Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Saddened
Review: Although Ms. Norris book describes much of the beauty of the Catholic faith, it ultimately is spoiled by conceit and self-promotion. I was dismayed that someone who does not embrace the Catholic faith would have no qualms receiving the Holy Eucharist. Kathleen Norris should stick with describing the Protestant Faith she espouses.
Rating: 
Summary: Take Notice Spiritual Journeyers
Review: For many people, Kathleen Norris' story is somewhat familiar. She was raised in a faith tradition as a child, abandoned her faith, or at least put her faith on hold, then rediscovers her faith as an adult. Norris' experience is hardly typical, but it is definitely not "the same old story" with a different person telling it. Norris rediscovers faith accidentally, but it is not the Protestant faith of her youth. She is now a Protestant whose faith is colored by Roman Catholicism, particularly the Benedictine monastic tradition in Catholicism. Norris is a writer whose primary genre has been poetry. In 1991, she spent a year at a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota and entered into the life of this monastic community. From time to time she also traveled to her home and to various parts of the country for conferences or speaking engagements. The book is taken from reflections of that experience. In the book, she is connected to her life outside the monastery while at the monastery and while away from the monastery, she still seems to be very present to the life of the monastery. The life in the monastery has a certain pattern to it, based on the Rule of St. Benedict. The year follows a calendar, but it is the calendar of the Roman Martyrology which lists the days that various saints and religious feasts are remembered. The Liturgy of the Hours, chanted by the monks is essential to the life of the monastery as is time for personal prayer and reflection. As both an insider (as a person connected to the monastery) and an outsider (a Protestant woman in an all male Catholic community), Norris is able to make keen insights into the life of the monastery with a unique perspective. This is a book that should be read from cover to cover when the book is read for the first time. Since the book begins in September and concludes in August of the following year, reading the whole book rather than excerpts is essential to see Norris' growth in her understanding of monastic life as well as her own spiritual growth. After reading the book a first time, most readers will inevitably go back to favorite passages. I often reread portions in the book about the liturgical seasons such as Advent and Easter. I also enjoy rereading her understanding of "lectio divina" a prayerful method of reading scripture that allows the words to speak to a person's heart. I believe that as a poet, she is able to understand the richness of scripture both from a literary point of view and as a believer. Her experiences back home in South Dakota and her activities in her own faith community are also great excerpts in the book. Part of my love for the books is due to the fact it can be read and shared with so many people. More often than not, religious books speak only to a person who shares the same religious mindset. I have found myself recommending the book to lifelong Catholics as an affirmation of the faith. I love the fact that this Protestant woman has a better understanding and appreciation for many Catholic things than most Catholics do. I have likewise recommended the book to people who have been hurt by organized religion in general, and the Catholic Church in particular. Norris is able to see God at work in lives that she terms "messy" and flaws in the saints. Everyone can find him/herself in Norris' book. Most people I know have read this book slowly in conjunction with prayer. This is probably the best way to approach the book. This is also a book for people on a spiritual quest, but not a book for people who want an easy spirituality. Norris' profound insights are due to struggling with faith and belief and how faith and belief are lived in life. If living a life of faith can be a challenge, The Cloister Walk is the kind of encouragement needed as Norris shares her journey and we live our own journey.
Rating:
Summary: A pleasant surprise!
Review: I had been curious about "The Cloister Walk" for many years, but have been inexplicably reluctant to read it. Recently I had the opportunity to listen to the abridged audio version of the book, read by actress Debra Winger. Now that I've heard the tape, I'm looking forward to reading the entire book someday. As a convert from Protestantism to the Eastern Orthodox Church, I found that many of Kathleen Norris' thoughts, feelings and experiences in discovering and participating in liturgical life paralleled my own. Her writings remind me of Orthodox writer Frederica Mathewes-Green, notably "Facing East" and "The Illumined Heart," a well-known convert from the Episcopal Church. I appreciate Norris' penetrating insights into the monastic life. By living with the Benedictines, she was able to answer many of the questions that those of outside of the monastic life have undoubtedly wondered about. I'd recommend this book to anyone curious about liturgical life, monasticism or about going deeper in the Christian walk. While Debra Winger did an adequate job of reading this abridgment, I was unconvinced that she knew what she was reading about. Fortunately Norris' narrative is captivating on its own.
Rating:
Summary: Started my own personal walk...
Review: It would be difficult for me to say a harsh thing about this book or the companion audio tapes read by Debra Winger. Four years ago it was this book that led me back to the Catholic Church, introduced me to the wonderful simplicity and sense of the Rule of St Benedict, and gave me my first recognized touch of Grace. I enjoy Norris' writing style. She is quirky, down to earth. Unlike other reviewers, I like her familiarness, her occasional slang and language choices. She is a real person reporting a real experience, and that experience literally penetrated deep within me and started a process of change that is still going. What more could anyone ask for in a book?
