Virgin Time: In Search of the Contemplative Life

Patricia Hampl goes in search of ... what? ... a contemplative life? a renewed or new connection to God and/or spirituality? the meaning of life?
She interweaves childhood memories and life events into her spiritual travels to Italy and California.
Most interesting for me were her childhood memories of St. Paul, MN (where neighborhood families were simply either Catholic - like hers - or not Catholic) and her trip to Assisi and Lourdes in Italy. Not so much for the spiritual direction she sought and found, but rather for the stories she tells and the characters she meets in this first three-quarters of the book.
I didn't connect so much with the final fourth of the book, when she attends a one-week retreat in solitude in California.
I show more didn't grow up Catholic so her memories of nuns and religious school from the 1940s, '50s and 60s were fascinating to me.
Her descriptions of her travels and the people she meets and travels with are clearly described and memorable.
And then - all the questions raised!
Would you rather be the star baton-twirler or the person watching the entire parade?
Can you be exhausted enough or inspired enough or quiet enough to ever sort things out?
What's the difference between secular spirituality and prayer and faith-based spirituality and prayer? show less

Reading a memoir of a seeker of serenity and add to it the seeker is from my hometown, I found intriguing. I enjoyed the stories of her youth and the descriptions of the streets I too had grown up on. But then I got lost. The characters she met along her path were never fully developed...interesting people, but such a shallow glimpse of them. Perhaps that's what Ms. Hampl experienced and was trying to portray...if so, good job, but I found myself counting pages to complete before I could put this book aside.

Hampl helped me recall my feelings of how I could see the advantages of becoming a contemplative, without ever wanting that kind of life for myself. Her journey kept me reading.

Reading a memoir of a seeker of serenity and add to it the seeker is from my hometown, I found intriguing. I enjoyed the stories of her youth and the descriptions of the streets I too had grown up on. But then I got lost. The characters she met along her path were never fully developed...interesting people, but such a shallow glimpse of them. Perhaps that's what Ms. Hampl experienced and was trying to portray...if so, good job, but I found myself counting pages to complete before I could put this book aside.

Reading a memoir of a seeker of serenity and add to it the seeker is from my hometown, I found intriguing. I enjoyed the stories of her youth and the descriptions of the streets I too had grown up on. But then I got lost. The characters she met along her path were never fully developed...interesting people, but such a shallow glimpse of them. Perhaps that's what Ms. Hampl experienced and was trying to portray...if so, good job, but I found myself counting pages to complete before I could put this book aside.

Reading a memoir of a seeker of serenity and add to it the seeker is from my hometown, I found intriguing. I enjoyed the stories of her youth and the descriptions of the streets I too had grown up on. But then I got lost. The characters she met along her path were never fully developed...interesting people, but such a shallow glimpse of them. Perhaps that's what Ms. Hampl experienced and was trying to portray...if so, good job, but I found myself counting pages to complete before I could put this book aside.

One woman's search for spirituality through her Roman Catholic past and a variety of Franciscan experiences. The end is stronger than the beginning, maybe because she at least comes closer to understanding what she is looking for as the book goes on.