In the tradition of Thomas Merton, Kathleen Norris gives us an intimate look at how religious life fills a gap in the soul. Her poetic sensibilitie...
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Oct 13, 2008
booklady
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Read this book many years ago but I can't recall exactly how many. I'm 99% sure it was in the late '90's. In any event, I was still so ignorant about my own Catholic heritage at that point I hadn't even heard of The Rule of St. Benedict,* which I promptly went out, bought and read from cover-to-cover. (Now I have three -- or four -- copies of it!) When I think of a good 'rule of life' I think of St. Benedict's Rule and I am grateful to this Protestant woman for teaching me about it!
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Sep 11, 2007
Magda
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I was rather uneasy with this book, although I did manage to struggle through to the end.
There were a few definite mentions of Orthodox Christianity when referring to "ancient" saints, but everything else was the black-and-white Protestant/Catholic divide. I don't know about many Protestant monastic communities, but there are several Orthodox monasteries in the United States. While I stop short of insisting she be completely inclusive, I thought it odd that Orthodoxy was More...
There were a few definite mentions of Orthodox Christianity when referring to "ancient" saints, but everything else was the black-and-white Protestant/Catholic divide. I don't know about many Protestant monastic communities, but there are several Orthodox monasteries in the United States. While I stop short of insisting she be completely inclusive, I thought it odd that Orthodoxy was More...
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Dec 16, 2009
Claire
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This book changed my life.
It's hard to explain. You really have to read it. (Based on my experience, it helps to be a Catholic who loves books.)
Kathleen Norris is a poet and has a poet's perspective on Catholicism and the ways of Benedictine monks. But she's also a Protestant, with a refreshingly level-headed outsider's perspective on the seemingly impenetrable world inside a monastery. The monks and nuns she describes are real, honest, witty and faithful people, wi More...
It's hard to explain. You really have to read it. (Based on my experience, it helps to be a Catholic who loves books.)
Kathleen Norris is a poet and has a poet's perspective on Catholicism and the ways of Benedictine monks. But she's also a Protestant, with a refreshingly level-headed outsider's perspective on the seemingly impenetrable world inside a monastery. The monks and nuns she describes are real, honest, witty and faithful people, wi More...
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Jun 07, 2007
christina
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Norris is introducing us, one by one, to the core religious aspects of Christianity as she comes to know and understand them. We explore every key dimension of monastic life with her: Why celebacy; why community; why Scripture reading; why choir and music; why poverty; why we are not perfect. I think, like many people, I expected this book to be a straighforward description, something like, "This was my year in the monastery. We ate beans and prayed, blah, blah, blah..." However, w
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Jul 21, 2008
Suzanne
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Recently reread after completing In This House of Brede. Norris is a married Protestant poet and a Benedictine oblate. As a poet and a Benedictine she is drawn to the Psalms in the Bible and their poetic imagery. This book is about the time she spent studying at a Benedictine monastery in the 1990's. Sadly, I find her prose uninspiring. I didn't "feel" the joy that comes through the pages of Merton and Godden. It just seemed forced to me.
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Jan 11, 2008
Emilia
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OMG.
I got the chills approximately every 5 minutes reading this book. Norris meanders through her stays in a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota, her thoughts (and Benedictine thoughts) on the scriptures and on early saints and theologians...the poetry of liturgies and the sacramental and sacred in daily life. Oh, dang, so great.
Norris has lived in DC, Illinois, Hawai'i, Vermont, and NYC, but ended up in South Dakota. There is a peaceful prairie way about her work and a great s More...
I got the chills approximately every 5 minutes reading this book. Norris meanders through her stays in a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota, her thoughts (and Benedictine thoughts) on the scriptures and on early saints and theologians...the poetry of liturgies and the sacramental and sacred in daily life. Oh, dang, so great.
Norris has lived in DC, Illinois, Hawai'i, Vermont, and NYC, but ended up in South Dakota. There is a peaceful prairie way about her work and a great s More...
