Nine Jewels of Night: One Soul's Journey into God

by Beverly Lanzetta

Nine Jewels of Night is a profoundly moving personal account of theologian and spiritual teacher Beverly Lanzetta's search for a new expression of the eternal quest for truth. With open-hearted storytelling, she chronicles her growing restlessness to answer a spiritual call until on a gorgeous autumn day, in her twenty-ninth year, she is converted by a series of revelations beyond the boundaries of established religions to the one reality at the heart of all religions, and to an entirely singular path of contemplation. Lanzetta's compelling and intimate portrayal of the ensuing thirty-eight years invites you to reflect on your own spiritual path as it gently draws you into questions about the nature of God, the monastic heart, suffering, the inner dimensions of mystical experience, composing a contemplative life, following a radical path of devotion, the search for solitude, trusting one's inner voice, loving the Divine, and being empty of self.

Genres: Spirituality

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Dr. Beverly Lanzetta is a theologian, spiritual teacher, and the author of many groundbreaking books on emerging universal spirituality and new monasticism, including Radical Wisdom: A Feminist Mystical Theology, Emerging Heart: Global Spirituality And the Sacred, Nine Jewels of Night: One Soul’s Journey into God and most recently, The Monk Within: Embracing a Sacred Way of Life. Dedicated to a vision of theological openness and spiritual nonviolence, her work has won praise for its wisdom, eloquence, and mystical insight and is considered to be a major contribution to what theologian Ursula King called “a feminine mystical way for the 21st century.”

Dr. Lanzetta is also a vowed monk of peace living in the world and an interfaith chaplain. She has formed a community of new monks—single, married, partnered, celibate, etc.—dedicated to the universal mystical heart and to the spirituality of nonviolence. She has devoted much of her life to mentoring people who seek a deeper contemplative commitment and who wish to take personal monastic vows. She has taught theology at Villanova University, Prescott College, and Grinnell College.

Reviews

[V K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read all of Beverly Lanzetta's books and while I revisit each of them from time to time, usually for something specific, this is the one that I reread entire chapters from. She has written before about the mystical experiences that changed her life in her late 20s, but this book gives more context than ever before. Gaining insight into her childhood and early adult life put those experiences into clearer perspective. As always happens when I read anything by this author, I feel I am given language for my own experience of the world and of the spiritual life. While much of her life has been extraordinary, she is also naming feelings, yearnings, and hopes that many of us have but, without supportive community or without the experience of seeing those parts of ourselves reflected in society and in existing institutions, we end up feeling alone. Reading this book I felt seen and understood and wholly un-alone.

[Sheila Pritchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book "found me" in the way significant books seem to do. Lanzetta's life is completely different from mine. Yet I identified so strongly with the heart of her spiritual path . I will search put other books of hers. I wish she lived round the corner! I'd love to have a long spiritual direction session with her!

[Shana Lanzetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nine Jewels of Night is a remarkable memoir. Unlike many great mystical, monastic contemporaries, such as Merton and Griffiths, Beverly has lead an extraordinary life filled with an excess of “ordinary” tribulations. Marriage (and divorce), single parenting, transcontinental relocation, a long and storied education. These are the memoirs of a life, and the deeply intense spiritual lessons that it produced has helped me to rethink and reevaluate my own life stories in that light.

This book moves you and softens your heart. It shows you a world view that embraces the Divine not in spite of but amidst the harshness of the world.