Katie Gordon of Monasteries of the Heart interviews Fr. Adam Bucko of the Center for Spiritual Imagination in this webinar. They explore how new expressions of monastic community are bridging this ancient tradition to contemporary seekers in ways that enable more people to commit to lives of prayer, service, and transformation, in and beyond the monastery. You can watch it below or stream it here. Books recommended by Adam and Katie are listed below.
The webinar is part of the curriculum for the Benedictine Peacemakers Monastic Immersion Program. The three women in the 2025-2026 cohort will complete their year-long experience in May and move out of the monastery and into the rest of their lives. After a year in a monastery whose purpose is to ferment spiritual and personal growth as well as to support good works and seek peace, they are not the same women they were when they moved in last year. Fortunately, there are many ways today to take their monastic experience with them and keep it alive. This webinar is designed to help them make that transition.
The Rev. Adam Bucko is a co-founder and Director of the Center for Spiritual Imagination and is an Episcopal priest serving at the Cathedral of the Incarnation. Adam has been a committed voice in the movement for the renewal of Christian Contemplative Spirituality and the growing New Monastic movement. He has taught engaged contemplative spirituality in Europe and the US and co-authored two books: Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation and The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living. His latest book, published in 2022, is Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation. Committed to an integration of contemplation and just practice, he co-founded an award-winning non-profit, the Reciprocity Foundation, where he spent 15 years working with homeless youth living on the streets of New York City, providing spiritual care, developing programs to end youth homelessness and articulating a vision for spiritual mentoring in a post-religious world. Adam's substack is Contemplative Witness with Adam Bucko.
Katie Gordon is a spiritual seeker inspired by monastic tradition. She is the Coordinator of Monasteries of the Heart, an online movement that translates Benedictine wisdom for contemporary seekers. Katie is often experimenting with new ways of co-creating community outside of traditional religious forms, including her previous projects like Nuns & Nones and the Formation Project. She is most inspired by Benedict as a model of “living otherwise” today, and writes about this and more on her Substack, Following the Monastic Impulse.
BOOKS recommended by Adam:
Liberation Theologies: The Global Pursuit of Justice by Alfred T. Hennelly, S.J.
A global introduction to liberation theology as it takes shape across cultures and struggles. It shows how one core insight, that God is found among the poor and those pushed aside, becomes many contextual theologies rooted in lived reality. The book invites a spirituality that listens to these voices and responds with justice.
The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance by Dorothee Sölle
A call to recover a spirituality that listens deeply to both God and the suffering of the world. Sölle shows that true contemplation leads to resistance. Prayer becomes a way of standing in solidarity and refusing to turn away.
Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare by James H. Cone
A powerful reading of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X as voices that together reveal the depth of America’s struggle with race and justice. Cone shows how faith must face history honestly and still remain open to transformation.
Messenger of the Truth, about Jerzy Popiełuszko
A film that tells the story of a priest who stood with workers and spoke truth under a violent regime. His life reveals a spirituality grounded in courage, nonviolence, and fidelity to truth even when it costs everything.
Essential Writings by Matthew Fox
A collection that presents a spirituality rooted in creation, dignity, and the sacredness of all life. Drawing from the Christian mystical tradition, Fox calls for a way of living that responds to injustice with creativity, compassion, and engagement.
Healing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy, and Liberation by Kaira Jewel Lingo, Valerie Brown, Marisela B. Gomez
This book was co-authored ny my wife, Kaira Jewel, and is a rich and deeply embodied book that brings together Buddhist practice, ancestral healing, and the work of liberation through the lived wisdom of Black teachers. The book invites a return to the body as a place of refuge, to ancestors as sources of strength, and to community as the ground of transformation. It does not separate inner healing from justice. Instead, it shows how tending to suffering in ourselves and our lineages becomes part of the wider work of liberation.
BOOKS recommended by Katie:
The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century by Joan Chittister
This commentary on the Rule of Benedict from one of the most important monastic voices today is essential for any monk's bookshelf. I love the way that Sister Joan weaves the ancient wisdom of the Rule with contemporary and very lived-in insights. It is both a good "starter" and "deepener" for those interest in developing a more intentionally spiritual life grounded in wisdom beyond our time.
Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation by Adam Bucko
This book is a series of sermons that takes in the pain of the world and helps us to metabolize it into loving action. Included within the sermons are very thoughtful insights about a new generation of spiritual seekers and how they are seeking the wisdom of monasticism and contemplation in new ways.
Everyday Sacred, Everywhere Beauty: Readings from an Old Monk's Journal by Mary Lou Kownacki
In this posthumously published collection of her journal entries as "Old Monk" on Monasteries of the Heart, Mary Lou shows us how to live monastic wisdom in ordinary, everyday life. It takes in the suffering, beauty, pain, and possibility of the world and shows how to hold it all in a contemplative and compassionate way.
