The Abbey Up the Hill: A Year in the Life of a Monastic Day Tripper by Carol BonomoMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I ran into this browsing around Google Play and was happy to run into it. Years back, I read Carol Bonomo's book on humility, which is both more profound and funnier than one expects a book on that subject to be. Bonomo's blend of curmudgin, Benedictine oblate and honest observer is refreshing and very much places her in the tradition of Kathleen Norris, which is high praise coming from me.
This book follows Bonomo on a years long question to visit the monastery in San Diego which she was recently made an oblate in (or is it to?) once or twice a month. We watch her as she copes with her own sense of being an outsider and her growing connections with her spiritual advisor and with other members of the monastic and oblate community. Her sensitive prose follows her struggles in feeling like she belonged and is definitely relatable.
I really enjoyed this book, both for its honesty and for its comittement to Benedictine values. It is well worth reading.
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