Joan Chittister found her community as a teenager, seventy years ago, when she joined the Benedictine sisters in Pennsylvania. For decades she has devoted herself to renewing community in and beyond the Catholic church. Her fierce advocacy for women has put her at odds with some within the hierarchy, but as a spiritual writer she had brought the insights of her tradition to a wider world.

Even before the pandemic there was an epidemic of loneliness, not only in American but in Australia too. Lockdown or no lockdown, millions live with emotional isolation and a lack of social support. So where do we find the communities of care we all need to flourish?

Joan Chittister says, “If community is showing us anything right now, it’s showing us that individualism has run its course. This was the great American moment, you know – everybody was free, and everybody was autonomous, everybody was self-saving and self-serving – until they weren’t. And then we began to discover what we didn’t have. We’ve been channelling people into isolation and had no idea it was happening.”

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Sister Joan Chittister: 50 Practices for a Contemplative & Fulfilling Life

Get your daily dose of current events with a Biblical World View. Host Roger Marsh takes current events and brings them down to the bottom line. No opinionated spins…just the facts with solid focus on truth while staying away from over-sensationalized opinions.

Contemplify: Kindling the Examined Life for Contemplatives in the World

The Monastic Heart & Prophetic Imagination with Sr. Joan Chittister

Sister Joan Chittister is a member of the Benedictine Sisters, played a huge hand in developing the Charter of Compassion, was president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious., director of Benetvision, founder of Monasteries of the Heart, passionately advocated on behalf of peace, human rights, women’s issues, and church renewal, written over 60 books, and has a bird named Lady Hildegard. The focus of our conversation today is Joan’s book, The Monastic Heart: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life.

Welcome Sister Joan Chittister to the Unhurried Living Podcast where we are talking about her latest book, "The Monastic Heart" where she offers simple, practical, deep wisdom. You know when someone has lived truth well when they can make things so very easily understandable. 

Joan Chittister returned to the radio show “State of Belief” and joined Rev. Welton Gaddy to discuss her new book, The Monastic Life: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life.

To purchase The Monastic Heart click here.

Paul Samuel Dolman, host of “What Matters Most,” interviews Joan Chittister on her book, The Monastic Heart.

Compass Podcast: Finding the spirituality in the day-to-day by the United Methodist Church.

One of the marks of monastic communities is that they establish a rhythm of life that calls attention to the holy.

Sister Joan Chittister, who is herself part of a Benedictine monastic community, has translated a number of these practices into everyday life for us. You may have heard of Sister Joan–she’s a well-known activist and has made a couple of appearances alongside Oprah Winfrey. She’s also authored 60 books and has won numerous awards. We’re talking with her about her recent release: The Monastic Heart: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life.

Good / True / & Beautiful with Ashton Gustafson
The Monastic Heart with Joan Chittister

As an avid student and lover of life, wisdom, art, and creativity, my hope is to bring a new perspective to life, relationships, and business through my podcast, Good / True / & Beautiful. Here you'll find some of my latest thoughts and ideas, interviews with thought leaders from around the country, information on books that have inspired my story, and creativity that has moved me.

Joan Chittister, OSB, is an internationally known writer and lecturer and the executive director of Benetvision, a resource and research center for contemporary spirituality in Erie, Pennsylvania. A Benedictine Sister of Erie, Pennsylvania, she served as president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses, and was prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie for twelve years. Sister Joan received her doctorate from Pennsylvania State University in speech communications theory. She has authored sixty books and received numerous awards for her work on behalf of peace, justice, and women in church and in society.

Her latest book, The Monastic Heart, was released September 21, 2021. This book carries the weight and wisdom of the monastic spiritual tradition into the twenty-first century. Sister Joan leans into Saint Benedict, who, as a young man in the sixth century, sought moral integrity in the face of an empire not by conquering or overpowering the empire but by simply living an ordinary life extraordinarily well. This same monastic mindset can help us grow in wisdom, equanimity, and strength of soul as we seek restoration and renewal both at home and in the world. At a time when people around the world are bearing witness to human frailty—and, simultaneously, the endurance of the human spirit—The Monastic Heart invites readers of all walks to welcome this end of certainty and embrace a new beginning of our faith. Without stepping foot in a monastery, we can become, like those before us, a deeper, freer self, a richer soul—and, as a result, a true monastic, so “that in all things God may be glorified.”

This Undivided Life Podcast will give you real advice to help make life whole again. Join Troy Mclaughlin, co-host Scott Perkins and guests as we talk real life. We bypass simple platitudes and the generic “just love yourself” gibberish, and dive headlong into the challenges pulling us a million different directions. 

Loving God, You who dwell in our hearts, 

make for us a cave there in which to hear your voice more distinctly, 

feel your care more tenderly, 

understand your will more clearly, 

and come to know your presence 

at every moment of our lives 

with new clarity and new courage, 

with new faith and new urgency.

