The Cloister Walk

I did like the book quite a bit. Some chapters were a bit long however the core of the book was pure, inspiring and well written.

Another reviewer here suggests that Kathleen Norris, the author, visited only monasteries with male monks. Not so. The preface and beginning of the book describes how she “accidentally” found herself in a BENEDICTINE CONVENT in South Dakota and some anecdotes about her interactions with the nuns there. This sets the stage for the entire book. This convent was the first step on her journey and subsequent chapters describe further steps on her journey. True, those steps were in monasteries with male monks but it is inaccurate to state there were no experiences in convents.

For many people, Kathleen Norris' story is somewhat familiar. She was raised in a faith tradition as a child, abandoned her faith, or at least put her faith on hold, then rediscovers her faith as an adult. Norris' experience is hardly typical, but it is definitely not "the same old story" with a different person telling it. Norris rediscovers faith accidentally, but it is not the Protestant faith of her youth. She is now a Protestant whose faith is colored by Roman Catholicism, particularly the Benedictine monastic tradition in Catholicism.Norris is a writer whose primary genre has been poetry. In 1991, she spent a year at a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota and entered into the life of this monastic community. From time to time she also traveled to her home and to various parts of the country for conferences or speaking engagements. The book is taken from reflections of that experience. In the book, she is connected to her life outside the monastery while at the monastery and while away from the monastery, she still seems to be very present to the life of the monastery. The life in the monastery has a certain pattern to it, based on the Rule of St. Benedict. The year follows a calendar, but it is the calendar of the Roman Martyrology which lists the days that various saints and religious feasts are remembered. The Liturgy of the Hours, chanted by the monks is essential to the life of the monastery as is time for personal prayer and reflection. As both an insider (as a person connected to the monastery) and an outsider (a Protestant woman in an all male Catholic community), Norris is able to make keen insights into the life of the monastery with a unique perspective.This is a book that should be read from cover to cover when the book is read for the first time. Since the book begins in September and concludes in August of the following year, reading the whole book rather than excerpts is essential to see Norris' growth in her understanding of monastic life as well as her own spiritual growth. After reading the book a first time, most readers will inevitably go back to favorite passages. I often reread portions in the book about the liturgical seasons such as Advent and Easter. I also enjoy rereading her understanding of "lectio divina" a prayerful method of reading scripture that allows the words to speak to a person's heart. I believe that as a poet, she is able to understand the richness of scripture both from a literary point of view and as a believer. Her experiences back home in South Dakota and her activities in her own faith community are also great excerpts in the book.Part of my love for the books is due to the fact it can be read and shared with so many people. More often than not, religious books speak only to a person who shares the same religious mindset. I have found myself recommending the book to lifelong Catholics as an affirmation of the faith. I love the fact that this Protestant woman has a better understanding and apprecia

It would be difficult for me to say a harsh thing about this book or the companion audio tapes read by Debra Winger. I was in a very confused and troublesome place in my like and this book introduced me to the wonderful simplicity and sense of the Rule of St Benedict, and gave me my first recognized touch of Grace. I enjoy Norris' writing style. She is quirky, down to earth. Unlike other reviewers, I like her familiarness, her occasional slang and language choices. She is a real person reporting a real experience, and that experience literally penetrated deep within me. What more could anyone ask for in a book?

Even most christians today seem to find the idea of the monastery archaic, extreme and unappealing. Here, Ms Norris, a hesitant believer, makes the convent seem appealing, beautiful and full of wisdom. Once you get past the gimmick - a modern poet finding centering in a monastery - there is still much to like about this book. It is a combination of a lot of things - a painfully personal journal, a catalog of discoveries and musings, a polished essay on laundry that was published in the New Yorker, and several brilliant pieces that stand as academic writing, ready for a feminist publication or academic journal. I think the latter were my favorite. It is informative and enjoyable to find Ms. Norris taking on the virgin martyrs, looking at catholic history and practice with a modern feminist eye, and finding much to like, and much to weep over. Another similar essay comparing the role of biblical prophets and modern day poets (both dwellers on the "margin" of society, yet deeply necessary to that society) is also excellent.Norris' respect for the Word is wonderful, as well. She writes much and often about the poetry of the Bible - psalms, Jeremiah - and how they fit and fill her life. She brings new life to what, for many of us, have been wrongly dead words. Her reflections on the monastery are good. She gives monks and nuns an earthy reality, talking about their quirks, their sense of humor, their doubts and struggles as well as their achievements, discipline, and success. She spends a fair amount of time digging into the heritage and history of monasticism and christianity - apparently she is reading Christian classics as she is living at the monastery - and I learned much about ancient monks, martyrs, and saints. There is much wisdom in this book, and I appreciate Kathleen Norris' awareness and poet's sensibility. It reveals a richness in the Christian tradition that I gladly and happily claim as a follower of Jesus. It's not all WWJD bracelets and "Left Behind" novels. A passage: "Not long ago I accompanied a Trappist abbot as he unlocked a door to the cloister and led me down a long corridor into a stone-walled room, the chapter house of the monastery, where some twenty monks were waiting for me to give a reading. Poetry does lead a person into some strange places. This wonderfully silent, hidden-away place was not as alien to me as it might have been, however as I'd been living on the grounds of a Benedictine monastery for most of the last three years. Trappists are more silent than the Benedictines, far less likely to have works that draws them into the world outside the monastery. But the cumulative effect of the Liturgy of the Hours - at a bare minimum, morning, noon, and evening prayer, as well as the Eucharist - on one's psyche, the sense it gives a person of being immersed in the language of scripture, is much the same in any monastery. What has surprised me, in my time among monastic people, is how much their liturgy

I first read Cloister Walk after deciding to write my senior thesis on her writings. I was intrigued by a writer who was a feminist, embraced Christianity, explored monasteries, and found an audience outside the conservative Christian market. As a person who has grown up with a strong faith in God and love for Jesus, I also longed for new ways to talk about God. Norris's honesty and exploration of what it's like to live out the beliefs and ideas of the Christian faith gave me confidence to explore my own experiences of these beliefs. Her chapter on the Psalms was particularly amazing. I felt like I was being set free with Norris to be honest with God and others about being human--complete with anger, doubt, and depression. Her theology, or speech about God, is grounded in everyday living. She finds God revealed in the simplest things, which is consistent with the Bible and the character of God--who chose to become a human in Jesus. This affirms for me that even the smallest things I do everyday are important to God--because he loves me enough to become someone like me.