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Nov 01, 2011
Heidi
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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 t More...
“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 t More...
Feb 18, 2011
Paul
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I would definately recommend "The Cloister Walk" for a person who wanted to read something of a spiritual nature, or a book suitable to a priest, rabbi, or minister.
Kathleen Norris is known more for her poetry and prose than for her books of non-fiction. This book is quite unusual in that Kathleen was brought up in the Presbyterian faith, and when she entered adulthood she found that, although she did not lose her faith, she became lack in practicing her religion. It was More...
Kathleen Norris is known more for her poetry and prose than for her books of non-fiction. This book is quite unusual in that Kathleen was brought up in the Presbyterian faith, and when she entered adulthood she found that, although she did not lose her faith, she became lack in practicing her religion. It was More...
Jul 12, 2010
Heather
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I first discovered Kathleen Norris in the late 90's, and her books were primers for me when I first started indulging a new desire to go to church - with nuns - in spite of what felt like a pretty clear disbelief in any kind of personalized god. Norris is a poet, and her 20's found her living the secular artist's life in NYC. But in the 80's she moved to back to South Dakota, where sure suddenly found herself living in her grandmother's home and attending the small-town protestant church of her
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Dec 14, 2010
heather
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I read this book quickly, and wish I had read it slowly. Maybe I'd give it five stars then. Norris speaks with great affection for and attention to the small things. My favorite chapter is where she speaks about the similarities between monks and poets--that both are necessarily "useless" vocations--not productive, but relational. Both make connections where none existed before. I love the image of Jesus Christ as the "ultimate metaphor." This image does not lessen the
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Apr 05, 2011
Kristen
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This is one of the loveliest, most thought-provoking, yet also most calming, and somehow inspiring, books I have ever read. Kathleen Norris, a poet living in South Dakota, joins a monastery in Minnesota as an oblate--basically, a person who makes an oath to the monastery and takes part in liturgical services, but still maintains an "outside" life (Norris, for example, is married). The book is very loosely structured, with some chapters discussing a specific aspect of the liturgy, or bi
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Dec 16, 2009
leah
rated it: 
liked it at the time... but don't remember anything profound. does that say a big something about the book... my brain... or something else? :)
i wonder if books like that have a place anyway because they affect our lives for a moment and maybe help us to become more cemented in what we believe/are... even if we can't consciously remember how we were affected later. thoughts?
i wonder if books like that have a place anyway because they affect our lives for a moment and maybe help us to become more cemented in what we believe/are... even if we can't consciously remember how we were affected later. thoughts?
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Jun 24, 2010
Melinda
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Another Kathleen Norris book. This one is a collection of reflections based on the author's extended stay with a Benedictine monastery community over 2 nine month periods. She uses the liturgical calendar as a layout for her book, highlighting from time to time various saints days during the year. I found this liturgical focus intriguing. Similar to her layout in "Dakota: A Spiritual Geography" where she uses weather reports during the course of a year to help move the reflections
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Oct 11, 2009
Steve
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I picked up this book for two reasons. First, our pastor has referenced Kathleen Norris a number of times. He's been one of my spiritual guides so I pay attention to writers and books that he references. Second, one of my books-to-read is the Rules of St. Benedict and KN's book is about her experience as a Protestant living in a Benedictine monastery for six months. This was an engaging book for me but unfortunately it is checked out from the library with a number of other books that I am lo
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Jan 02, 2009
Nate
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Kathleen Norris has an uncanny way of being theologically astute and real-world practical at the same time. This book was amazing. It was hard to put down. Her chapters were usually short, but the book was over 350 pages. It provided a lot of bite-sized chunks of wisdom gleaned from interacting with monks as an oblate, living life in a small, South Dakota town, and being a professional writer and poet.
Norris would usually tackle an issue concerning monastic life, such as celibac More...
Norris would usually tackle an issue concerning monastic life, such as celibac More...