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring (rjoc@aol.com)
Review: Kathleen Norris takes her readers on a splendid journey into the monastic life and hence into the self. Her deeply reflective prose quotes some of the desert fathers and mothers on prayer, monastic living, celibacy, psychology, etc. I especially appreciated her critique of virginity and virgin martyrs of the Church. Norris' experience of monastic living combined with the wisdom of that tradition makes her book a fine read.
Rating:
Summary: Baby Steps...
Review: Kathleen Norris' magnum opus, The Cloister Walk, has provided the entrance into monastic spirituality for almost as many people as any work in history, assuming, of course, that the people who purchased her book read, mark, and inward digest the meanings contained therein. It is a truly remarkable achievement--one born of contradiction and ambiguity. A woman has found such spirituality and insight in communities predominantly organised and lived in by men (I wonder how different or similar this work would be had Norris concentrated on visiting convents?). A protestant has found a home in her own soul for many of the most 'catholic' of practices. Where these insights and practices lead are different at different times, ever changing yet ever constant. Norris structures her book (and structure is very important for monastic types) in a similar fashion to a monastic day and year. She follows a liturgical calendar, and fills in the gaps with reflections and stories of experiences. She uses the daily cycle to great effect--for instance, on April 2, the day of Mary of Egypt, Norris incorporates the story of Mary into her narrative in much the same way that monastics incorporate such stories into their practice and contemplation: 'Monks have always told the story of Mary of Egypt to remind themselves not to grow complacent in their monastic observances, mistaking them for the salvation that comes from God alone. ... Repentance is coming to our senses, seeing, suddenly, what we've done that we might not have done, or recognising, as Oscar Wilde says in his great religious meditation "De Profundis", that the problem is not in what we do but in what we become.' Norris reflects on the difficulties she encountered on her journey, with the monasteries, with her family, with her career, with those who just couldn't understand what it was she was trying to accomplish or find. Much like anyone who tries to discern and follow a call to vocation in life, there are joys great and small, and difficulties great and small, fulfillments and doubts, and lots of reflection. She is frank about her struggles to believe, and finds solace in the doubts of others. 'I believe that Teresa became a uniquely valuable twentieth-century saint, a woman who can accept even the torment of doubt, as she lay dying, as a precious gift, who turns despair into a fervent prayer for others. I think of her as a saint for unbelievers in an age of unbelief, a voice of compassion in an age of beliefs turned rigid, defensive, violent.' Norris reflects on hospitality, prayer, study, work, community, solitude, silence and music. 'Music is serious theology. Hildegard of Bingen took it so seriously as a gift God made to humanity that in one of her plays, while the soul and all the Virtues sing, the devil alone has a speaking part. The gift of song has been denied him.' There is a true spirit at work in this book, that reaches out in many different ways to people of all backgrounds. This is true of monastic practice, which is essentially Hebraic in structure, Christian in intent, and universalist in outreach and hospitality. The issues which concern everyone in the world are present in the monastery in ways which give a new perspective. Take, for instance, time: 'In our culture, time can seem like an enemy: it chews us up and spits us out with appalling ease. But the monastic perspective welcomes time as a gift from God, and seeks to put it to good use rather than allowing us to be used up by it.' Time slowed down at the monastery, and that is a blessing to many in the world (and one of the blessings Norris particularly finds), but this slowing allows a recognition of the spiritual aspects of even the most mundane of daily practices. Finally, I am touched by the infusion of poetry, artistic imagery and wisdom literature throughout the text. Her quote from Emily Dickinson is one which I will take to heart. 'Consider the lilies,' she wrote to her cousins late in her life, 'is the only commandment I ever obeyed.'
Rating:
Summary: Mixed Blessings
Review: Norris' book was so highly praised that some disappointment was inevitable. There are some good insights, but they're mixed in with pompous, snobblish, quirky, cranky, and deliberately obtuse comments. Her language is frequently adolescent, with pointless vulgarity or slang. She is remarkably self-centered. Her model for this is Thomas Merton, but it's a pity she imitates all his worst habits!
Rating:
Summary: A Reflective Journal of Personal Discovery
Review: The Cloister Walk
by Kathleen Norris Calling to mind the writings of Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen, Kathleen Norris writes a deeply personal journal of spiritual self-rediscovery. Although a lifelong protestant, Ms. Norris explores the cultures and traditions of a Benedictine Monastery as she searches for deeper meaning and communion with God in her life. This is a book of great reflection, a story of a soul's journey in the midst of contemporary doubt and turmoil. The book takes place within the context of monastic life throughout the Church's liturgical year. It explores the rituals, ceremonies, liturgies of this life as well as the everyday existence of monastic life. Ms. Norris is strangely drawn to the cloistered community, one which is at once both apart, yet deeply (if somewhat obliquely) connected to life in general. The themes of liturgical renewal, ritual, contemplation, meditation and prayer speak directly to the hearts of all of us. In that life, the author addresses the sacredness of all life and its ability for renewal and spiritual growth.
Rating: 
Summary: The Author's Spiritual Journey Defined By Creative Thought
Review: 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.
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