One of the best books I've read all year. ( )

One of the best books I've read all year. ( )

One of the best books I've read all year. ( )

Why would a married woman with a thoroughly Protestant background and often more doubt than faith be drawn to the ancient practice of monasticism . . .?

I'm not sure Norris ever really answers that question; indeed, I'm not sure she can. It's evident that she is drawn to ritual and structure, to simplicity in life. But it seems that the two connections which draw her in most strongly are two which connect to her life as a poet.

One is the concept of lectio continua, reading though whole books of the Bible at morning and evening prayer. She describes it thus: "The monastic discipline of listening aims to still body and soul so that the words of a reading may sink in. Such silence tends to open a person . . ."

The other is metaphor, although she says, "Poets believe in metaphor, and that alone sets them apart from many Christians . . ." The scriptures, she notes, are full of strange metaphors. Interestingly, she, a believer, and I, a non-believer, both feel quite strongly about the attempts to modernize and make "relevant" hymnals and the language of worship. I agree with her wholeheartedly when she says " . . . contemporaries are never the best judges of what works and what doesn't. This is something all poets know; that language is a living thing, beyond our control, and it simply takes time for the trendy to reveal itself, to become so obviously dated that it falls by the way, and for the truly innovative to take hold." This "metaphoric poverty" of the modern church causes her to seek to go back to an earlier time, when theology was written as poetry.

There is so much meat to this book! It begins as though it will be a straightforward account of her time at St. John's. But it becomes a series of meditations, some short, some long, on subjects as esoteric as Mechtild of Magdeburg, as current as the debate on celibacy, as mundane as laundry.

This is a re-read, actually, as is Dakota. I love Norris's writing and her take on spirituality and liturgy. A wonderful (in every sense of the word) exploration of how liturgy and ritual inform spiritual reflection. ( )