What do You think about The Cloister Walk (1997)?
I found myself more interested in the beginning of the book and parts of the last third, but I found it hard to get through. I did, however, find many quotes to be very insightful...“A friend who was educated by the Benedictines has told tme that she owes to them her sanity with regard to time. ‘You never really finish anything in life,’ she says, ‘and while that’s humbling, and frustrating, it’s all right. Liturgical time is essentially poetic time, oriented toward process rather than productivity, willing to wait attentively in stillness rather than always pushing to ‘get the job done.’ “ (p. xix)t“While consumer culture speaks only to preferences, treating even whims as needs to be granted (and the sooner the better), monastics sense that this pandering to delusions of self-importance weakens the true self, and diminishes our ability to distinguish desires from needs” (p. 14-15).t“Whoever needs less should thank God and not be distressed… whoever needs more should feel humble because of his weakness, not self-important because of the kindness shown him. In this way, all the members will be at peace” (p. 19).
—Heidi
One of my all time favorite quotes by this author from another book:"This is my spiritual geography, the place where I have wrestled my story out of the circumstances of landscape and inheritance. The word "geography" derives from the Greek words of earth and writing."This was so disappointing. It is not about a spiritual journey as far as I could tell. It is a dry, boring,factual account of the readings they did, why they are meaningful to her, and what being a monk means in this day and age. They make jokes! They watch TV! Or maybe just the nuns do. Oh and they make better friends because they are celibate. Trying to convince us listening to someone yell at us with fire and brimstone and insulting our hearts and intelligence as a way to know God is my least favorite thing in the world.I just did not connect to this book and I didn't find it lyrically written. No luminous, glowing prose. None. At all. It jumps around in a very confused way, and she spends quite a bit of time on her fellowship group, who are academics and their distrust of her, as a poet with no letters behind her name. That was a strange and dissonant aspect of the book.
—Cheryl
What a fascinating book. There is a blurb on the cover from The Boston Globe which says in part "This is a strange and beautiful book." and I have to say I agree completely with that sentiment. The book is strange because of the variety of things included. Some chapters are basically journal entries from the author, diary entries of her life. Some chapters are her thoughts about the Benedictines that she has spent time with, about their beliefs, their practices, their lifestyle, etc. Some chapters are a history of the church. Some chapters tell of the Psalms and The Rule of Benedict. Some chapters tell about different saints and people in history related to the church. And all of these things are mingled together in no real specific order, yet somehow it all flows and becomes complete. Strange. The book is beautiful because so many of the chapters are almost meditative. They are easy to read, yet contemplative. The author is a Protestant woman, who has become an Oblate (a person dedicated to) the Benedictines. She is the outsider sharing her experiences. And her thoughts and experiences were beautiful and thought provoking to me. I really enjoyed this book, and enjoyed reading it slowly, with just a chapter or two a night, with time spent to think them over before continuing.
—Sheila
