The Cloister Walk

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Alongside Norris and her beloved Benedictines, I am starting to really get it and see the beauty and feel an affinity for King David akin to spiritual friendship. C. She grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii, as well as on her maternal grandparents’ farm in Lemmon, South Dakota. Many of them have jobs in the wider community as well, as teachers and counselors and nurses- but not all.

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. On the other hand, poets speak with no authority but that which the reader is willing to grant them. Combine the poetic nature of the psalms with the old-school war language, the defeating enemies and praying calamity on them, and you have me distanced and more than a little uncomfortable. These cloistered people are still just that: very real and very human people who approach life and all its complexities and needs with a startling honesty.A New York Times bestseller for 23 weeksA New York Times Notable Book of the Year"A strange and beautiful book. Part record of her time among the Benedictines, part meditation on various aspects of monastic life, The Cloister Walk demonstrates, from the rare persp

The language of liturgy and poetry wells from a realm of image and symbol that skirts the edges of the rational mind and is, thus, often ambiguous in its meaning. Of course, the Christian tradition also carries a “positive” theology, rooted in the acceptance of scripture as divine revelation. A married woman, throughly Protestant and often with more doubts than faith, Katheen Norris finds herself drawn to the ancient practice of monasticism, to a community of celibrate men whose days are centred around a rigid schedule of prayer and work.This reading group guide has been created to enhance your group’s enjoyment of The Cloister Walk, which can be read as a chronicle of spiritual discovery or as a meditation, like daily passages of scripture. 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. Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image. There’s value in both, but I thought Norris’ book likely approached what it was like to live as a member of a monastic community far more than Fermor did. Muchelney Abbey was thought to have been first established under a foundation charter from King Cynewulf in 762.