The Cloister Walk

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I really enjoyed this book. As a catholic I'd never heard of a woman going to a monastery and becoming an oblate. I put myselfIn her shoes and imagined the day to day life in the monastery.

This book was for my wife. She liked it and reported on it to me. She found it fascinating. As a young man (end of college days) I visited a Trappist Monastery when a boyhood friend was studying to become a Trappist, and I was allowed to walk with the Monks in processional at a High Mass (which they have every day). 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). This was around their central court yard and had all the feel of a medieval monastery. It may have even had some effect on my later converting to Catholicism (at 58 years) from Judaism. So I can understand that a book like this, well written, impressed my life-long Catholic wife. Whether you're just curious or are deeply committed, this looks like a good read. Get it.

A RING OF TRUTH: Like Kathleen Norris, I am a Protestant who lives in a small town and have been heavily influenced by being a guest in a Benedictine Monastery many times. Like Norris, I have been invited into the cloister. Her account has the ring of authenticity. By the time I finished the book I realized I was reading while listening to the CD of chants prepared at the monastery I most often visit.WHO WILL LIKE THIS BOOK? Norris is a poet. This book is a collection of sketches from inside the monastery, from monastic history, from her own small town, from her vacations, and from the cities she has lived and worked in. Some chapters are long, while others are short. Her themes bounce from chapter to chapter. If you like poetic imagery written in prose and are interested in this theme, you will like this book.WHO WILL NOT LIKE THIS BOOK? If you like to read technical manuals and books with finely structured outlines, you will probably not like this book. You may feel that Norris rambles too much and doesn't stay with her main point.

This book received excellent reviews; I had to satisfy my curiosity and read it. I slowly read, hoping to discover some great truths I may have missed these past 6 decades.The book is unique in that the author explains how monks and nuns live, work, and worship together in communities and also how she had the freedom to come and go as she pleased, worshipping in her protestant church as well.This is a nice book for tolerant people of any faith. Everyone can benefit from quiet reflection, from reading scripture, from singing hymns, and from praying. We all have the freedom to worship God in different ways. Kathleen Norris was curious about the catholic faith, although she remains a protestant. Her experience within the monastery is beneficial to her soul and she describes how, as a poet and writer, the rituals, liturgy, and hospitality within the monastic setting further her own understanding of spirituality.

I enjoy many of the chapters in this book but sometimes the thread to weave them together was lost.I learned from her extensive study of topics and I am thankful I read this book.I look forward to reading another book I purchased from this author to see if there is a better movement of topics between the chapters.Highly recommend this book.

As a lapsed Catholic and a searching person for the meaning of organized religion in my life, I found this book rich with bursts of insight. The various personalities in religion; aspects of life within the Benedictine church; and a variety of small, beautiful critical thinking essays on the meanings of icons and values are some of the topics Norris explores in her chapters.Overall, they are thought-provoking and reveal a person who is more than a visitor to the ways of the Benedictine.I only gave four stars, since I found her writing style a bit distracting and the organization of the book not exactly conducive to easy reading. It's true that each chapter is a handful, but the editor might have done Norris a favor by facilitating the outline of the book.

One of the elements of Kathleen Norris which makes reading her so fundamentally satisfying is her ability to weave the words and thoughts of others so seamlessly into her own observations of endeavoring to live a life of faith. "The Cloister Walk" seems to do this with greater facility and to greater effect than "Dakota: A Spiritual Geography."In "The Cloister Walk," Norris, an apathetic Christian turned agnostic turned yearning Protestant, relates her experiences (physical and spiritual) as an oblate with the Benedictines. This is an accessible memoir of one woman's account of opening the eyes of her heart in her search for God and one that can be enjoyed by anyone striving to hear a still small voice within.

I bought this book some years ago, but was so glad to find a copy in large print. Love this book - interested in Benedictine monasticism - this is a very good read, written by an oblate.

A must-read for anyone with a close friend or relative in a religious order - written from a Roman Catholic perspective but containing much wisdom which will resonate with other faiths

Love it thanks a lot

Got half way through and then gave up.

I feel like Kathleen is one of my dear friends. She has helped me deepen my connection to myself and my journey with God.