Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris

I picked up this third book of Kathleen Norris and told the friend who had recommended it to me about how unnecessary I thought the premise of this book was: to examine a vocabulary of faith. What does it matter; why should it matter; do I even care that it matters to someone?

A few pages into it, I was surprised to find myself more interested in Norris’ views of various words and phrases than I thought I would be. I realized that what matters more is the opportunity to pause and give thought to concepts surrounding those words – that “vocabulary of faith” – which in essence forms one’s belief system, nay, one’s deep and personal faith.  Because in doing so, one is actively avoiding the sad pitfalls of rhetoric and rituals becoming meaningless with time. (Perhaps it is important to clarify that it is the Christian faith that is in question here. )

This is not to say that I was in agreement with all of Norris’ views on the ways in which she defines many words and concepts, but it certainly clarified for me my own views and allowed me to reason with myself why it is I hold true to my own set of beliefs.

Kathleen Norris, of course, is a poet and a storyteller, and her narrative is infused with her many anecdotes of returning to her childhood hometown in South Dakota after having lived in the big city, and from her many experiences of being an oblate (a lay person) in a Benedictine monastery. She introduces and illumines a vocabulary that includes oft-used words such as prayer, incarnation, salvation, perfection, belief, doubt, idolatry, blood, God, preaching, hell, evangelism, Christian, Trinity, faith, fear, and grace.

Have you ever paused to think of what those words mean? Or what you think they mean?

On the concept of heaven, she quotes a Benedictine who told her dying mother that in heaven “everyone we love will be there.” The older woman replied, “No, in heaven I will love everyone who’s there”— a subtle yet significant alteration.

She goes on to quote Augustine on the value of belief in heaven for maintaining vision for life on earth:

Let us sing alleluia here on earth while we live in anxiety, so that we may sing it one day in heaven in full security… We shall have no enemies in heaven, we shall never lose a friend. God’s praises are sung both here and there, but here they are sung in anxiety, there in security; here they are sung by those destined to die, there, by those destined to live forever; here they are sung in hope, there in hope’s fulfillment; here they are sung by wayfarers, there, by those living in their own country. So then… let us sing now, not in order to enjoy a life of leisure, but in order to lighten our labors. You should sing as wayfarers do— sing, but continue your journey… Sing then, but keep going. (367–68).

One need not be a skeptic or even a believer to consider Norris’ views on these subjects of Christian faith, but simply an open-minded person who is seeking to learn or grow in one’s spiritual walk. And if you do happen to be a skeptic, Norris’ many references to poets, writers, even scientists who invoke the hand of the divine in their work may cause you to rethink your position even as your appetite is whetted for more information and knowledge on these concepts.

And eventually, perhaps even come to understand that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.