The Cloister Walk

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C. She grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii, as well as on her maternal grandparents’ farm in Lemmon, South Dakota. Norris also asks some of the other big questions: namely how can these people who accept lifelong chastity get by without loneliness and still be able to help those, many of whom are married or struggling with a relationship, that come to them seeking advice and spiritual insight? Many of them have jobs in the wider community as well, as teachers and counselors and nurses- but not all.

In her 1999 book Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, she addresses the cross—symbol, of course, of man’s redemption through Christ’s death and resurrection: “Can they really believe all that?

In this stirring and lyrical work, the monastery, often considered archaic or otherworldly, becomes immediate, accessible, and relevant to us, no matter what our faith may be. Any reader seeking a meaningful life – not necessarily a religious one – will be inspired by author Kathleen Norris’s experiences among monks who, while so little understood in our society, are admirable bearers of tradition, incorporating in their lives the values of stability, silence, and humility that we so desperately need, yet relentlessly avoid. If so, did the book provide you with ideas for overcoming the ways you have become exiled from your religion?

Part record of her time amoung the Benedictines, part meditation on various aspects of monastic life.

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.

In this stirring and lyrical work, the monastery becomes immediate, accessible, and relevant to us, no matter what our faith may be.If you like poetic imagery written in prose and are interested in this theme, you will like this book.

How do you think you would adjust to the emphases on prayer, silence, and humility that characterize monastic existence? 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. Before we know it, her quirky, almost episodic diary-like entries have us loving these Benedictines and the Dessert Fathers from whom they descended (most certainly will be finding some books on that soon! The believer must allow faith to take root before its objects can become clear, Norris indicates, much as the poet waits for a poem’s meaning to unfurl in the writing of it. The monks live communally and share everything- food, living space, chores (it is written into the rules that not even the abbott is excused from kitchen duty, and the prioress of nuns herself washes bodies for burial).The term “negative capability” is aptly resonant with “negative theology,” and indeed Norris’s focus on the hidden, mysterious aspects of religious faith situates her among the theologians of Via Negativa, a strand of thought which emphasizes the fundamental unknowability of God (many mystical voices from within the church fall into this set, Gregory of Nyssa among them). I was surprised by how much I liked this one too- I’ve had it on my shelf for years, and picked it up very uncertainly, but so glad I did. As a young man (end of college days) I visited a Trappist Monastery when a boyhood friend was studying to become a Trappist, and I was allowed to walk with the Monks in processional at a High Mass (which they have every day). It explained a great deal to me about why I see so much religion in poetry, especially in the modern era. The property also benefits from the use of all the communal grounds and facilities, plus allocated and visitors parking.