Reading about spirituality, is definitely a "personal" thing for people. It is not only the book, that needs to be stimulating to keep one's interest. The reader must be open to the concepts that are discussed or nothing of the author's words will really sink in. Sometimes with these type of books, the concepts will be agreeable to what one already believes. Sometimes the concepts will challenge the core of one's belief or in some cases, lack of belief.
The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris is a challenging book about faith and spirituality. Norris, a poet and writer by trade, takes us on a personal journey into a community of a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota. That fact that Norris is a Protestant, married with children, and spending two extended residencies within this monastery is pretty remarkable.
To make our journey easier, Norris takes us through a liturgical year. She follows and and tries to clarify the psalms and text of the services for us and herself. Along the way she delves briefly into the history and development of the Benedictines and monastery life in general.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02443a.htm
(This listing from the Catholic Encyclopedia will give you an in depth history of the order.)
The organization of this book is also interesting, some of the chapters are very short, some are long. It combines with the text of the chapters, to force the reader to contemplate the topic and mull it over awhile.
And Norris' language seems to me very lush, but yet writes in an approachable style. Explore the book and see what you think.
" Anyone who listens to the world, anyone who seeks the sacred in the ordinary events of life, has 'problems about how to believe.' Paradoxically, it helps that both prayer and poetry begin deep within a person, beyond the reach of language. The fourth-century desert monk St. Anthony said that perfect prayer is one you don't understand. Poets are used to discovering, years after a poem is written, what it's really about. And it's in the respect for the mystery and the power of words that I find the most profound connections between the practice of writing and monastic life." - p. 143 The Cloister Walk.
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