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Title: The Abbey Up the Hill: A Year in the Life of a Monastic Day-Tripper by Carol Bonomo ISBN: 0-8192-1912-6 Publisher: Morehouse Group Pub. Date: 01 August, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Personal memoir and testimony as a recovering alcoholic
Comment: The Abbey Up The Hill: A Year In The Life Of A Monastic Day-Tripper by lobbyist and speech writer Carol Bonomo is her personal memoir and testimony as a recovering alcoholic and depicts her compelling quest for spiritual enlightenment. It was her restless search for a spiritual home which brought her into contact with the Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church, Alcoholics Anonymous, as well as an attempt to become a lay associate of the Franciscans, and then, at last, to a Benedictine abbey where she found her spiritual home, a state of acceptance, and a hard won wealth of personal insight. The Abbey Up The Hill is recommended as an emotionally moving, sometimes humorous, occasionally poignant saga presented with a reverent love and a spirit of appreciation.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Good Read...Even for a Southern-California WASP
Comment: A Good Read...Even for a Southern-California WASP
Even for a young woman who's attended only a handful of Catholic masses, had never heard of St. Benedict, knows she should keep a diary, but doesn't, and grew up where "the desert meets the ocean" (a place that the author initially hated), The Abbey Up the Hill was a pleasure.
Bonomo is open enough to talk about her own demons and the painful and boring parts of worship and devotion, while at the same time underscoring the fact that she takes all of this stuff seriously. She is on a path, though it isn't her first, and it may not be her last.
With this book, I saw, smelled, and tasted the monastery. I felt the sharp winter winds coming off the Pacific as Bonomo journeyed along the prayer path, and my own fingers started tapping in agitation as she struggled through yet another trying service. I also experienced her pleasure as she curled up in the oversized chair in the oblate library for her private study, and was touched by the true reverence she feels for her abbott.
Although the ritual and Catholic "baggage" is foreign to me, the basic search for meaningful connections, affirmation, and a sense of home that Bonomo describes speaks directly to me, and to anyone who ever felt they still had something to find.
Rating: 5
Summary: Chasing the Choices by Tagging Along
Comment: I wasn't sure I'd like this book. Raised Catholic but no longer practicing, and not much of a seeker after things spiritual, I had little in common with the author but being a speechwriter and having a couple of friends who were helped by Alcoholics Anonymous. So, why read it? I'm curious about how people go about finding meaning and purpose in life -- whether in real life or in fiction, whether in religion or therapy, whatever it takes. In this quest to follow someone's personal journey to find meaning, I was not disappointed. As the author "chases the choices laid out for her" by her spiritual guide, Abbott Antony, I was drawn in by her disarming honesty about herself. The confessional nature of the book, however, is not expressed in a self-indulgent way. Far from it! The disarmingly honest moments are humorously self-deprecating in a way that I found more refreshing and engaging than Kathleen Norris's account of her sojourn with the Benedictines in Cloister Walk. With Abbey up the Hill, even if you know next to nothing about the Rule of St. Benedict, the Twelve Steps in AA, Episcopalians, or any of the other touchstones the author uses to fulfill her self-described "need to put things into her own words in order to trust them," you will not be lost in allusions, or illusions (for that matter), for long. While a chapter may begin with a reflection on a passage in the Rule that does not seem very clear at first, her journey through memory to find meaning or relevance to her own life never fails to draw you in and take you along. Even obscure allusions or difficult-to-comprehend Biblical passages, which may be off-putting at first, gradually become illumined as the author searches for, or sometimes seemingly stumbles upon, just the right metaphor or anecdote to make the meaning clear. It is her grasp of metaphor and analogy that I admired most. Her metaphors are not designed to impress us with their cleverness but seem to appear to her mind's eye as though a lamp comes on unbidden to elucidate self-discovery. Through her self-disclosures, you feel you're experiencing the journey to understanding along with her as you follow her thought processes. The symbolism she chooses seems ever so precise in characterizing the new insight gained. As she searches for understanding in her own "remembered-in-tranquillity" mistakes, misjudgments, and missteps, your understanding takes shape in step with hers. Advice: Don't be stalled by allusions that aren't clear at first. Persevere. By the end of the chapter, the point will be clear. She gets you there every time. In short, I recommend this book very highly.
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Title: Stalking the Divine : Contemplating Faith With the Poor Clares by Kristin Ohlson ISBN: 1401300251 Publisher: Hyperion Pub. Date: 06 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Practicing Resurrection: A Memoir of Work, Doubt, Discernment, and Moments of Grace by Nora Gallagher ISBN: 0375405941 Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Pub. Date: 18 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: Humble Pie: St. Benedict's Ladder of Humility by Carol Bonomo ISBN: 0819219606 Publisher: Morehouse Publishing Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Benedict in the World: Portraits of Monastic Oblates by Linda Kulzer, Roberta Bondi ISBN: 0814625711 Publisher: Liturgical Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Benedictine Handbook by Anthony Marett-Crosby ISBN: 0814627900 Publisher: Liturgical Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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