beside

A book about the ordinary life of faith - written for the people still showing up.

Beside is a Christian formation book rooted in the Irish monastic tradition. It is written for the person sitting in the car outside the church, the one holding a cup that has gone cold, the one who has not abandoned faith but can no longer find the path between belief and the actual shape of their days.

Structured around the Breastplate of Saint Patrick - Críost liom, Christ with me - the book moves in four parts: seeing, walking, becoming, belonging. Twelve chapters build twelve rules of common life, drawing on the early Irish Christians, the Desert Fathers, Benedict of Nursia, and the long tradition of formation through ordinary practice. Each chapter carries an Irish proverb, a closing prayer, and a practice to keep during the week.

Part I - A Way of Seeing asks what has already been forming you, before any practice was named.
Part II - A Way of Walking enters the practices that constitute a common life: prayer, attention to silence and Scripture, and the work of hands and hospitality.
Part III - A Way of Becoming stays with the slower questions: stability, the shaping of the soul, and the sharing of wisdom without control.
Part IV - A Way of Belonging names what it costs to enter a common life and keep your promises across ordinary time.

The book is written in Irish English, with the Irish language woven throughout - not as ornament but as formation. A pronunciation guide appears at the back for readers who wish to pray the words aloud.

Beside includes:

• The Twelve Rules of Common Life - a covenant for groups to adopt
• A twelve-week group guide with weekly practices and reflection questions
• A six-week condensed path
• A weekend retreat format
• A guide to Irish pronunciation for the Breastplate and proverbs
• An annotated reading list of ancient and modern sources