The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery: Report from a Trappist Monastery Book

This is a diary, and thus, has no start-to-finish page-turning narrative engineered to wow and awe. This is, however, a diary, and thus instead of offering premeditated platitudes, messages, and escapes from our humanity, presses into the simple and mundane. It's honest, so so very honest, the most honest of Henri I've read. He talks about what makes him tired, angry, sad, and joyful. He talks about his shame, his guilt, his agony of the hurting world. He struggles to keep up with the manual work of baking bread and moving rocks. He acknowledges his identity struggles in his longing for affirmation and feelings of loneliness. He spends 7 months actively trying not to engage in his compulsive "oughts", with which I all too heavily relate. He asks really big questions, but deeply engages with the smallest and most important ones. I understand my own heart a little better from this read, and have more importantly gained just a little more insight into how to let God be the center of my being. I highly recommend if these things interest you. It's not screaming for attention, it's not lecturing, it's a collection of gentle thoughts trying to lean into a more Gentle Voice.