The Father and the Son: My Father's Journey into the Monastic Life – A Wall Street Journal Reporter's Memoir of Grief and Faith

by Matthew J. Murray

In this powerful, moving, and sometimes painful work week -- part memoir, part reportage -- Wall Street Journal reporter Matt Murray explores the reasons his widowed father, a middle-class homeowner and government worker, abandoned his world and moved to a rural monastery to become a monk. He thoughtfully traces his father's life, from his dirt-poor Depression-era childhood and his days as a struggling young writer to his sometimes frustrating role as a husband and parent, to the death of his wife from cancer. Throughout, Matt Murray wrestles with the impact of his father's return to the Church, with his subsequent decision to follow a life of faith, and witch the dramatic reshaping of his family that ensued. As he tracks his father's spiritual journey, he delves into his own beliefs, questioning not only his father's faith but his own and offering, with stark honesty, profound reflections on the complex relationship between father and son.

Genres: Religion, Memoir, Nonfiction

260 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: The author is not Catholic, or at least was not at the time this book was written.

This is the story of a man, who having not observed the Catholic faith for many years, begins a path to conversion following his wife's passing that eventually leads to his entry into the monastic life after his youngest son becomes a legal adult.

The author is the youngest son of the main character of this book, and you do get a feel for his take on the situation. Again, the author himself is not Catholic. As such, he does not understand or much appreciate his father's conversion and entry into the monastic life. However, he does come to respect it.

[Walt Trachim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book quite a while ago. That said, the story is still fresh in my memory.

It is a true story told from the perspective of Matt Murray. He recounts the journal and subsequent struggles of his father, Jim, after the death of his wife. That loss was a catalyst in his search for meaning, ultimately leading him to his roots as a Catholic, and further to becoming a Benedictine monk and an ordained Catholic priest

As I read this it occurred to me that Matt initially was really hurt by his father's choices. In saying that, I could see that throughout the narrative as he talked about his and his father's lives being as different as they were, he developed an understanding of what it meant, both to Jim (now Fr. James, OSB) and to himself.

I thought it was well-written. I also could feel the pain as it was expressed rather implicitly throughout the narrative even to the end. However, there was reconciliation between father and son. And I believe that it is a story that is worth reading.

[Galicius · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a curious and out of the ordinary story of a family by the youngest son. He researches the family records, talks to his relatives to understand why his father, a widower with four children, mostly out of the home becomes in the end a Benedictine monk and an ordained priest in the middle of Illinois. The son learns to sympathize with his father’s return to Catholicism but does not return to the faith himself or he would have told us he did.

The author is a journalist educated at Northwestern School of Journalism. He was named Editor-in-Chief of the Wall Street Journal in June, 2018.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author's mother, a complicated woman, writer and intellectual dies at age 40 leaving three children behind, the youngest of which is Murray. His quiet father then starts a quest back to his faith that is so deep that at every mass there are tears flowing down his father's face which embarrasses his young son. We see his father take a long journey over many years to finally find his peace in a monastery.

But for the author it was a different story. At a young age his father sells the family home where Murray had dreams of going back to. The pain is still raw as not only has he lost his mother at a young age, but now he has lost his father too. The whole family breaks apart in the process.

Now as an adult, Murray is seeking answers himself as to what happened to the once happy couple his parents were. And then what happened with his mother (including heart breaking journal passages written near the end of her life) and then, most importantly, what transpired with his father. Over many visits he comes to understand the undeniable call of God on his father's life and which was the only thing that ever brought his father peace late in life.

The story is beautifully told from both perspectives as both come to understand and reconcile with one another. An unusual and interesting book that I loved reading.

[Peter Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that’s easy to read and interesting about the mystery of other people’s lives and families.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find stories of life very interesting. What makes us think, act, or believe like we do. Matt Murray relates his father’s life in a very readable form.

[Marty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not compelling.

[Norma Bush · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting store - as a son, how do you watch your father leave the life you know and enter a monastery?