Just published is a new and remarkable memoir by the gifted spiritual writer and poet Kathleen Norris. For many years she underwent her own “dark night” of the soul. In a letter to the reader she tells of her study and investigation into this state of spiritual dryness, a sense of not caring about anything, and the effects it had on her family, caring for her husband, her writing and so on. “Acedia was once one of the ‘eight bad thoughts’ of the early Christian monks,” she writes, “only to be submerged and effectively hidden from view when those thoughts were codified by the Church as the ‘seven deadly sins.’” 

In graceful prose and with complete candor, she chronicles her struggle and the support she received from a wonderful community of Benedictines and ultimately emerging to see herself again. The book draws much on the thoughts and writings of early church fathers and mothers, philosophers, saints, ancient and modern writers, and poets, who are quoted liberally throughout. She has drawn from a deep well to enrich this account of a notable spiritual journey. As with her book The Cloister Walk, Acedia & Me is part memoir, part meditation—but with Norris’s singular voice and literary attentiveness.

Read Father William Barrys review of Acedia & Me in America magazine, or listen to an interview with Kathleen Norris on our weekly podcast.

To purchase a copy of Acedia & Me from Amazon.com, click here.