Customer Reviews

The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and "Women's Work" (Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Any book that can make laundry into a spiritual experience has to be worth more than the pittance that is asked for owning it! It's small, only 88 pages, but it's powerful.

Perfect reading for a time when our world is so chaotic and we are searching for moments of peace and tranquility amidst our crazy schedules. To be reminded how important ritual is to our souls is a gift! Thank you, Kathleen!

We should all be most grateful that St. Mary's shares this lecture with a wider audience than the students and faculty who were fortunate enough to hear Norris present these beautiful thoughts. The author shares her personal faith journey with practical metaphor and simile. I have reread the book several times, picking up new inspiration with each reading. Take your time and enjoy this little gem of a book. Good selection for a book club.

Life is not glorious all the time. You still have to brush your teeth, go to the bathroom, take your shower. Does this have a spiritual value? Kathleen Norris has a way, the way only a poet can, of zeroing into the basic heart of the matter. As she has done in her previous works, I believe she is truly inspired by the Holy Spirit to communicate to us that there can be a heavenly value to all the mundane things we have to do in this mortal life, which applied with love, can lead us to be the person we'd like to be so eternity will be our reward. I would love to have her insight. This book has to read, again and again. We shall be so much better for doing so. The "best we can do" is only a destination. We should really "strive to be better." Thank you, Kathleen, for your inspiration.

This book is changing the way I look at my daily life. It is slowing me down, refreshing me, and teaching me to appreciate the daily chores and routines which usually bog me down. Norris' wisdom and honesty amazes me.

Kathleen Norris provides a very personal and thoughtful way of looking at everyday chores as an opportunity to experience grace. Since it is the lot in life of every human being to spend time at routine, unglamorous tasks, it is no surprise that those who seek contact with God can find it while sweeping the floor or commuting to work. Ms. Norris describes "women's work" such as hanging laundry on the line to dry, caring for children and washing dishes as potentially spiritual events. This is not pie in the sky. She does not deny the distractions and pain of everyday life or the struggle against depression, anger and despair that we all have. She just presents another way of looking at and experiencing the routine with a poet's sensitivity.

I thought this book is a perfect antidote to an over-rated TV show called "bride-zilla" on WE television station. While the women on the TV program focuses on an idealistic wedding, this book celebrates the sanctities in life- not necessarily married life, but the fullness of life where one appreciates the lost art of repetition, of tradition, and of all the things an arrogant society regards as "lowly".

A remarkable work! Norris defends the inherent value to be found in the tedium of daily toil. What makes this small, 89-page book so compelling is that she reminds those of faith and those of us striving for faith that prayer does not reveal itself solely in the milieu of Sunday worship, but that it can be an unbroken dialogue with God, manifested as an offering of our obligatory, repetitive, sometimes even boring day-to-day responsibilities.

As a Christian Protestant woman who borrows from and participates in the Christian Roman Catholic practices of Benedictine monks - from which she draws much of her strength - Norris does a great service to the ecumenical spirit. Her ideas are universal and genderless.

I am an "old" woman and over the years have come to recognize some of the truths the author has expressed in this book. To have this articulated so well brought tears to my eyes over and over again as I read the 88 pages.
It is so true that what one does -- practices over and over again -- forms the person, makes them who they are. Doing the right thing can change your thoughts.
It doesn't take long to read -- I recommend it, especially to older women who, like me, are more likely to be at the stage at which they can understand it.

This beautiful and satisfying little book ought to be repackaged with a nicer cover -- and re-released. With our culture's current rediscovery of "home" and all things domestic (Martha Stewart aside), this book has potential to reach a much wider and appreciative young audience. As always, Norris's prose illuminates the poetry inherent in everyday living. Lovely!

This little book is a beautiful presentation of how Benedictine principles can enrich the lives of non-monastics. One warning, though: If you're going to buy her book "Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life," don't buy this one. "Acedia" is a further exploration of all the material in this book, and (as she acknowledges in the preface) some of the text is identical.