The Nuns of TAUTRA MARIAKLOSTER, Northern Light. Preface by Dom Brendan Freeman, OCSO. Monastic Wisdom Series: Number Sixty.  Publications. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2020. xv + 201 pages. Reviewed by Andrew D. CIFERNI, Daylesford Abbey, Paoli, Pennsylvania

Intersectionality is an important contemporary thought instrument in many fields but especially in sociology, practical theology and spirituality. Recognizing how various vectors intersect in pursuing research and reflecting upon, inter alia, social issues and spiritual direction will reveal the depth of reality not attended to in more one-dimensional considerations.

The four Cistercian authors of Northern Light provide an exemplary account of how a thoroughly integrated contemplative practice can draw into a unified vision the intersectionality of the environment, liturgical prayer, the cycles of seasons affecting field to refectory table, ecumenical relationships, and authentic devotion to the culture of the monastery in which sisters from eight different nations and languages strive to re-establish monastic life in a secularized Scandinavian land, Norway.

In 1999 the Cistercian nuns of Our Lady of the Mississippi re-founded on Norway ’s Tautra Island the monastery of Our Lady of the Safe Harbor on a site within walking distance of the ruins of the medieval Cistercian nunnery of Mariakloster. In this inspiring “Monastic Wisdom” work, four of the nuns present a journal-like account of their life as month by month, liturgical season by season, feast by feast they connect changes in light, and the color of fjord waters with the liturgical texts they sing in Norwegian which is the first language of only two among them.

Though a cloistered community, these women are in communication and communion with their Lutheran neighbors; and they participate joyfully in the traditional national celebrations of their adopted land.  Their descriptions of life within their convent do not hide the tensions endemic to monastics committed to lifelong commitment to the same members in one place (the vow of stability).

Those drawn to pick up this fine work would do well to begin by studying closely the fine color photographs included in the book. They provide a visual complement to the fine narrative and poetry of the text.