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Oct 04, 2010
Arlene
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I slogged through this one. Memoirs are definitely not my favorite genre. I find this one repetitive, rambling and poorly written. I really don't need to know all these messy details of her life.
It might be a decent book at about 1/3 of the number of pages - with some hard editing.
I can't help contrasting it with another book I was reading at the same time - The Painted Drum, by Louise Erdrich, which is fiction. However, I found it much more conducive to a meditativ More...
It might be a decent book at about 1/3 of the number of pages - with some hard editing.
I can't help contrasting it with another book I was reading at the same time - The Painted Drum, by Louise Erdrich, which is fiction. However, I found it much more conducive to a meditativ More...
Dec 13, 2009
Ellen
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Wonderfully moving and engaging book describing Kathleen Norris's experience living in a cloister. I read this book years before I converted to Catholicism, so it's clearly not required to have "insider knowledge" to relish this book.
There was a passage somewhere in the book that has stayed with me. I can't remember enough of the wording to even Google it successfully. Norris was speaking to a monk, I believe, who had a view of the many and varied people walking by. She ask More...
There was a passage somewhere in the book that has stayed with me. I can't remember enough of the wording to even Google it successfully. Norris was speaking to a monk, I believe, who had a view of the many and varied people walking by. She ask More...
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Dec 22, 2009
Ellen
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The Cloister Walk offers “food” for the soul at a time when many of us are hungry. Norris’s book chronicles her experiences as a lay oblate at St. John's Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Collegeville, Minnesota. What makes this book fresh, wonderful, surprising, and completely relevant to people of all faiths (or non-faith) is that Norris is not—-as one would anticipate—-a Catholic, but rather a Protestant filled with spiritual doubt.
When I first read The Cloister Walk and Dakota ( More...
When I first read The Cloister Walk and Dakota ( More...
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Jan 11, 2012
Meredith
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How does a poet with the thoroughly 1950's Protestant background wind up becoming an oblate at a Benedictine monastery? That question is the hook to draw the reader into this book. There are no straight forward answers, and instead The Cloister Walk is a series of mediations on various subjects both theological, monastic, secular, and autobiographical -- with plenty of literary references and quotes thrown in -- following as Norris participates in Benedictine worship thoroughout an entire litu
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Jul 06, 2010
Scott
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Kathleen Norris is a poet and prose author who, in spite of her Protestant religious background, became an Oblate of Saint Benedict, a station of life open to those who want to lead a more prayerful life in a secular world through association with a Catholic, Benedictine monastery.
Chapters are often very short and easily read in less than five minutes. However, I resisted the temptation to sail through several in a single sitting. Norris's sparse prose reveals large ideas. As I have More...
Chapters are often very short and easily read in less than five minutes. However, I resisted the temptation to sail through several in a single sitting. Norris's sparse prose reveals large ideas. As I have More...
Jul 25, 2010
Khaya
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For once in my life I am breaking Nancy Pearl's rule and abandoning this book before I reach the 50-page mark. So I'll leave open the possibility that I didn't give it a fair shot, and if I get through the rest of my library books before my husband goes to the States, I may pick it up again.
When I started this book, I was hoping for something akin to Through the Narrow Gate A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery, which I loved. Instead, my reading experience felt more like Girl Meets God A Memoir More...
When I started this book, I was hoping for something akin to Through the Narrow Gate A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery, which I loved. Instead, my reading experience felt more like Girl Meets God A Memoir More...
Jun 01, 2009
Bria
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The Cloister Walk really deserves 2.5 stars. As food for my closet infatuation with Catholicism, the book was wonderfully enjoyable, but my Protestant mind and spirit won't let me give it three stars.
Norris observations on Christianity and monasticism were telling and often surprisingly insightful, but she missed the core purpose of Christianity--Christ. As she herself admits, she has difficulty believing in a literal Jesus, so she sees Christianity as a religion that reminds human b More...
Norris observations on Christianity and monasticism were telling and often surprisingly insightful, but she missed the core purpose of Christianity--Christ. As she herself admits, she has difficulty believing in a literal Jesus, so she sees Christianity as a religion that reminds human b More...
