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And Then There Were Nuns: Adventures In A Cloistered Life (2013)

by Jane Christmas(Favorite Author)

3.53 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1553657993 (ISBN13: 9781553657996)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Greystone Books

review 1: Jane Christmas received a midlife desire to exploring a calling as an Anglican nun. And Then There Were Nuns is a memoir of her exploration. How she deals with her very understanding fiancé, her children, a traumatic event in her past, and her spiritual, religious, and practical questions – both big and small – makes for an absorbing read. Told with humor, honesty, and deep feeling, Jane’s spiritual quest will resonate with everyone who has ever wondered how they can best serve their God. I highly recommend this book.
review 2: And Then There Were Nuns (Greystone $19.95) is by Jane Christmas, a travel writer who at midlife thinks she wants to be an Anglican nun. (You’re not alone if you think that nuns are only Catholic.) But she’s also twice divo... morerced and yet engaged to a Brit. She starts her year-long quest at the Sisterhood of St John the Divine in Toronto, and then travels to a monastery and two convents in England. The book traces her struggle to fit into the almost antisocial strictures of convent life. Gregorian chant has a special appeal for her; the Catholic convent where it is sung heavenly is also where she is given a grilling about her divorces and feminism. She is also burdened by memories of a workplace rape when she worked in advertising. By finally facing this disabling legacy, she is able to discern her calling: to return to the noise and chaos of secular life, and get married. I appreciated Christmas’s honesty and moments of irreverence. My favourite passage was an anecdote about Thomas Merton, whose 20th-century autobiography, Seven Storey Mountain, drew hundreds of recruits to the monastic life. Even he, who chose to exceed the Cistercian rule of silence by becoming a hermit, would regularly sneak off to a nearby pub, change from his habit into blue jeans, and revel in conversation with the locals. less

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