5/24/2023 0 Comments Lying awake salzman![]() ![]() ![]() She became an ember carried upward by the heat of an invisible flame. Salzman describes this state of grace in simple, moving terms that are never too overstated or melodramatic: Pure awareness stripped her of everything. ![]() After years of spiritual barrenness in which she merely went through the motions, she received a miraculous gift: the ability to connect with the Divine directly in rapturous visions that inspire her to write luminous poetry. Though self-abnegation, humility and sacrifice are paramount to the order's way of life, Sister John can't hide the fact that there is something dazzlingly different about her. On the outskirts of present-day Los Angeles, Sister John of the Cross lives out her austere and highly disciplined days as a contemplative nun in an isolated Carmelite monastery. In simple language infused with poetry, Salzman tells us what can happen when profound religious commitment collides with the tangled, ambiguous reality of being human. Though Lying Awake is the kind of book that can easily be read in a couple of hours, its impact reverberates like the tolling of chimes long after the final chapter ends. In his brief, spare psalm of a novel, Mark Salzman probes the mind and heart of a Christian mystic with delicacy, compassion and insight. ![]()
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