Feb 27, 2009
Heidi
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The Cloister Walk is not a linear book, although it has some organisation by date. In many ways it is like an incredibly reflective journal: not a diary or a daybook, but the journal of someone who sits down to write and simply lets their thoughts go.
I felt an initial connection to this book because of its major setting: the Benedictine Community of St John's Collegeville, Minnesota. It's a town I've driven through; I've seen their belltower from the car. I've read stories set i More...
I felt an initial connection to this book because of its major setting: the Benedictine Community of St John's Collegeville, Minnesota. It's a town I've driven through; I've seen their belltower from the car. I've read stories set i More...
Jan 28, 2009
Frank
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This was written about monks and the monastic way of life, lived in the world and by a woman, not a Catholic, who found a "home" in a Benedictine monastery; yet a home away from home. She still carried on her normal life in the world and family yet was able to live the monastic life in the world with many not even realizing she was a Benedictine Oblate. A very interesting book for those in the world who would like to have ties with a monastic life without becoming a monk or even a Cath
Jan 07, 2012
Katharine
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I first read Dakota by Kathleen Norris not long after having my first child. It was a timely coincidence that I found myself reading her again shortly after having my second child. While not as good as Dakota, this book was still moving.
The Cloister Walk is like a collection of essays; each chapter reflecting on Norris' year long stay at a Benedictine monastery and the following year outside of one. Her earthy view of spirituality illustrates how every day life can be sacred. Appa More...
The Cloister Walk is like a collection of essays; each chapter reflecting on Norris' year long stay at a Benedictine monastery and the following year outside of one. Her earthy view of spirituality illustrates how every day life can be sacred. Appa More...
Dec 29, 2010
Quiara
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This book is gently paced. I found it a bit difficult to muster initial interest, but very shortly the rhythm of her words drew me in and the topic engulfed me. The Benedictines have a rich historical tradition. Kathleen Norris draws on this, but pulls it into modern life. Her journey becomes the reader's journey as the search for wholeness and meaning resonates with all people. This book is absolutely worth it for the secular as well as the spiritual.
Jan 28, 2009
Lynn
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I felt like I was reading a poet's journal as I went through this book. It really is beautiful, full of passages of poignancy and clarity, but I came out of it not really knowing anything about how Kathleen Norris came to the monastery, or how it changed her. Instead, the book was filled with her musings on life, death, religion, and everything in between. These essays and short biographies on saints felt more like they were written for her than for an outside reader.
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Sep 29, 2010
Anne
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I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. It's a book of brief vignettes that form a memoir of several years. The writer is a published poet who takes two terms of scholar-in-residence at a Benedictine abbey and writes about her thoughts. I grew to feel affectionate about the writer as she talks about metaphor, Emily Dickinson, chanting with the monks, her husband, South Dakota, whatever.
Jul 07, 2009
Mike
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If you've read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, the style of this book will feel familiar (and if you haven't, I recommend going and reading it). The musings of a poet on her experience of being a married Protestant woman with, initially, not a lot of faith, hanging around Benedictine monks, it moved me inexplicably at many points and gave me a deeper insight into Christianity in general and Benedictine Christianity in particular.
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Jun 01, 2011
Judy
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I found parts of this book to be very interesting, specifically Norris's description of the rhythm of monastic life.
However, I didn't feel I had learned much about WHY Norris had made this life choice to become an oblate. I had difficulty understanding what had set her on her spiritual quest. By the end of the book I didn't feel I knew the author any better than I had at the start of the book. It seemed, rather, that she was more comfortable speaking about her life as a poet rat More...
However, I didn't feel I had learned much about WHY Norris had made this life choice to become an oblate. I had difficulty understanding what had set her on her spiritual quest. By the end of the book I didn't feel I knew the author any better than I had at the start of the book. It seemed, rather, that she was more comfortable speaking about her life as a poet rat More...
