The Orchards of Perseverance: Conversations With Trappist Monks About God, Their Lives and the World

Rating:
Summary: The Fruits of Faithfulness
Review: David Perata practiced much perseverance in compiling these interviews with nine Trappist monks and one postulant of Our Lady of New Clairvaux Abbey in Vina, California. His approach in letting the monks speak freely in virtually stream of consciousness style allows for unfiltered frankness and a good deal of humor. Their testimonies to their vocation certainly dispel the myth that monastic life is perennially harmonious and blissful. In the end, sticking with it is what it is all about.
As Perata asserts, "God is going to look at that perseverance and the positive qualities of these men, and judge them within those parameters... All the rest is merely dirty laundry!"
I found the unedited proliferation of "gonnas" and "wannas"
tedious after a while. Also, it is unfortunate that the interviews do not include a single monk of that monastery who entered after 1980. The postulant interviewed in 1991 left
after becoming a novice. One gets the impression that the monks interviewed are the last of their breed. Perhaps this is what motivated the author to undertake this chronicle of lives lived in fidelity to a call. If so, he has done an admirable job
with both text and photographs.

Rating:
Summary: A inside look from an outsider that is really an insider
Review: So many questions I had about Trappist Monks were answered in this book. This is a must read book if you are at all interested mans relationship with God from men who spend there whole life working on this relationship. The author allows you to me them personally for he has a personal relationship with them from an early age. This is the book you wish someone would write and has. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: The Orchards of Perseverance
Review: The Orchards of Perseverance book review by [e-mail]

Now, here's a book which illustrates well the power of a book. David D. Perata, author of The Orchards of Perseverance - Conversations with Trappist Monks about God, TheirLives, and the World - (Ruthven, Iowa, St. Therese's Press, 2000, softcover, 224 pages) brings together taped interviews of the monks of Our Lady of New Clairvaux Abbey at Vina, Calif., with 85 photos of the monks at work, at prayer, and at leisure, and his own experiences of New Clairvaux with its community of monks and cluster of buildings on a large plum and walnut plantation, into a wonderful reading experience. Mr. Perata first experienced New Clairvaux in the 1960s when he was still a grade school "kid" and returned many times for the "mystical spirituality" (page XIX) and "basic goodness" (page XIX) he finds there. The introduction carries as its photo frontispiece a scene of three smiling monks, one of whom is holding the author's daughter Cheyenne. And this is the first of many seeming incongruities which show the human side of the monks as well as the mystical side. The author proceeds to give the history of the Cistercians from third century Egypt, through all the centuries, to 19th century foundations in the United States, including the 1848 foundation of the Abbey of Gethsemani near Louisville, Ky., and the 1955 foundation of New Clairvaux. Chapter II delves into "the seemingly concrete realities of daily living with the more ethereal parameters of the monastic vocation" (page 11). Photos illustrate the plum harvest which sends the fruit to Sunsweet for prune-making. Chapter III elaborates on the meaning of Union with God as taught by 12th Century St. Bernard of Clairvaux and 20th century best-known Trappist monk Thomas Merton. The remaining chapters IV to XII present the interviews pretty much verbatim as the monks responded to 1991 interviews by the author. Each one tells a fascinating life story of how the individual came to know his vocation (several by reading one or more books by Thomas Merton - especially The Waters of Siloe and The Seven Story Mountain - the power of a book), how he happened to come to New Clairvaux, and some of the joys and sorrows of living out the life of a Trappist monk. One is an artist - Father Anthony - a maker of pottery. Another is a musician - Father Paul Bernard - who moves from organ keyboard to compuer keyboard as he leads the singing and oversees the farm. Father Dominic of Kenya, East Africa, studied at New Clairvaux from 1989 to 1993 and then returned to his native country. His interview affirms that monks too "handle and interpret the confusion, insecurity, clashes, and difficulties" (page 130) that all human communities and families cope with. In his epilogue, the author gives his "spin" on the lives and stories of these monks as a search, a quest for truth and for Absolute Truth - God. Reading about the struggles and dreams of these God-centered men can help anyone who makes the same search. As a document of oral history, the book illumines the five decades which closed out the 20th century and illuminates the path for all into the 21st century. The personal stories affirm the influence of one or more Merton books, and this book, along with the related Internet sites, makes a fine companion for retreat or pilgrimage.

