The doctor recommends surgery, and is fairly certain that he can cure the condition-which was quite probably the root of her visions in the first place. But trouble intervenes when Sister John develops a series of chronic migraines and is diagnosed with a rare epileptic disorder. Suspicious of false visionaries by nature (and according to the precepts of the Rule of their order), the other nuns gradually come to trust the reality of Sister John’s spiritual insights and look upon her as a kind of guide and anchor for the community. An intellectual (and a writer), Sister John suffers many years of barren unhappiness at the Carmel before she begins to enjoy visions and moments of ecstatic happiness in prayer. Center-stage here is Sister John of the Cross, who entered the Carmel (convent) in 1969. Salzman, however, has clearly researched his subject well, and has assembled a credible cast in a reasonable facsimile of a strictly enclosed convent. To write from the perspective of a contemplative nun is no small undertaking, since most enclosed convents allow few visitors (and certainly no men) much access to the inner workings of their daily lives. A deliberate and somewhat plodding account of life inside a Carmelite convent, told with a surfeit of awe by Salzman ( The Soloist, 1994 the nonfiction Lost in Place, 1995), who seems to have read too much Rumer Godden for his own good.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |