Northern Light
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For at least eight centuries, the Norwegian island of Tautra in the Trondheim fjord has been known for its spiritual waves and special light. In the Middle Ages, Cistercian monks established the northernmost monastery of the Order, living God-centered lives and developing skills such as land use and animal husbandry until the Reformation. In 1999, Cistercian nuns reestablished Tautra Mariakloster, the monastery of Our Lady of the Safe Island. Visitors to the modern monastery, distinguished by its glass-roofed church, quickly sense the silence, peace, and light of the place. Four of the women who live at Tautra have contributed to this volume of monastic wisdom from the north. They write of their experiences as monastics living close to the land, sky, and water on this island, following the liturgical year of the monastery with its enduring rhythm while experiencing the changing seasons and landscape that help to shape their life of faith and light. Includes color photos.
Abbreviations vii
Preface by Dom Brendan Freeman ix
Light by Sr. Sheryl Frances Chen xv
January
The Gift of Beauty by Sr. Hanne-Maria Berentzen 1
February
Daylight Returns by Sr. Anne Elizabeth Sweet 17
March
The Color of Lightby Sr. Sheryl Frances Chen 35
April
Passing Overby Sr. Anne Elizabeth Sweet 53
May
Perfect Dayby Sr. Maria Rafael Bartlett 75
June
Vulnerable as a Rock by Sr. Sheryl Frances Chen 85
July
Memories of Summer Silenceby Sr. Hanne-Maria Berentzen 101
August
Berries and Martyrsby Sr. Hanne-Maria Berentzen 117
September
Looking for the Next Crossby Sr. Sheryl Frances Chen 133
October
Ordinary Joyby Sr. Maria Rafael Bartlett 151
November
Lights in the Darknessby Sr. Anne Elizabeth Sweet 165
December
“The light shines in the darkness . . .” by Sr. Maria Rafael Bartlett 185
"This book is a valuable yearlong calendar of the life of the fourteen Cistercian nuns of the Mariakloster on Tautra Island in the Trondheim Fjord of Norway. Their extraordinary relationship to the natural world around them is compellingly described by four of them who are gifted writers and poets. Looking at nature broadly through the lens of their religious practice, they also examine their faith and commitment intimately through the lens of nature. The experiences of seasonal and temporal variations of darkness and light in the fjord are especially important to the deepening of their faith practice and their ever-growing connection to the spiritual world." Robert Benson, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio