Stalking The Divine

Rating:
Summary: An amazing, moving read
Review:

I'm not at all religious and I found this to be a fascinating inquiry of faith, as well as a smart, funny and insightful memoir. Ohlson, a former atheist and Maoist, explores the cloister of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration and her own faith with a rich, multi-faceted perspective that is quite captivating. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Stalking the Divine
Review: I couldn't put Stalking the Divine by Kristin Ohlson down! It was a captivating read from beginning to end. The story is about her attempt to learn more about a cloistered order of nuns in Cleveland, Ohio called The Poor Clares. But the constant theme that runs through it is her own search for faith and how her journey with the Poor Clares leads her to her own inner transformation. The contrast between her questions and struggles, and the deep faith of the Poor Clares provides a wonderful canvas on which to visualize our modern day societal gap between materialism and deep spiritual connection.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book....a Must Read
Review: I love this book and if you haven't read it buy it. Kristin's account of life behind the cloister in the inner city of Cleveland is as much about you the reader as it is about the nuns or her. A Spiritual Classic in the making!

Rating:
Summary: THIS WILL BE A BEST SELLER
Review: The responsibility of doing this book justice weighs heavily on me. Although I finished the book four days ago and then went back to read it again, I am still in the flush of great enthusiasm. "Publishers Weekly" got it right (See above) except for the fact that Kris is better than all the others. She is much more entertaining than the rest of the "journey" writers. She has the same gift Kathleen Norris has of humanizing nuns and making their lives understandable, but Kathleen never seems to have any doubts so I can't identify with her so much as I can with Kris. Kris is full of doubts and questions. The nuns Kris interviews as part of her journey also don't seem smug, those faith-seeking folks who are all so different from one another but not all that different from the rest of us.

I especially liked her treatment of Clare, the founder of the contemplative Order which is her subject matter and which she researched so thoroughly before she started asking all her questions.

Clare was fleeing a 13th century patriarchal world in addition to seeking God. Vowed virginity puzzled the patriarchs because the nuns moved outside of their control. I have also seen this phenomenom among my lesbian friends. It isn't about sex at all; it's about freedom from being controlled and trying not to lead a dull and meaningless life with husband and kids.

About Jesus as the Bridegroom: I have the same trouble Kris has with throwing around the name Jesus because the Religious Right has given Jesus such a bad name.

I also like the fact that she doesn't sugar coat the Church's long history of anti-Semitism or its long history of anti-feminism. She, like I think most of us, wants a religion and a faith where people can get outraged at injustice and never achieve total peace with the way things are.

What she does so well is to pull us into her journey. We find ourselves hoping so much her journey will have a happy ending, not necessarily that she will come back to the Church but that she will find a resolution of some kind and peace at the end. I felt so very glad that she was just like I am. I should have known that a journey would always be a journey and that things would always be "up in the air."

It reads like a mystery story. The thirst to know what happens next makes it a page turner. Folded into the narrative are her own personal trials and those of her heart-broken daughter over the loss of a boyfriend, and the taunting of her rational friends, like the characters in the Book of Job. Kris stepped outside her own world in order to understand the sisters who stepped into another world themselves and left the old one behind.

In addition to getting know and like Kris, we also get to know the fascinating and mysterious contemplative sisters she interviewed one by one. How she won their trust is a story in itself. I thought it was neat for her to compare her trips to interview the nuns with "Tuesdays With Morrie."

This is a book not just for hardcore Catholics like myself who can identify with every page, including knowing the same types of loners who hang around the "Shrine," but for all people who are on journeys seeking enlightenment. I predict this book will have a large audience. Conservative Catholics will like it for sure but New Age folks will also like it, partly because of the killer title, which really is what the book is about.

I am sending it to a couple of atheist friends, not to win an argument but to help them understand me a little better. I want to show them that I and other people like me aren't really sure about much of anything but remain curious about everything and live in the hope that at the end there is a lot more to life than just our own fulfillment.

Maybe I can convince them that in stalking God, the nice surprise at the end will be for us to find out that God is always stalking us...sometimes with books like this one.