Monastery diary
Text: François Maher Presley
Introduction: Dr. Matthias H. Rauert
1st edition 1987 by Reidar Verlag, Hamburg, bound with dust jacket, ribbon bookmark
2nd revised edition 2013 at
in-Cultura.com, Hamburg, paperback
204 pages, 11.5 x 18.0 cm
Price: 9.80 EUR | Order
To the book
François Maher Presley was born a Syrian in Kuwait on the Persian Gulf and grew up with Islam in Damascus. He has lived in the Federal Republic of Germany without interruption since the 1970s.
In the mid-1980s he went to a Benedictine monastery to recover, where he also wrote this diary. He knows how to describe what he saw and experienced there in such a way that the reader does not find it difficult to identify with the author and even to experience the monastery days in his mind.
There is no exclusive reproduction of everyday life in the monastery. The author deals with the monks as well as with their teaching, with social and ideological problems and does not stop at any taboo.
The volume reflects the torn between admiration and respect, as well as the horror and disappointment of this way of life.
François Maher Presley shows the versatility of his skills here, whether in the form of journalistic descriptions, short prose essays or poems and gives us the feeling of rediscovering part of our own selves in this work. The depth and sincerity that often, too often, gets lost in our everyday lives and lets us know that a moment holds 1000 experiences.
Opinions
Dear Mr. Presley,
I finally get around to giving you feedback on one of your books. I read your "monastery diary" with joy and gain. I found the differentiated classification of your monastery experiences very pleasant, and the alternation of enthusiasm and disappointment very honestly. Always show respect for the people in the monastery, including those who are not sympathetic to you, and report about them respectfully. That impressed me just as much as the numerous thoughts about God and the world, which stimulate reflection and further reflection.Kind regards,
Your Michael Stahl,Pastor of the Petrikirche in Freiberg
Presley's monastery diary is fascinating in many ways:
Through the critical analysis of a new and strange world, in which archaic forms of life do not always happily combine with the influences of the zeitgeist.
Through the vivid depiction of creature loneliness in the seclusion of the monastery cell and the range of reflections that arise from it.
Through the credible representation of the inner struggle between the will to adapt and the instinctive rejection of a prescribed common ground, the bipolarity between the individual and the coercive collective.
Ultimately, through the uncompromisingly expressed knowledge of being out of place in a reserve of this kind, a pseudo-modernist monastic community, which has become fragile thanks to inconsistent regulations.
The astonishing book by an author who is only in his early 20s and which is unparalleled. Dr. Gerhard Schlesinger, historian and publicist
The Syrian FM Presley, a German citizen, holds up a mirror to Western Christians in this book. He notices what we no longer register because it is part of a Western Christian worldview that often still has very late Constantinian features. The thoughts about and about his “monastery time” can be angry - if we want to be angry with ourselves. But they can also encourage people to improve. Hans-Heinz Pukall, historian and writer
I find it remarkable that a young non-Christian withdraws into a Christian monastery. It is particularly interesting and stimulating to read how he experienced this stay and what insights he came to. Christoph Stillemunkes, cultural policy advisor
It is fascinating that someone in their early 20s can think in these dimensions.
Hedda Guhr, managing editor
Presley not only noted down interesting details about everyday life in the monastery, but also deals with the monks and their teachings, with social and ideological problems.Pierrot, culture magazine
The reader will learn a remarkable message Frontier workerbetween religions andCultures ... There is no doubt about the authenticity of this event! ... It (is) the first very sharp and clever, but at least partial insights into life and cultural contexts (...) that are highly interesting and are recommended for reading. Liberal, magazine for politics and culture
Nowadays it takes courage to bring such a book onto the market ... The depth of the train of thought hardly suggests that it is about a man in his early twenties. He also has the ability to bring his emotional conflict so close to the reader in simple words that identification is not difficult. A book that may be more popular. SELF-CONFIDENTLY LIFE, magazine for lifestyle
It is downright scary how a young person can think so deeply and, with a great deal of caution, come to insights that are simply astounding. The writing style and its inserted poems make this book a little masterpiece. The Carolinenbrother
... Presley's courageously published monastery diary “A moment holds 1000 experiences” is said to be of comparable class. Scene Hamburg, city magazine
The work reflects the torn between admiration and respect, as well as the horror and disappointment of this way of life. Pinneberger Tageblatt
