Stalking the Divine

by Kristin Ohlson

An inspirational personal odyssey into the heart of spiritual life offers a poignant study of the Poor Clares, a tiny congregation of cloistered elderly nuns whose mission is to pray day and night, twenty-four hours a day, for the sorrows of the world, describing the remarkable and joyful dedication of these women to their faith. Reprint.

Genres: Memoir, Religion, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Christianity, Biography Memoir, Book Club

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Caren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I recently read an interesting essay written by Kristin Ohlson and thought I'd like to see what else she had written. (The essay, by the way, about memories in childhood, is here:
http://aeon.co/magazine/psychology/wh... )

From the cover, I see that this book won an American Society of Journalists & Authors Nonfiction Book award. The book was published more than ten years ago (in 2003). The author, who had been raised Catholic, had moved away from any church-going and at a certain point, felt the need for something spiritual in her life. She happened into a downtown Cleveland church for Christmas Eve mass and its beauty started her on a several-years-long quest to rediscover her Catholic roots and to understand and explore the convent housed within this church, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. As she interviewed the nuns and explored the history of their order, she also began to tentatively come to terms with her own ideas of faith and community. The people she profiled provided a thought-provoking contrast to the marked skepticism with which she began her journey. As the years passed, she softened her opinion of their faith, although never enough to plunge her back into the full faith of her childhood. This is a very grown-up look at religious faith. At the end, she was still looking, but perhaps with less jaundiced eyes.

[Kendra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even if you have no interest in the history of Cleveland, Ohio (which I do) or a fascination with cloistered life (which I do), I think this book is a well-written account of grappling with doubt and understanding the incredible power of faith. A very timeless read.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate honesty, and the author of this book was honest in her belief and struggle with belief.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another rather quick read for me, due to the subject matter being of particular interest to me, as a somewhat lukewarm, lapsed Lutheran. The main essence of the entire book can best be encapsulated in a brief excerpt from the last few pages, when the author is having a conversation with the Mother Superior:

" 'How do you feel when you pray?'...'There you go about feeling again...I told you before it's not about feeling. You can't go by what you feel. You have to go by what you know - that God is there, that you're doing your best in all things.' " (p.250)

[sally j margraf · Rating 4 out of 5]

A struggle of faith.
A discovery of the importance of prayer based on the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. This sector of Nuns pray all around the clock.

It was an interesting view of prayer. As having struggled after unanswered prayers, this gave a new fresh look.

Overall a story, the depth of digging, and of asking lots of questions.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was in my to-read pile literally for years. It won the Nonfiction Book award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. It is a woman’s journey to rediscover her spirituality via the Poor Clares, a threadbard congration of cloistered nuns in Cleveland. Worth the read if matters of the spirit are tugging, and it has occasionally really lovely words worth underlining.

[Mandy Huot · Rating 5 out of 5]

truly amazing and inspiring book! looking forward to discussing it with my book group.

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book takes place in Cleveland and I enjoyed learning about their history. It does big down a bit. But the 'stalking' of the divine keeps you interested with new stories.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a stumbling Catholic like myself, the faith does not wane only the religion does

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m very familiar with cloistered nuns and found this very well researched and informative. The author’s search for faith is genuine and she leaves us wondering whether her quest will continue.

[JD Waggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not at all above checking out and reading books solely based on their titles or illustrations. This is a memoir, of sorts, mixed with a telling of the history of the Poor Clare order. Ohlson recounts her own various encounters of stalking faith (this really is quite a good description of it) after having stumbled into a Christmas Mass looking for something rather less tangible in her life. She works with and interviews the nuns of the convent, trying to use their faith to construct any of her own as well as simply being interested in them. She tells us their stories and we see the women behind the veil, see the fire that burns slowly, constantly; through these women we see the universal Church, the world, history, personality, family, Catholicism, grief, loss, hope, gain—life. And we see Ohlson’s life, stumblingly doubt-filled in the manner of all serious faith seekers.

I appreciate Ohlson’s writing style, gently and not-so-gently engaging the questions that have no answers, this weird expectation that we can’t understand and yet must try. I appreciate that she sees the beauty of this, looking past what we consider to be the oddity of women wanting to spend their lives in literally constant prayer away from other people to seeing that they are, in some ways, closer to others than anyone else, standing on the rooftops to pray for the city. I appreciate that she sees the intensity of Clare herself. ”Some writers burnish the lives of Clare and other saints until they’re flat; only their spiritual sheen is left behind…I think of her death as spontaneous combustion, the final self-immolation of a soul on fire.” (pp. 159-60)

What I liked very much about this (besides the intermittent history lessons, which in no way feel textbook-y but rather are intriguingly told stories, which is what history really is) was that it isn't a neatly ended memoir. It’s a faith journey. Ohlson admits that her “hold on faith is tremendously insecure” and that she “might always be at the fringe of this and every congregation. That I might never have the faith to walk in their midst.” (pp. 244, 245) Definitely a good accidental find, though perhaps not enough to track down the rest of Ohlson's works.

