The Cloister Walk

What could a married woman learn from a Benedictine monastery? This is what Kathleen Norris asks herself as she begins an extended stay at one in Minnesota. Yet upon leaving the monastery, the daily events in her secular life take on new meaning.

In the monastery, time slows down. Immersion in the cloistered world -- its liturgy, its rituals, its sense of community -- teaches Norris to appreciate and savor everyday events. In affecting prose, she takes us through a liturgical year as she exper…