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Enable us to grow in the Benedictine spirit 

in ways that make us compassionate co-creators of a world in process, 

creative keepers of the human community, 

loving listeners to the heartbeat of the world, 

caring sisters and brothers to its wounded 

and bringers of peace to a world in distress.

+++ 

Let us sink into your Word, 

let us nourish it to life, 

let it lead us beyond the burdens of the day 

so that we may become the people you desire us to be. 

Give us hearts where all may enter in, 

ears to hear your call, 

hands to do your will, 

voices to sing your praise 

and soul enough to recognize You in everything we do. 

This we ask through the intercession of all the faithful monastics 

who have gone before us and through the grace of the living God. 

Amen.

— Joan Chittister

Joan Chittister’s hour-long interview on Soul Sister Conversations is available now. Click here to listen. The podcast focuses on Sister Joan’s new book, The Time is Now, and on the women’s issue—how do women find their voices, why is it important that they do, what about women in the church?.... “I love her fierceness,” wrote Dana Lloyd when requesting the interview with Sister Joan. Lloyd, along with Elaine Shannon, conduct Soul Sister Conversations, a podcast that inspires and empowers people to connect more soulfully to themselves by sharing insights on topics of spirituality, joy, and leadership.

Joan Chittister was interviewed about her book, The Time is Now: A Call to Uncommon Courage, by NPR’s award winning radio magazine, Here & Now. Listen here.

Sister Joan speaks with Michel Martin of National Public Radio on the subject of Lent.

Ashton Gustafson recently listed his conversation with Joan Chittister as one of The Best 2017 Podcast Interviews. Gustafson’s weekly podcast, formerly called "Let the Music Play," “serves as a platform for thought leaders and visionaries from across the country to share their wisdom and insights on making the world a better place.” In 2018, Gustafson changed the name of his podcast series to “Good/ True/ & Beautiful” with Ashton Gustafson.

Joan Chittister reflects one minute on,"We must do whatever justice must be done in our time if we claim to be serious about sinking into the heart of God."

“Sister Joan Chittister: Lighting a Fire with Faith” is the title of an in-depth interview conducted by Tami Simon, founder of Sounds True, an independent multimedia publishing company that embraces the world's major spiritual traditions, as well as the arts and humanities, embodied by the leading authors, teachers, and visionary artists of our time. The hour-long conversation was part of Simon’s video podcast series, “Insights at the Edge” and covered topics such the relationship between faith and doubt, asking the right questions, what are the right questions, seeing the world as God sees it, growing old gracefully and the last great adventure of death. To listen to the interview, click here.

An interview with Joan Chittister, entitled Sister Joan Chittister — Award Winning Author of Radical Spirit: 12 Ways to Live a Free and Authentic Life was live-streamed on “The Drew Marshall Show: Canada’s Most Listened to Spiritual Talk Show” on July 22, 2017. Sister Joan did a 20-minute interview on the show which aired from 2 to 4 p.m. Click here to listen.

In this podcast, Rabbi Rami talks to Joan Chittister about her book Radical Spirit: 12 Ways to Live a Free and Authentic Life. Click here to listen. 

Interview with Joan Chittister The Benedictine nun, human rights advocate and co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women talks about her writing, the Catholic church and the current U.S. political climate. Published in UC Observer

Surprising Relevance of Ancient Desert Monastics Maureen Feidler of Interfaith Radio interviewed Joan Chittister about her book, In God's Holy Light . What in the world would monks and nuns who lived in the Egyptian desert centuries ago have to teach the modern world? Well, Sister Joan Chittister, herself a beloved Benedictine nun, looked into the writings of these early monastics and found lots of relevant messages--including insights on immigration, racism, and even capitalism.

NPR correspondent and award-winning author and poet Judith Valente interviewed Joan Chittister recently on her new book, In God’s Holy Light, and on her personal reaction to her new biography by Tom Roberts, Joan Chittister: Her Journey from Certainty to Faith. The interview aired on WGLT Radio, the National Public Radio affiliate in central Illinois and went out to other Illinois public radio stations.

Hear more of the PSU interview with Joan Chittister. She talks about the future of the Catholic Church and about the sharp decline in the number of American nuns. Click here to listen. 

Penn State Public Broadcasting reporter Patty Satalia interviewed Sister Joan Chittister on a number of topics including her faith journey, the role of women in the church and society, and future issues facing the Roman Catholic Church. Click here to listen.

Publisher’s Weekly Radio interviewed Joan Chittister on her new book, In God’s Holy Light: Wisdom from the Desert Monastics. To order this latest addition to Sister Joan’s corpus on contemporary monasticism, click here.

Maureen Fiedler of Interfaith Voices recently interviewed Joan Chittister regarding the themes of her latest book, Between the Dark and the Daylight. Listen here.

PBS Boston recently interviewed Joan Chittister on the topic “Nun Hopes for More Gender Equality in the Church.” The January 27, 2015 interview was conducted by award winning journalist Robin Young, cohost of Here & Now, a mid-day radio show of in-depth news, interview and conversation. Listen to the nine-minute interview: