Stalking the Divine

Stalking the Divine
Contemplating Faith with the Poor Clares

Kristin Ohlson
272 pages
Plume, reprinted 2004

Synopsis

Alone and separated from her children one Christmas, Kristin Ohlson attends Mass at an inner-city church in Cleveland. She had abandoned her faith over 30 years ago. While stirred by her childhood traditions, Ohlson's curiosity is piqued by the aging group of nuns who pray night and day for the sorrows of the world. Fascinated by these women, Ohlson enters the world of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration through a three-year dialogue, struggling to understand the devotion of these women, while re-connecting herself to the world of the divine and sacred.

Commendations

"Kristin Ohlson is a scrupulous observer and a wonderfully intent writer. She brings us right up against the mysterious silence of the Poor Clares and gets us to feel the pressure of their devotion. A fascinating book."

Sven Birkerts, author of My Sky Blue Trades and The Gutenberg Elegies

"One of those beautiful rare books that churns in a reader's heart long after you put it down, Stalking the Divine elegantly and honestly articulates the ache for faith in our world, in the solitude of the modern self — faith in anything, anyone, if not God — and Kristin Ohlson's lucid prose and deft reportage have persuaded me that this quest alone is the fundamental act of grace available to humanity."

Bob Shacochis, author of The Immaculate Invasion

"Ohlson's tale is witty and wry, insightful and inspirational — even for the non-Catholic, the non-Christian or those teetering on the heretical."

Rocky Mountain News

About the Author

Kristin Ohlson is a freelance fiction writer, essayist, and journalist whose work has been published in The New York Times, The Oprah Magazine, and Poets & Writers, among others. She teaches women prisoners at Cayahoga County jail and creative writing students at Cleveland State University. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

Review

Stalking the Divine: Contemplating Faith With the Poor Clares is a modern-day Seven Storey Mountain. My job requires me to read a lot of books, and this is simply the best one that I have read in the past 20 years.

Not since St. Clare turned back the invading armies of Frederick II in 1234, by raising a ciborium containing the Blessed Sacrament, have her descendants been considered a military threat. But recently, two Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration in Cleveland found themselves in conflict with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The two cloistered nuns, South Korean biological sisters, faced deportation. A ruling will permit them to stay as temporary business workers. Their story had made national headlines thanks in part to the author of this book about their community.

Author Kristin Ohlson found her secure world shaken when she stumbled upon the Poor Clares community a few years ago. Fascinated, she asked to enter the walls in order to write about their lives. The sisters resisted this, but did allow her to interview them, with the grill that separates them from the outside world between them. What unfolds in Stalking the Divine is an exposition of the spiritual life, not only of the sisters but of Ohlson and of whoever reads this fascinating book.

There is a touching moment in one of Ohlson's encounters with the Poor Clares that especially moved me. I realized, and I think most readers will also see, that the words spoken to the author are a testament of why Poor Clares pray night and day for the world. An elderly sister that Ohlson had just finished interviewing took Ohlson's hand, kissed it, and said, "I love you." Ohlson writes, "Usually, the people who say that get an automatic 'I love you' back, but it didn't seem right: She was loving me as a fellow creature made in the image of God, and my love is confined to a much tinier slice of humanity."

Therein lies the charm of this book, which could easily become the spiritual classic of our time. Ohlson's almost happenstance encounter with this cloistered community suddenly transforms her life. And her life is at the center of "Stalking the Divine." I say her life, but it would be more accurate to say that it is our life that she brings to her weekly interviews. Her questions are the questions of the modern world confronted with the seeming absurdity of those who leave it behind, forsaking all to give themselves fully to God.

Ohlson, a self-described former Maoist and lapsed Catholic, is moved by the witness of the nuns. I think anyone who reads her moving narrative will share in this admiration. She writes, "I guess I'm tired of a world with so little faith. I'm tired of marriages that fall apart because people won't persevere through the dry, dull, miserable periods; I'm tired of people who have given up on making the world better; I'm tired of people who cynically deconstruct everything for their own amusement -- and I've been all these people. These nuns fell in love with God, married him after a long, careful courtship, and have stuck with him year after year."

Ohlson's account reads like a pilgrimage of discovery both of the lives and vocations of the sisters but also her own call from God as she struggles to encounter God in prayer and belief.

Perhaps Poor Clares, who give up everything and follow Christ in a radical way, do present a "security risk," not to our country but to those of us who have grown complacent in our faith.

Michael Dubriel

Copyright (c) 2003 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written consent of Catholic News Service.

Links

Order at Amazon

Order at Powell's

kristinohlson.com

Ohlson's Interview at TheSocialEdge.com

An Ohlson Essay at KillingtheBuddha.com

Discussion Guide for Stalking the Divine

1. Kristin Ohlson discovers the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration's church on Christmas Day, a day she says is “always ribboned with loneliness and impossible yearning and melancholy.” Why was she drawn to the church on this particular day? Do you find yourself more drawn to faith on such days? To community?

2. Ohlson says that in the past, she considered faith “a kind of sickness, something that allowed the soothing delusion of divine power.” Have you ever felt this way about faith? Do you know anyone who does? Did her or she, or you change—and if so, what was the impetus?

3. When she first entered the Poor Clares' church, St. Paul Shrine, Ohlson says “nothing inside met my expectations.” Do you think it was this gap between expectation and experience that allowed her to open up to faith? Has this ever happened to you?

4. When Ohlson sees Father Senan walk through the church in his Franciscan robes after Mass, she was as delighted as if she'd “traveled into the Middle Ages and was face to face with Friar Tuck.” How much do you think the trappings of faith—the robes, the statues, the candles, the rituals, and so on—appealed to Ohlson? How do they affect your own spiritual life?

5. In her letter asking the Poor Clares if they'd let her write about them, Ohlson tells them that her interest is, in part, personal—that she has a wistfulness for faith and wants to learn about it from those who never left it behind in the first place. Do you agree with Ohlson's notion that there are many people who have this same wistfulness for faith? Why do you think some people remain believers all their lives and others fall away, at least for a while?

6. When one of Ohlson's friends tells her she's “so good” for going to Mass every Sunday, Ohlson says that she actually wants to go—that somehow, “the act of going had created the desire to go.” How have spiritual observances developed into habits for you? Do you think these habits are more meaningful when they are freely chosen, as in Ohlson's case, or when they are dictated by a church, synagogue or mosque? What do you think helps people incorporate faith into their daily lives?

7. The Poor Clares pray for Ohlson's mother, and she recovers from a devastating illness. Ohlson isn't comfortable labeling this as a miracle, even though the Poor Clares are. What do you think? What do you think a miracle is?

8. While she was writing the book, Ohlson says she encountered many misunderstandings about the life of a cloistered, contemplative nun. What do you think would be the hardest thing about this kind of life? What would be the best part? Did your view change after you read Stalking the Divine ?

9. One of the Poor Clares tells Ohlson that for her, faith often means just going through the motions—meaning that she often doesn't feel close to God, even though she has chosen this most-intense form of religious life. Do you think many people lead a life of faith without feeling close to God? What sustains their faith when they don't have this feeling?

10. Ohlson writes that Clare of Assisi—the original Poor Clare—begged a series of popes for the gift of poverty. In our society, people rarely think of poverty as a gift! Do you think Clare's ideals make much sense for this day and age?

11. At the end of the book, Mother James tells Ohlson that prayer helps maintain the balance between good and evil in the world. What do you think prayer does, if anything? How do you define it?

12. Ohlson clearly doesn't agree with all the teachings of the Catholic Church, yet she seems to feel at home at St. Paul Shrine anyway. Do you think many believers have similar disagreements with some of the positions and beliefs of their church, synagogue or mosque, yet decide that is where they belong? Can their faith somehow transcend those disagreements?

13. One of the nuns tells Ohlson that when she was young, she used to try hard to be good but then realized that, “God didn't need my goodness—he wanted my love.” If you're a believer, what do you think God wants of you?

14. Ohlson often uses humor as she discusses her struggle to understand faith. Do you think this is a mark of her continuing discomfort with faith, or is it part of an effort to make faith less daunting?

15. If Ohlson had not stumbled upon the Poor Clares, do you think she would have eventually found faith anyway? Is coming to faith a matter of fate for certain people, or is there a large element of chance involved? Or does it only seem like chance? Was she stalking the divine, or was the divine stalking her?

16. Or—do you wonder if Ohlson did, in fact, find faith? Where do you think she tells you that she did—or not? Does the book have the kind of climax—the satisfying “aha!”—that you expected? Or is this not the kind of thing that you expect from a memoir?

17. What do you find most appealing about Ohlson's voice as a writer? With which aspects of her character do you most and least identify?

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	Order at Amazon Order at Powell's Discussion Guide		Stalking the Divine Contemplating Faith with the Poor Clares Kristin Ohlson 272 pages Plume, reprinted 2004 Synopsis Alone and separated from her children one Christmas, Kristin Ohlson attends Mass at an inner-city church in Cleveland. She had abandoned her faith over 30 years ago. While stirred by her childhood traditions, Ohlson's curiosity is piqued by the aging group of nuns who pray night and day for the sorrows of the world. Fascinated by these women, Ohlson enters the world of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration through a three-year dialogue, struggling to understand the devotion of these women, while re-connecting herself to the world of the divine and sacred. Commendations "Kristin Ohlson is a scrupulous observer and a wonderfully intent writer. She brings us right up against the mysterious silence of the Poor Clares and gets us to feel the pressure of their devotion. A fascinating book." Sven Birkerts, author of My Sky Blue Trades and The Gutenberg Elegies "One of those beautiful rare books that churns in a reader's heart long after you put it down, Stalking the Divine elegantly and honestly articulates the ache for faith in our world, in the solitude of the modern self — faith in anything, anyone, if not God — and Kristin Ohlson's lucid prose and deft reportage have persuaded me that this quest alone is the fundamental act of grace available to humanity." Bob Shacochis, author of The Immaculate Invasion "Ohlson's tale is witty and wry, insightful and inspirational — even for the non-Catholic, the non-Christian or those teetering on the heretical." Rocky Mountain News About the Author Kristin Ohlson is a freelance fiction writer, essayist, and journalist whose work has been published in The New York Times, The Oprah Magazine, and Poets & Writers, among others. She teaches women prisoners at Cayahoga County jail and creative writing students at Cleveland State University. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio. Review Stalking the Divine: Contemplating Faith With the Poor Clares is a modern-day Seven Storey Mountain. My job requires me to read a lot of books, and this is simply the best one that I have read in the past 20 years. Not since St. Clare turned back the invading armies of Frederick II in 1234, by raising a ciborium containing the Blessed Sacrament, have her descendants been considered a military threat. But recently, two Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration in Cleveland found themselves in conflict with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The two cloistered nuns, South Korean biological sisters, faced deportation. A ruling will permit them to stay as temporary business workers. Their story had made national headlines thanks in part to the author of this book about their community. Author Kristin Ohlson found her secure world shaken when she stumbled upon the Poor Clares community a few years ago. Fascinated, she asked to enter the walls in order to write about their lives. The sisters resisted this, but did allow her to interview them, with the grill that separates them from the outside world between them. What unfolds in Stalking the Divine is an exposition of the spiritual life, not only of the sisters but of Ohlson and of whoever reads this fascinating book. There is a touching moment in one of Ohlson's encounters with the Poor Clares that especially moved me. I realized, and I think most readers will also see, that the words spoken to the author are a testament of why Poor Clares pray night and day for the world. An elderly sister that Ohlson had just finished interviewing took Ohlson's hand, kissed it, and said, "I love you." Ohlson writes, "Usually, the people who say that get an automatic 'I love you' back, but it didn't seem right: She was loving me as a fellow creature made in the image of God, and my love is confined to a much tinier slice of humanity." Therein lies the charm of this book, which could easily become the spiritual classic of our time. Ohlson's almost happenstance encounter with this cloistered community suddenly transforms her life. And her life is at the center of "Stalking the Divine." I say her life, but it would be more accurate to say that it is our life that she brings to her weekly interviews. Her questions are the questions of the modern world confronted with the seeming absurdity of those who leave it behind, forsaking all to give themselves fully to God. Ohlson, a self-described former Maoist and lapsed Catholic, is moved by the witness of the nuns. I think anyone who reads her moving narrative will share in this admiration. She writes, "I guess I'm tired of a world with so little faith. I'm tired of marriages that fall apart because people won't persevere through the dry, dull, miserable periods; I'm tired of people who have given up on making the world better; I'm tired of people who cynically deconstruct everything for their own amusement -- and I've been all these people. These nuns fell in love with God, married him after a long, careful courtship, and have stuck with him year after year." Ohlson's account reads like a pilgrimage of discovery both of the lives and vocations of the sisters but also her own call from God as she struggles to encounter God in prayer and belief. Perhaps Poor Clares, who give up everything and follow Christ in a radical way, do present a "security risk," not to our country but to those of us who have grown complacent in our faith. Michael Dubriel Copyright (c) 2003 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written consent of Catholic News Service. Links Order at Amazon Order at Powell's kristinohlson.com Ohlson's Interview at TheSocialEdge.com An Ohlson Essay at KillingtheBuddha.com Discussion Guide for Stalking the Divine 1. Kristin Ohlson discovers the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration's church on Christmas Day, a day she says is “always ribboned with loneliness and impossible yearning and melancholy.” Why was she drawn to the church on this particular day? Do you find yourself more drawn to faith on such days? To community? 2. Ohlson says that in the past, she considered faith “a kind of sickness, something that allowed the soothing delusion of divine power.” Have you ever felt this way about faith? Do you know anyone who does? Did her or she, or you change—and if so, what was the impetus? 3. When she first entered the Poor Clares' church, St. Paul Shrine, Ohlson says “nothing inside met my expectations.” Do you think it was this gap between expectation and experience that allowed her to open up to faith? Has this ever happened to you? 4. When Ohlson sees Father Senan walk through the church in his Franciscan robes after Mass, she was as delighted as if she'd “traveled into the Middle Ages and was face to face with Friar Tuck.” How much do you think the trappings of faith—the robes, the statues, the candles, the rituals, and so on—appealed to Ohlson? How do they affect your own spiritual life? 5. In her letter asking the Poor Clares if they'd let her write about them, Ohlson tells them that her interest is, in part, personal—that she has a wistfulness for faith and wants to learn about it from those who never left it behind in the first place. Do you agree with Ohlson's notion that there are many people who have this same wistfulness for faith? Why do you think some people remain believers all their lives and others fall away, at least for a while? 6. When one of Ohlson's friends tells her she's “so good” for going to Mass every Sunday, Ohlson says that she actually wants to go—that somehow, “the act of going had created the desire to go.” How have spiritual observances developed into habits for you? Do you think these habits are more meaningful when they are freely chosen, as in Ohlson's case, or when they are dictated by a church, synagogue or mosque? What do you think helps people incorporate faith into their daily lives? 7. The Poor Clares pray for Ohlson's mother, and she recovers from a devastating illness. Ohlson isn't comfortable labeling this as a miracle, even though the Poor Clares are. What do you think? What do you think a miracle is? 8. While she was writing the book, Ohlson says she encountered many misunderstandings about the life of a cloistered, contemplative nun. What do you think would be the hardest thing about this kind of life? What would be the best part? Did your view change after you read Stalking the Divine ? 9. One of the Poor Clares tells Ohlson that for her, faith often means just going through the motions—meaning that she often doesn't feel close to God, even though she has chosen this most-intense form of religious life. Do you think many people lead a life of faith without feeling close to God? What sustains their faith when they don't have this feeling? 10. Ohlson writes that Clare of Assisi—the original Poor Clare—begged a series of popes for the gift of poverty. In our society, people rarely think of poverty as a gift! Do you think Clare's ideals make much sense for this day and age? 11. At the end of the book, Mother James tells Ohlson that prayer helps maintain the balance between good and evil in the world. What do you think prayer does, if anything? How do you define it? 12. Ohlson clearly doesn't agree with all the teachings of the Catholic Church, yet she seems to feel at home at St. Paul Shrine anyway. Do you think many believers have similar disagreements with some of the positions and beliefs of their church, synagogue or mosque, yet decide that is where they belong? Can their faith somehow transcend those disagreements? 13. One of the nuns tells Ohlson that when she was young, she used to try hard to be good but then realized that, “God didn't need my goodness—he wanted my love.” If you're a believer, what do you think God wants of you? 14. Ohlson often uses humor as she discusses her struggle to understand faith. Do you think this is a mark of her continuing discomfort with faith, or is it part of an effort to make faith less daunting? 15. If Ohlson had not stumbled upon the Poor Clares, do you think she would have eventually found faith anyway? Is coming to faith a matter of fate for certain people, or is there a large element of chance involved? Or does it only seem like chance? Was she stalking the divine, or was the divine stalking her? 16. Or—do you wonder if Ohlson did, in fact, find faith? Where do you think she tells you that she did—or not? Does the book have the kind of climax—the satisfying “aha!”—that you expected? Or is this not the kind of thing that you expect from a memoir? 17. What do you find most appealing about Ohlson's voice as a writer? With which aspects of her character do you most and least identify? order † † Back to the Top

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