Review: Atchison Blue: A Search for Silence, a Spiritual Home, and a Living Faith

Atchison Blue: A Search for Silence, a Spiritual Home, and a Living Faith by Judith Valente
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I found this book because I was digging around Google Books for books by some of the more recent authors I've been reading, especially Judith Valente and Paula Huston. Both are oblates of Benedictine monasteries and both talk about how they live out their lives as oblates- not as monks, but as ordinary people trying to apply Benedictine spirituality to their own lives. I've already reviewed one book from each. So, this seemed a logical step.

This book is more autobiographical than the previous book I reviewed. It is Valente's experiences on various retreats at St. Scholastica, in Atchison, Kansas which are the focus, especially on her encounters with various Sisters in the convent. The book focuses on how to apply the lessons she learns from the Sisters in her busy and complicated life.

Valente offers great insight into prayer, conversion and living a life of faith in the everyday world. She is honest about her shortcomings and her need for continuing conversion, which is heartening because we're all facing both our ideals and our shortcomings when we deal with people. The gentle wisdom of the Sisters leavens the book, but not in a saccharine or unrealistic way. Valente's journey is like most of ours- messy, sometimes inspiring, sometimes not, but familiar.

This is book which rewards slow reading. It is thoughtful and invites reflections. It is also likely to reward re-reading.

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Questions

 I'm back again after a long silence. Most of that is because I wasn't really in a place to reflect or think about things sufficiently to feel comfortable in writing. I kept being reminded of a quote from a composer I heard in a monastic talk I've listened to about how the music one makes should be better than the silence one breaks (or something like that). So, for better or worse, I just didn't write.

 I'm not even sure that I'll be writing much in the foreseeable future. I want to keep that open .However, today, when I was considering this blog, I realized that I really didn't want to write about something- that is, give my opinion or pronouncements to the world- but rather I just wanted to lay some questions which are preoccupying my thoughts, when I have time, energy and quiet to think about them. So, perhaps it is worth while for me to lay them out, just as they are, with a minimum of explanation. Then, maybe, just maybe, I may feel trying to answer them, hopefully with the help those who have the patience or curiosity to read my rather long, discursive posts. I'm going to personalize these because I'm especially thinking of what can I do, rather than what can I tell other people to do.  

So, questions: 

1. How can I, as a scholar of the Graeco-Roman classics, foster a redirection of my discipline towards better understanding of the past we study as a way to bring both truth and reconciliation in the wider world? 

2. How do I reconcile my firm belief in the importance of a contemplative approach to teaching and learning with an education directed to career goals and social/economic advancement?

3. How do I work through my own internal obstacles in fostering contemplation and reconciliation in my teaching and, well, the rest of my life?

I was going to give commentary on each of these, but I think I want to let these sit for a while without comment. If I do that, hopefully, I'll be back to start thinking out loud how I want to start trying to answer them. 

As a last comment, as another change, I was thinking that I would take advantage of a new Goodreads function which will allow me to post my book reviews which I post there directly to here. I do that because my reading is frequently relevant to these questions and, well, if I want to keep this blog going, I need material which I can do, as well as material which I want to do. And the reviews are what I can do most consistently.