Threshold - Fall 2003

A Visit From Kathleen Norris

How often does one get “story time” with reading by the author herself? Kathleen Norris is better known for her books on the New York Times best seller list, such as Cloister Walk, Dakota, and Amazing Grace. On a recent visit, however, this longtime friend of the community treated the sisters to a reading of The Holy Twins. The book is a children’s biography of Benedict and Scholastica with illustrations by Tomie De Paola.

The renowned writer was here for a presentation at Benedictine College in the Mary L. Fellin Lecture Series. The series, endowed by the family of Sister Jo Ann Fellin, brings a prominent woman to the campus each year for a public address. This year, Kathleen chose as her topic, “The Life That Matters: One Woman’s Perspective.” In 1997, the first year of the lectures, Helen Prejean, CSJ, of “Dead Man Walking” fame, was the speaker, and last year the series hosted Edwina Gately, British spiritual writer and advocate for women in need.

Enjoying a little extra time with the community in the days following her talk, Kathleen reflected on the special benefits of being with a monastic community. “Being at a Benedictine monastery is always a big treat for me because I can enter into the prayer life.”

An oblate of Assumption Abbey in Richardton, North Dakota, she has done much to bring Benedictine spirituality to the broader world of her readers. She did not start out, she notes, to promote monasticism. “I simply did what writers do. I described the people I found and told about my own experience.”

She found that those descriptions struck many people in a culture which, as she puts it, “realizes what is missing. The hunger for a sense of community, for a quiet and meditative way to approach prayer, for the promotion of peace and hospitality, are deep longings. “Benedictine values have something for all ages and all denominations,” she observes. “To have lasted as long as it has just shows how relevant and important it is.”