Rating:
Summary: Reading this book requires perseverance...
Review: This collection of interviews with the monks at New Clairveaux, in California, is sometimes interesting, occasionally enlightening. More often, it is simply dry and flat. While reading it, I kept thinking "I wish this were a film documentary." Simple text on the page, plain transcriptions edited together, can't convey what is surely a high degree of pathos and passion (and perseverance!) that is the mark of these men. You yearn to see their faces, study their eyes, hear their voices, watch them doing their work. There are consistent themes that emerge, though -- the difficulty of life in the cloister, the mental anguish of facing the True Self (sometimes unwillingly, often unexpectedly), the determination required to persevere after the "honeymoon" period of the first several months. This is surely a valuable document, and an unusual one. The author is to be commended for trying to bring this world alive between covers. But, it fails to deeply touch the heart, provoke the mind, or engage the soul.

Rating:
Summary: Down-to-earth Cistercians with hearts fixed on Heaven!
Review: This compilation of interviews with the monks of New Clairvaux, California is a fascinating contribution to that part of Catholic literature that might be called, risking impertinence, "contemplative chic." The books of Thomas Merton remain a great influence, and there exists a considerable interest in Cistercian spirituality and the cloistered life. These ten monks, as diverse in ethnicity, personality, age, background, temperament, patterns of speech, as any ten persons you can find, share their views, their experiences, their recollections as to what prompted them to undertake the monastic adventure ... We have here a fairly down-to-earth lot, prayerful but not "head in the clouds" types, each of them conveying the necessity of perseverance and charity in a life that is anything but escapism!

There are three introductory chapters, explaining a little about Cistercian/Trappist history and detailing the schedule and the activities of your average monk (if there is such a thing!); these introductory chapters can probably be skimmed by those readers who have delved extensively into Merton or Pennington or who have made retreats at Trappist monasteries themselves. Some of the books in the Bibliography proffered as Suggested Reading can be avoided (Finley's book "Merton's Place of Nowhere" being not terribly magnetizing) ... and there are times when we read the interviews that we find Mr Perata's attempts to reproduce the speech of the monks to be a bit labored, but there is humor to be found (an octogenarian Irish monk: "readin', workin', & just meditatin' ... you've gotta start usin' your mantra"). Some of the personalities & histories in the interviews will be more attractive than others, but if the reader is interested in the Trappist life, "The Orchards of Perseverance" will be a welcome addition to the personal library. Essential? Perhaps not, but the words of these monks impart considerable charm & a fair amount of wisdom.

Rating:
Summary: Down-to-earth Cistercians with hearts fixed on Heaven!
Review: This compilation of interviews with the monks of New Clairvaux, California is a fascinating contribution to that part of Catholic literature that might be called, risking impertinence, "contemplative chic." The books of Thomas Merton remain a great influence, and there exists a considerable interest in Cistercian spirituality and the cloistered life. These ten monks, as diverse in ethnicity, personality, age, background, temperament, patterns of speech, as any ten persons you can find, share their views, their experiences, their recollections as to what prompted them to undertake the monastic adventure ... We have here a fairly down-to-earth lot, prayerful but not "head in the clouds" types, each of them conveying the necessity of perseverance and charity in a life that is anything but escapism!

There are three introductory chapters, explaining a little about Cistercian/Trappist history and detailing the schedule and the activities of your average monk (if there is such a thing!); these introductory chapters can probably be skimmed by those readers who have delved extensively into Merton or Pennington or who have made retreats at Trappist monasteries themselves. Some of the books in the Bibliography proffered as Suggested Reading can be avoided (Finley's book "Merton's Place of Nowhere" being not terribly magnetizing) ... and there are times when we read the interviews that we find Mr Perata's attempts to reproduce the speech of the monks to be a bit labored, but there is humor to be found (an octogenarian Irish monk: "readin', workin', & just meditatin' ... you've gotta start usin' your mantra"). Some of the personalities & histories in the interviews will be more attractive than others, but if the reader is interested in the Trappist life, "The Orchards of Perseverance" will be a welcome addition to the personal library. Essential? Perhaps not, but the words of these monks impart considerable charm & a fair amount of wisdom.

Rating:
Summary: Insight into the Monastic and Spirtual life
Review: Wonderful book filled with commentary from the monks. Offers a great analysis of the questions that many of us ask ourselves in this life and this book portrays the few whom make the sacrifices to actually live it.