The Cloister Walk

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e. attire) and several, almost academic like articles on lesser known saints, revered because they were willing to be murdered to keep their virginity. Reason for not reading yet: As with any book that’s similarly concerned with spirituality, there’s a whole lot of “I’ve gotta wait until I’m in the right mood,” that goes on, thinking that you have to feel in a state of grace, or a state of neediness, to appreciate something like this.

Nearly 20 years ago, poet Kathleen Norris and her husband moved from New York to the isolated town of Lemmon in northwestern South Dakota, home of her grandparents. Reason for finally picking up: New Year’s book resolution to recommit myself to challenges, and to ignore the voice that says that my mind isn’t good enough to read certain books right now. Indeed, the Benedictines have a love of the psalms, reading and immersing in them daily, starting over once they are all read again, imbedding the rhythms into their daily lives and contemplations. There’s some wonderful parts where she acknowledges why some people see the word “Christian” as fake, hypocritical and harsh after the likes of Pat Robertson and Newt Gingrich in the ’90s using it for some pretty evil purposes (and slams their style of Christianity very effectively), but also some very ’90s moral panic about young girls dressing too provocatively and getting belly-button piercings too young right after it.

But she insists that to do so impoverishes the metaphorical richness of scripture’s revelation, shortchanging us spiritually. I think I’ve maybe got some of it in the end though- she talks about how life without metaphor is unbearable to her. Norris presents ample proof that holy people don’t have to be starchy… If you learn anything from The Cloister Walk, it’s that monks are people too.Her sheltered upbringing left her unprepared for the world she encountered when she began attending Bennington College in Vermont. How do you think you would adjust to the emphases on prayer, silence, and humility that characterize monastic existence? Above all, she discovers the force of spirituality and the beneficial change it can effect – that “love can be the center of all things, if only we will keep it there. There’s an absolutely fascinating chapter on the self-serving, propaganda-filled canonization of St. The property also benefits from the use of all the communal grounds and facilities, plus allocated and visitors parking.

They both use their time to inwardly reflect on who they are at the moment, and to get to know the monks and nuns they’re living with. From letters signed by Disney himself to classic children’s books or ephemera, be sure to check out some of the collectible Walt Disney books on Biblio! I watched ice form on the river outside my window one Sunday afternoon and felt loneliness more intense than any I could remember since childhood. Like systems of mathematics, she tells us, the keenest of metaphors communicate principles of reality revealed to us rather than created by us.In 2000, Norris and her husband traded their farmhouse on the Great Plains for a condo in Honolulu, Hawaii, so that Norris could help care for her aging parents after her husband’s own failing health no longer permitted him to travel. Kathleen Norris is the award-winning, bestselling author of Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith; The Cloister Walk; and Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. You want to share this great discovery, giving her work as a gift3/4or you simply shove a copy in the face of a friend, saying 'Read this. If you enjoyed The Cloister Walk, you’ll want to read these other works by Kathleen Norris, all available from Riverhead.

What emerges, finally, is an affecting portrait--one of the most vibrant since Merton's--of the misunderstood, often invisible world of monastics, as seen by a restless, generous intelligence. In reading Norris, one comse to feel like a spiritual collaborate and, when one's spirit fails, like a spiritual rebel.Spiritual Geography) muses in this book on 18 months' worth of experiences as an associate at a Benedictine monastery.