[Michelle Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not at all what I expected but I enjoyed it just the same. Rather than being didactic it was more of a personal journey of an ex-catholic returning to faith.
More than anything I enjoyed the glimpse into the lives of the Poor Clares. I often tell my husband that if I didn't have him or children I would become a nun. Learning about their (often very strict ways) fascinates me... alientating themselves from the world in order to be more intimate with God. The Poor Clares are especially fascinating, and learning a little of their history and how Clare herself was the first to desire the choice of poverty for women, which in that day was more like women's liberation. If you had money you had little choice about the decisions in your life--thus the belief to discard all the money was choosing how you wanted to live and who you wanted to marry (being GOD). Although not a catholic myself, I enjoy learning about some of the traditions that carry from so long ago.
Ohlson's view on faith, or lack of, confuses me. Reading this has made me realize what a big difference it makes in a person's life, whether or not they grew up believing in the spiritual. The supernatural isn't logical or scientific so it makes sense the Kingdom of Heaven is made up of children, because children find it easier to just believe in things that don't necessarily make sense. Which is what I believe anyone has to choose to do if they are to have faith in anything. Believe in the unseen without having the answers.

[Beryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kristin Ohlson stumbled onto the Poor Clares at just the right moment. It was Christmas morning and she was feeling bereft. A former Catholic who no longer believed in God, she impulsively decided to attend Mass at a church where she could hear the Poor Clares singing. Thus begins this intriguing saga of a search for faith and a newspaper story.

I would call this Divine Providence. Others might call it serendipity. Ohlson needed inspiration, and the Poor Clares needed the attention her journalistic interest would generate. True to the mentality of those who place their trust in God alone, the Poor Clares did not seek her help. It took her months to get the Clares to respond to her requests for an interview, and as she waited, she became involved in the ailing parish community attached to the convent.

Ohlson is an engaging narrator -- open, warm, and honest. She brings her full journalistic skills to this story. Despite my sadness at seeing the diminishment of vocations to contemplative living, I found her presentation of the life of a once flourishing community totally engrossing. Though I cannot claim, as another reviewer has that this is the current "Seven Story Mountain," I will say that I am very glad that I bought and read the book.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

One day in Goodwill this book jumped off the shelf at me. Not literally, but the subtitle, "Contemplating faith with the Poor Clares" caught my attention. Having only recently learned of this order of Catholic nuns, a female branch of the Fransiscans (some of my favorite religious order folks), I was curious to learn more.
The book is partly a somewhat typical spiritual memoir, with the author describing her process of seeking God and maybe, but not quite, finding Him. The really interesting quality of the book, though, is that the author is going on this spiritual journey while interviewing and writing a history of a branch of the Poor Clares in Cleveland, Ohio. I don't think I have ever had the opportunity to consider a contemplative nun's perspective on life and faith, and the women Ohlson talked to were fascinating.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would actually be a 2 1/2 stars. The information on the Poor Clares was interesting, and there were glimmers of inspiration. She begins the book as a non-believer, and ends up an almost-believer, so I guess I didn't see the point of her writing this in the first place.

I realize this is a work of NON-fiction, but this would have been fabulous as a novel, with the characters fleshed out a bit and a liberty taken with the stories of the people in the book. I think you could still get across the great faith that these women have and do justice to the Poor Clares.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of a lapsed Catholic unexpectedly rediscovering her faith when she stumbles upon the Saint Paul Shrine, a little-known cloister of Poor Clare nuns in Cleveland. The story is intriguing both as an exploration of faith (what is faith, and how does one find it in oneself?) and as a study of the cloister. The mini-profiles of some of the sisters and what brought them to the monastery in the first place is fascinating.

[Havilah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated by religion, so I knew that I would be interested in a book that delves into faith, especially that of an order of nuns that are as devout as these. I really enjoyed the book. There were parts that started to lose me, but for the most part it was an interesting look at woman who give up their lives for their faith and who devote themselves to praying for all of us. Even while I write this, the nuns of this order are praying for me and you. Interesting...

[Julie M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good glimpse of this Order of 'Poor Claires' - nuns in Cleveland who spend their entire existence in prayer for the world--that is their only calling. As far as the author's search to recapture her own spirituality, well, that's HER journey -- I was unintentionally less interested in THAT as I neared the end of this book.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've seen this book on my parents' bookshelf for years and was inspired to pick it up and read it thanks to a recent visit to a Cistercian Monastery. I am fascinated by the lives of those who've devoted themselves to God, and this memoir/investigative journalism piece provided a window into an order of religious women that I hadn't heard of before, the Poor Clares.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kristin Ohlson shares her experiences interviewing the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, a group of cloistered nuns in Cleveland. Unfortunately, I didn't really learn very much about the subjects, other than the obvious, which was the Poor Clare's love and devotion to God.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a book about nuns and their austere life, which is so not what I'm about, and yet I found myself drawn to it and drawn to the simplicity that they found for themselves. It was very well crafted, and I felt like a better person after I read it.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book follows one woman's search for understanding and meaning. It's not overtly or annoyingly religious, but explores the theme of spirituality and faith.

[Natasha]

i'm only a couple of chapters in , but so far i like it because i can relate to this author's feeling of being both inextricably connected to and hopelessly alienated from faith.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humorous and real.... oved this read!

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this and read it when Kristen was still on Readerville. Great book.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kristin Ohlson studies the Poor Clares and her outsider/insider views of religion and spirituality bring a new perspective.

[Jacki · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.lovelylittleshelf.com/2010...

[Teddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The author writes well and I felt as if I knew this sisters by the way the author wrote.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mediocre account of local author's research into the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, at St. Paul's at East 40th and Euclid Avenus.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir of the author's crisis of faith interwoven with the history of the Poor Clares, a group of nuns, interwoven with stories of a group of Poor Clares living in Cleveland.