About a week ago, I finished reading An Infinity of Little Hours, but I haven’t finished thinking about it. It was one of the most personally satisfying books I have read. It is also one of the most useful books as well. Without simplifying too much your efforts, it causes me to question more frequently whether a decision or ‘fight’ is really that important or worth it in the context of one’s life.”
Carol Morrison, Morrison Associates, Ltd.
“If you want to see inside the mind of the solitary contemplative or if you want to be inspired by human determination to succeed in the face of spiritual trials, you will be as moved by this book as I am. Ex-members of religious orders (and they are many!) will be delighted and encouraged by the way this book presents apparent vocational failures as a stage in a lifelong journey of the soul. . . .The monastic contemplative life is here exposed, warts and all, in the form of a thoroughly compelling read. It is also bursting with quotes from the Carthusian tradition and actual statements from the monks (and ex-monks) of Parkminster that give much material for meditation and reflection.”
Norman R. Davies, Granada, Spain, Visitor to Parkminster in 1974
“I think the minutiae of monastic life is where the book gets its start and its energy. Those that stay, now those are the interesting ones, even those who stay for a few years because they take this routine and this new life experience, and mingle it all in their growth and new experiences at the monastery. These men are real and interesting to know about.”
Julie Van Doren, Editor
“I kept on reading. All the unfamiliar Catholic words just swept right by me. I am fascinated that these men vowed to silence liked to talk so much! They each had different ways of coping. Dom Philip seemed to use his brain to cope.”
Dr. Patricia Hammick, Corporate Director
Nancy Klein Maguire’s latest book is a tapestry of impeccable research, design, and writing workmanship. It tells the dramatic story of a rich and mysterious way of contemplative life, which may well soon disappear forever, and to which no one outside the Carthusian Order had ever before been granted such intimate access. It is a spiritually uplifting book, and should be, I believe, of particular interest to those who know little about monastic and contemplative life, and may be curious because they themselves are so “interconnected” that they barely have time to retire into their own thoughts. It is a superb history of religious rites dating back, almost unchanged, to the 11th century. Most of all, it is a suspenseful adventure story about five young men, who during the era of Vietnam and the Cold War, undertook a remarkable quest, and about what they encountered along the way. It is a rare and pleasurable reading experience to encounter all those elements artfully and powerfully combined in one book. I have reread it several times, and will do so again.
Tom Cody, Author and Management Consultant
“An Infinity of Little Hours had special meaning for me because I left high school in 1961 to enter the seminary at a Benedictine Monastery in Cullman, Alabama. . . . The contemplative monastic routine is an attractive escape from the survival pressures of world living. Having finally chosen the chaotic worldly course and by society’s standard becoming highly successful, I found An Infinity of Little Hours reinforcing the basic values that underlie my life successes causing me to re-focus on those foundation years at St. Bernard’s.”
John C. Erickson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Erickson Retirement Communities
“An Infinity of Little Hours was a great help to John when he was dying. He was fascinated by the austere life which almost seemed a prison of God. He felt it was great to capture the monks’ thoughts.”
Widow of ALS Victim
One woman wrote: “my husband suggested that I read your book. To be honest, I was not enthusiastic-a history of monks did not appeal to me. However I gave it a try and was absolutely enthralled.”
Wife of an historian
“Having been fascinated by the Carthusians for many years now, I was particularly keen to read about the sort of people who were called to their lifestyle. I was not disappointed. It was a glorious read-spiritual and yet human.”
Amazon.com.uk
“[Maguire] seems to feel a genuine rapport with the people whose lives and thoughts she describes. She really gets into their skin and explains both their pleasures and their pain with affection and understanding.”
Newhousenewnewjob.blogspot.com (June, 2007)
“We are cloistered nuns. Your book is amazing! You have been able to get to the core of contemplative life like no outsider ever has. I saw myself in every page… my struggles, joys, boredoms and crisis were all there. I laughed at the infinity of details that we have in common with the Carthusians. And, yes, I’m very familiar with “the dark force” that him him him reappearing throughout the book as regularly as it does around here! Thank you for writing such a wonderful book. I think it should be “required reading” in our Novitiate!”
A Discalced Carmelite
“You know that wonderful sensation of reading an extremely well written book–how it just seems to flow effortlessly as you read, and then lingers with you when you’re done? That was Infinity for me. In the end, we are enchanted by the monks who persevere in the life, but also embrace the men who leave, fully sharing their relief. Maguire is a gifted writer; her prose is like freshly made butter, smooth and delicious. I think I could read anything she chose to write next, and plan to.”
Mark Asselin, Government Manager and Independent Scholar command, Bethesda, MD
“I just finished An Infinity of Little Hours and it knocked my socks off. I live with a former monk; he read it as well and in typical understated fashion pronounced it pretty accurate.”
Janet Reid, Literary Agent, New York, New York
