Review: Domestic Monastery

Domestic Monastery by Ronald Rolheiser
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Truthfully, this was entirely an impulse purchase for me. I was looking for another book on the Chapters/Indigo website and this popped up. I knew the author, having read and enjoyed a couple of his books. And this blending of the secular everyday and monastic wisdom drew me, as you might expect from my reading list in the last few years. I'm glad I purchased it because this was, while a very slim volume, a wonderful discovery.

This very slim volume was sparked by an observation that Rohlheiser made about the common advice that, if one devotes an hour a day to prayer, one can't help advance spiritually. When he was challenged by a young mother who noted that she doesn't have that kind of time because all her waking hours are taken up with caring for children, Rohlheiser, with a wisdom he didn't know he had, noted that he thought that that mother didn't need to worry about that time because she is learning what the prayer is supposed to teach her- being selfless, caring for others. It is, although Rohlheiser doesn't really say this, because that childcare was a prayer just as work can be prayer.

What I like about this book is that it genuinely values the experience of those who do work in the everyday world of children, marriages and jobs. And that isn't always easy for a Catholic priest to see. I love that each of the chapters is almost a meditation on aspects of finding God in the every day. And, even if there are occasional false notes, those meditations are useful guides to reflection.

This really is a good book to consider one's relationship with God and with the everyday. Read it slowly, mediate, really think about how those interact in your life. It is worth the time spent.



View all my reviews