What could the Modernist iconoclasts of the early 20th century have to teach us about sacramentality? I think you’ll be surprised. By looking beyond the surface of Virginia Woolf’s poetic prose, we can almost taste the spiritual realities hiding behind everyday things, and in the wake of the great Feast of Corpus Christi, Woolf’s vivid imagery can help us awaken all the more to the ‘Godhead here in hiding’.

The cry of Christianity & Poetry is a plangent one—and it is not just the cry of the poet. For many Catholics desiring a rich encounter with God in His Church, the Catholic aesthetic life has suffered a deeply felt erosion of its artistic integrity and its capacity for awakening wonder. Is a return to poetry the road to restoration? (A review of Wiseblood Books'  Christianity and Poetry (2023).)

Having suggested that a love of beauty is not all plain sailing, we glean an insight from the monastic life for walking the Via Pulchritudinis well, and going from glory to glory with God.

“Beauty will save the world,” said Prince Lev Nikolyaevich Myshkin in Dosteovsky’s The Idiot, and indeed beauty is something we are being readily encouraged to embrace in the Church and the world to enrich our lives and walk as a path to God in His Truth. But is the path all sunshine and roses? Or are their traps along the way for unwary travelers? We take a look at some of the darker side of beauty and keep our eyes open as we walk the Via Pulchritudinis.

A Christmas Carol? During Lent?! 

Yes, you read that correctly. But, surely we’re just mixing up our liturgical seasons?

Perhaps, but this Christmas classic might also be the paradoxical key that helps us unlock the challenge and gift of Lent. 

Writing sanctity is hard, but Helen C. White pushes her craft to its limits to capture the paradoxical majesty of Saint Francis of Assisi. (A review of Cluny Media’s Bird of Fire (2024).)

So, what are a bunch of nuns doing commenting on literature anyway? A valid question, and one that obviously underpins the whole of our enterprise here at The Nuns’ Nook. Shouldn’t we be focused on something a little more spiritual? We take a look at the intimate connection between the literary and the contemplative.

When Thomas Egerton published Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park in 1814, it sold out its first print run in six months. Today, Fanny Price is often declared Austen's least-inspiring heroine. What happened? Somewhere we lost sight of the robust wonder of developing a broad heart.

Stop in here for contemplative reflections on all things literary, including the place of the written word in prayer, book recommendations, and much, much more!