The Cloister Walk

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The path of the total eclipse of August 2017 had our offices at 99% totality - we closed the office to go watch the spectacle, but first we put together this gallery inspired by eclipses to celebrate. 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. Part record of her time among the Benedictines, part meditation on various aspects of monastic life, The Cloister Walk demonstrates, from the rare perspective of someone who is both an insider and outsider, how immersion in the cloistered world -- its liturgy, its ritual, its sense of community -- can impart meaning to everyday events and deepen our secular lives. This is only, of course, a brief (ok, not so brief) look at some of the content Norris covers, at least the focuses that were most powerful to me. It is a first principle of their worship that they read the psalms straight through, at least some portion of it each day.

c., pedestal hand wash basin with mirrow and feature lighting over, and large corner tiled shower enclosure with glass sliding doors and electric shower over. This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Norris is more interested in her own thoughts and feelings about the subjects of monasticism and religion than in what anyone else has to say about them. At times, though, metaphor falls subject to misunderstanding by Christians of both the conservative and liberal varieties.

she imagines the non-believer asking, then goes on to reply, “The question is best answered simply: ‘Yes. A Benedictine oblate of Assumption Abbey for the past 30 years, Norris divides her time between Hawaii and South Dakota.

When an idea strikes, she tells us, the poet must be ready to attend to it even when they can’t see where it’s leading, even when they don’t know what it means.In The Cloister Walk , persisting in [Norris's] wonderfully idiosyncratic ways, she gives us the result of an 'immersion into a liturgical world'. Kathleen Norris, a married woman with a thoroughly Protestant background and often more doubt than faith, finds herself, somewhat to her own surprise, on two extended residences at St John's Abbey, Minnesota. Part record of her time among the Benedictines, part meditation on various aspects of monastic life, The Cloister Walk demonstrates, from the rare perspective of someone who is both an insider and outsider, how immersion in the cloistered world– its liturgy, its ritual, its sense of community– can impart meaning to everyday events and deepen our secular lives. It’s still early in the year but there’s more evidence almost every day that the housing market is already in better shape than at the start of 2023.

Norris also asks some of the other big questions: namely how can these people who accept lifelong chastity get by without loneliness and still be able to help those, many of whom are married or struggling with a relationship, that come to them seeking advice and spiritual insight?All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. Why would a married woman with a thoroughly Protestant background and often more doubt than faith be drawn to the ancient practice of monasticism, to a community of celibate men whose days are centered on a rigid schedule of prayer, work, and scripture? Kathleen Norris is an award-winning poet and the author of Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, as well as three volumes of poetry, the most recent of them Little Girls in Church.

In one of The Cloister Walk’s essays , Norris refers to the Incarnation as “the ultimate metaphor,” noting, “To a literalist, I have just said that the Incarnation isn’t ‘real. Norris also discusses some of the more difficult aspects of Catholicism, including a fairly long chapter on the habits (i. The allure of the monastic life baffles most lay people, but in her second book Norris (Dakota) goes far in explaining it. On the other, she insists that every element of the creed belongs; That each, through its unique metaphoric resonance, expands our vision of God’s relationship with the world. In the tradition of Thomas Merton, Kathleen Norris gives us an intimate look at how religious life fills a gap in the soul.I honestly think that this was a way of fighting the Contract for America folks by letting them see how much she was “one of them” and loved what they loved, so then she could say what she said about their version of Christianity. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, in various anthologies, and in her own three volumes of poetry. I was only there a week, but it was a most inspiring event, and I have thought about it often over the years (I'm now 80). In this stirring and lyrical work, the monastery, often considered archaic or otherworldly, becomes immediate, accessible, and relevant to us, no matter what our faith may be.