Abbey Reading Room
Welcome to the Abbey Reading Room, where we share the books our monks are reading each month, along with other recommended readings.
We hope these selections inspire and enrich your spiritual journey.
Book of the Month
Each month, our monks choose a book that resonates with their spiritual practices and daily reflections. Here is the current selection:
January 20205: Tom Holland -Dominion
February 2025: Petroc Trelawney - Trelawny’s Cornwall
March 2025: Andrew Jotischky - The Monastic World: a 1,200-year history
April 2025: Oliver Smith - On This Holy Island: A Modern Pilgrimage Across Britain -- A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR Hardcover – 28 Mar. 2024
May 2025: Bijan Omrani.-God is an Englishman: Christianity and the Creation of England,
June 2025:
September: Alan Powers - Francis Pollen
More and more people are taking up the practice of silent prayer, also called meditation. The November and December books are particularly insightful in helping us to understand why and how to pray in this way. One of these books would make an excellent companion during Lent.
November 2025 The Missing Peace, Chris Whittington, Canterbury Press, 2025
December 2025: Finding your Hidden Treasure by Benignus O’Rourke, Darton Longman & Todd, 2021.
January 2026 Thomas Moore: A Life and Death in Tudor England, Michael Joseph, 2025.
February 2026: Melanie McDonagh: Converts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, why so many become catholic in the 20th century.
April 2026:Christopher Lamb: American Hope:What Pope Leo XIV means for the Church and the world, released in March 2026. Christopher Lamb is CNN's Vatican correspondent and an alumnus of Worth School.
Recommended Reading
Two other books which would also be good Lenten fare are:
Seventy-Four Tools for Good Living: Reflections on the Fourth Chapter of Benedict’s Rule, Michael Casy, Liturgical Press, 2014.
A Song for the Way, Ben Harrison, Dominican Publications, Dublin, 2025. This is a collection of short autobiographical reflections by Ben on his spiritual journey and ministry with prisoners, homeless people and addicts. He is a brother in Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity.
In addition to our monthly selections, Fr Martin recommended the following books which he referenced in his Talk on Saturday 5th April 2025:
- Basil Hume: Searching for God
- Esther de Waal: Seeking God: The Way of St Benedict
- Fr Martin McGee: The Certainty of Being Loved: Pierre Claverie, O.P., 1938-1996, Dominican Publications, Dublin.
- Eugene H. Peterson: Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John and the Praying Imagination
The Worth Abbey bookshop has many of these books in stock, including the books written by member of our Community.
Fr Martin has written a new book recently published in French: Bienheureux Henri Vergès: Témoin de la Fraternité en Algérie. The book offers a moving spiritual biography of Blessed Henri Vergès, the first of the nineteen Algerian martyrs, assassinated in 1994 during Algeria’s civil unrest. You can read more on our News page .It is available to purchase on Amazon UK.
We are delighted to recommend a significant new publication: An Unlikely Cornerstone, a biography by Fr Stephen Ortiger of Dom Victor Farwell, the first abbot of Worth and a pivotal figure in the history of Worth Abbey, Read more about it online and drop into the Worth Abbey Bookshop from the 10th July onwards to pick up your own copy.
