In recent decades, Esther de Waal’s Seeking God: The Way of St Benedict has had great influence in presenting the relevance of Benedict’s teaching in the Rule to the layperson in everyday, contemporary life. Now, some 25 years later, de Waal has produced a new, substantial study based again on the Rule of St Benedict, this time focussing on the Rule’s Prologue as a source for understanding baptism and what it means to live our baptismal vows.

Joyce’s previous books include Open the Door: A Journey to the True Self, The Cup of Our Life: A Guide for Spiritual Growth, and May I Have This Dance? Sr Rupp’s new book, God’s Enduring Presence, collects around 120 of her meditations contributed to Living Faith over the last seven years. An earlier collection of her Living Faith writings was published in 2001 as Inviting God In. Sometimes such collections don’t work well when the texts are taken out of the context of the original publication, but that is not the case here.

In October 2003, on the initiative and at the invitation of the National Council of Priests of Australia (NCP), representatives of the Commission for Australian Catholic Women, the Bishops’ Committee for Laity, and Australian Catholic Leaders of Religious Institutes, met with Fr Martin Dixon (representing the NCP) in Canberra to begin a conversation on ways of being church in Australia at this point in our history.