Emily Barone is sure in her decision to become a member of the Mater Christi Monastery. Nervous but confident that in this place, with these women, in this life, she will be able to find her place, to paraphrase the old Baltimore Catechism, to know, love and serve God in this world and to be with Him forever in the next.

Not that it will be without it's problems. Any community contains a variety of talents and personalities and some inevitable conflicts. And to give up a large degree of ones automony, to follow a strict rule of poverty and obedience, is easy for no one. But Emily, now given the religious name Sister Mary Amata...because as the novice mistress tells her “Amata means beloved. I want you to know in a real way that you are beloved of Christ”...has another very big issue keeping her from giving herself fully to this life.
Her brother was killed, shot by a madman who shot a number of seminarians as they raked leaves on the lawn of their school one fall day, and then took his own life. Sister Mary Amata can not forgive the shooter and can not surrender her anger.

“What did you come here for?...you must give it all to God...even the deep wound in your heart. You must forgive”

This is a short, lovely little gem of a book, the debut work of Sister Mary Catherine Perry, a member of the cloistered Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, NJ. Certainly, the monastic life, especially that of the cloistered orders, is not something many people are familiar with. To those unfamiliar, I think book is a very nice, very real and certainly, considering the author, very authentic glimpse into this life, the daily rhythm of prayer, work and community. “In striving to live with one mind and heart in God, they seek to know and love God in the living of the traditional monastic observances of daily Holy Mass, chanted divine Office, lecto divina, private prayer, study and work.” ( )

When Sister Maria Amata--the former Emily Barone--enters newly-established Mater Christi Monastery, she is eager to become a spouse of Christ--to give all she is and has to God. However, Sister Maria Amata finds that living in the monastery with the other nuns radically confronts her understanding of the life itself and her own motives. Why di ... (to read more see "A Look Inside")