Additional information
by Michael Patrick O'Brien (Author)
A love letter to a community of Trappist monks who provided family when it was needed the most.
This warmhearted memoir describes how a small, insecure boy with a vibrant imagination found an unlikely family in the company of monks at Holy Trinity Abbey, in the mountains of rural Latter-day Saint Utah. Struggling with his parents' recent divorce, Michael O'Brien discovered a community filled with warmth, humor, idiosyncrasies, and most of all, listening ears. Filled with anecdotes and delightful "behind the scenes" descriptions of his experiences living alongside the monks as they farmed, prayed, buried their dead, ate, and shared the joys of life, Monastery Mornings speaks to the value of spiritual fatherhood, the lasting impact of positive mentoring, and the stability that the spiritual life can offer to people of all ages and walks of life. "Thanks to my mother, I first came to the abbey in 1972 at age eleven, uncertain of whether I had a father. More than ten years later, I left the monastery as a grown man with at least a dozen of them. My past, my present, and my future were shaped, forever and for the better, by my decade as a boy monk. I drove home as night fell." "Monastery Mornings is a love letter to the monks of the abbey. The men who quietly went about the work and faith were role models, counselors, friends, and often refuges. They provided a family structure, stability, and the fatherly love O'Brien missed with his own father. And he tells a wonderful story of how that shaped his life." -- Glenn YoungAuthor Biography
Michael Patrick O'Brien is a Catholic writer and lawyer living in Salt Lake City, Utah. One of his first jobs was working as a reporter for his hometown newspaper. He wrote for his college newspaper while earning a 1983 Government/Theology degree from the University of Notre Dame. He wrote movie reviews during law school at the University of Utah.
Mike is a partner at the law firm of Jones Waldo Holbrook & McDonough. As a mediator, he advises business clients on employment issues, and represents many news media outlets on various First Amendment and publication matters. Mike is married to Vicki, a preschool teacher. They have three adult children, Erin Kathleen, Megan Mary, and Daniel Patrick. Mike wrote the 2021 book Monastery Mornings, about his unusual boyhood growing up among Trappist monks in Latter-day Saint rural Northern Utah.
Number of Pages: 192
Dimensions: 0.63 x 8.43 x 5.51 IN
Publication Date: August 17, 2021
