Customer Reviews

Tales of a Magic Monastery (Tales Magic Monastry Ppr)

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I recently had the pleasure of meeting Father Theophane. I'd enjoyed this book, and I'd already given several copies to friends. But, I had assumed the some monks banded together and made up Theophane. There is such a whimsical and free feeling about these stories that a pretend author seemed not only possible but likely. It surprises me that one person could come up with all these different perspectives. But, Father Theophane himself is surprising! He first strikes you as a sort of reprobate monk - a bit wild in appearance and manner. Except, when he says Mass, all that personality and charisma are companioned by Theophane's deep reverence. He's an exceptional character. This book helped me know God better and know myself better. I highly recommend it.

Father Theophane is my friend. I spent five years at Saint Joseph's Abbey when he was Vocation Director. He was a "zen koan" in the flesh.
After five years I left to become a teacher in a Catholic boy's high school near Boston. Every day in every class I taught, I would wait for silence from everyone, then sound a pair of small Tibetan cymbals and read a selection from an Emily Dickinson poem, or the Writings of Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton, or the Sermon on the Mount, or Tao Te Ching, or a story from Theophane's Tales of a Magic Monastery. Then I would begin class which could be Chemistry, Physics, Math, Scripture or Sexuality. For over 35 years I maintained this practice.
Through the years my former students have testified how wonderful it was to begin every class this way. The stories of Theophane the Monk have stayed with them for all the years since we shared my class. Many of them have practiced meditation into their older middle age. Especially beloved from Tales are the following: "The Pearl of Great Price", "Myself","The Gun", and most especially "Now!"
I have always felt that "Tales of a Magic Monastery" will last as long as "Apothegmata Patrum"(the "Sayings of the Desert Fathers"). Thank you Father Theophane and may we meet again.

Open to any page and walk into a place of calm and tranquility. Where Theophane treads one finds no hostility, no discord, only blessed peace. Read these vignettes when things are out of hand and you will be rewarded.

Disclaimer: Theothane's twin sister was my grandma, so I'm obviously more than a bit biased. Yes, he was one person, yes, he had a vibrance and childlike love of life coupled with a deep and mature reverence for God, and from that, this amazing book came.

I've given away more than fifty copies of Magic Monastery since it was first published, each with a note that: "it takes seven years to REALLY read this book." Each reading peels the onion for a deeper insight into Theophane's revelation of mystery.

These short snippets remind us to seek the divine in everyday life. They remind us to look outside ourselves, while always trying to improve ourselves. They are fun, funny, humorous and yet probe deeply into both the meaning of human existence, and the means to attain sanctification. I can pick up this book any day and flip to any story and be challenged.

'Tales of a Magic Monastery' published in '81 is a slim 95 page paperback book consisting of 12 chapters containing short 1 or 2 page tales written by an apparent nome-de-plume known as Theophane the Monk.

Join Theophane and his mythical cast of monks as they search for truth not only within the sacred walls of the monastery, but also those self imposed barriers created by each of us; our fears, our presuppositions, our unwillingness to let go and refind ourselves deeper within are exposed and confronted in this captivating volume.

Each vinette and evocative illustration will not only delight but promote thoughtful consideration that will bring you back for further examination again and again. Great reading for a short trip, or even better as a companion reader for a retreat or personal meditation.

This is a wonderful book for personal or group study, or to prepare for a time of prayer.

"The Heart of Jesus Higher Knowledge The Kingdom is Love Let Him In! " Theophane Boyd



Tales of a Magic Monastery:
"Do you want to get to know yourself? Each of these stories is an opportunity to discover other aspects of your personality," was a comment on Idries Shah's Sufi book with the same title. In the common journey to discover self and letting ego go, Theophane ponders his life, monastic life of Kenosis. Within this slim paperback, there are forty plus short stories in one or two pages, and each could drive you guessing for many folds it's length and send you pondering beyond.
"When I was fifty years old I bought a blank book, wrote one tale, and used it in a homily. It was so good, I wrote another and another. Finally it was a book. These tales are all 'true.' That's what's so great about sacred story: it's all true, true about me, as true today as yesterday. I can appropriate it to fit my situation and gain insight and energy from the little tales, ..."

No Guidance but Questions:
"There is a monk in the magic monastery who does not give guidance but questions. People said that his questions may be useful sometimes. I said to the monk I am a diocese priest and I came to the monastery for a retreat, could you ask me a question? The monk said sure, the question is `What do they need?' I was disappointed. I left the monk to think about this question for hours and I wrote down some answers. Finally I went back to the monk and explained to him that I am not interested in thinking about my parish work during retreat, I want to meditate about my spiritual life, I ask him to give me a question that's about my own spiritual life. The monk said, oh, now I understand, then my question is `What do they REALLY need?"

The I of Me:
The crystal ball story is about me going to a monastery and having a glass of wine given by a monk. After drinking the wine I felt a crystal ball arising and encompassing me. The crystal ball expanded rapidly to enclose both the monk and me. I then saw the monk become extremely beautiful. The monk was ordinary just a minute ago but now he is magnificent inside the crystal ball. I wanted to tell the monk how beautiful he is, but I could not speak a word. After this happening I was surprised that when anyone I ran into accidentally entered my crystal ball I saw them become magnificently beautiful and I knew this beauty was absolutely true. I asked myself if this is the real meaning of being a monk - to see the beauty of other people and keep silent!
I wonder what is this 'magic wine' was and still I ponder if it is meant for Holy Communion, one receives at the Eucharist? Is it the compassion or love I have for my neighbor? Or is it the Consciousness offered by Christ, through Kenosis, emptying oneself. It could be the unconditional love we have to offer in our human experience, The crystal ball has a new meaning for a blogger after hr learned meditation on Merkaba and sacred geometry.

Human False Self:
Individual bias; you start with a little slant that then takes the trajectory more and more off course. Group bias is the same; we get stronger and stronger in our way of seeing things and we hang together, but we get first a little off center and then way off. We get involved in the false self of human institutions. It's good to be exposed to radically other ways of seeing. We can then see the way we are seeing too!

Theophane the Monk:
Fr. Theophane Boyd, OCSO, lived at St. Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado. He was on the board of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue for a number of years, was the author of Tales from the Magic Monastery, and contributed his homilies to Sundays at the Magic Monastery. He admits that "Tales of a Magic Monastery came from my private meditation. For me, my ego would get caught up in thinking of a reader or some kind of profit from the writing. At Spencer and here at Snowmass I've lived many years with Basil Pennington, Thomas Keating, and William Meninger. We've done much meditation together on a daily basis."

Kenosis
Love Without Calculation: A Relfection on Divine Kenosis

Theophane the Monk's book is absolutely wonderful. Tiny stories (like Zen koans) will bring your soul right to the door of heaven. I believe that if we spent enough time on even ONE of the stories, we would learn all we need to learn to find God.

TALES OF A MAGIC MONASTERY inspired me so much that I set twelve of the tales to music. I wrote to Theophane the Monk to ask his permission to use the stories, and he (being a monk, I suppose) did not answer my letter -- whereupon I wrote a second letter and said, "If you remain silent, I will take this as my permission to use your stories." Silence prevailed, so I finished the little operas, and we performed them. This was in 1985! Now I am revising the score and will be selling it over the web along with many other liturgical and other opera scores.