Veil and Cowl: Writings from the World of Monks and Nuns

The dedicated religious life of permanent vows and strictly regulated community life may inspire nostalgia for a vanished spiritual element, but, as Notre Dame president emeritus Theodore Hesburgh, himself avowedly religious, notes in his introduction, ``The substance of the religious life has in many ways been enriched by the changes.'' The religious watershed of Vatican Council II, nearly three decades ago, marked the decline of vocations among Roman Catholics and a concomitant closure for religious men and women of the ``old type.'' In writings edited by Simpson, an Episcopal priest, we hear from Benedictines, Carthusians, Carmelites, Franciscans and members of Anglican/Episcopal communities speaking simply, eloquently, joyfully about their spiritual lives. Among the 40 selections are also appreciations by secular writers Geoffrey Moorhouse, Matthew J. Bruccoli and others, and fiction by Rumer Godden and Brian Moore, all of which attest to fascination with the rich interior life of the veil and cowl. (Mar.)