In this moving spiritual memoir, Dr. William Thiele shares inspiring stories of the birthing of a monastery without walls among everyday women and men around New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Along the way, core contemplative attitudes, practices, and principles were discovered. He offers these stories of birthing a School for Contemplative Living as a challenging call to a frantic and polarized world. Readers will be drawn toward their own spiritual transformation as they encounter imperfect monks with messy lives who are practicing God's presence and learning to serve the world from that presence. He encourages readers to join these monks in the world by forming contemplative communities who radiate loving-kindness as their first priority.