Cristiana Piccardo was the long-time abbess of an unusual Cistercian
community in Italy. "We have always believed," she writes, "that the
monastic charism can be a precious 'talent' offered to our contemporary
world, and there are moments in history when what normally
remains hidden should come into the light." These words accurately
describe both the force behind the story of the Vitorchiano monastic
family and the account of it given in Living Wisdom, her refl ection on
the meaning of that story. Over the course of four decades, the
Abbey of Vitorchiano founded no fewer than six new monasteries
around the world, from Argentina to Indonesia, and today this
vibrant oasis of prayer and Christian living still has some eighty
sisters of its own.
Living Wisdom reveals the vitality of these communities and
initiates us in a most concrete way into a wisdom that seeks the
kingdom of God ardently yet realistically, without ever bypassing the
essential human foundations that the life in Christ transforms and
elevates but never supplants: hard work, communal striving, friendship,
honesty in communication, a sense of humor, and, above all, love-
the willingness both to ask for forgiveness and to give it with joy.