Virgin Time: In Search of the Contemplative Life - Hardcover

Hampl, Patricia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374284407 ISBN 13: 9780374284404

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992

Synopsis

A gifted writer's inquiry into one of the most profound yet least discussed issues of contemporary American life: the individual's search for faith. It tells of Hampl's quest to escape the indelible brand of a Catholic upbringing, following her to the "old world" of Catholocism in Spain and France, where she meets other pilgrims, back home again, and finally to a monastery in northern California, where she is able to settle into the real goal of her search: the silence of prayer.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Virgin Time is a book that goes to the heart of one of the most profound yet least discussed issues of contemporary American life: the individual's search for faith. It is "a passionate inquiry", as Patricia Hampl puts it, "into the sources of wonder that cause a person to say, 'I believe.'" Hampl's book begins as a grudging quest - not to find something, but to shake the indelible brand of a Catholic upbringing. In her search, she travels to the "old world" of Catholicism, in Italy and France, and inevitably her pilgrimage is peopled with other pilgrims - crotchety English agnostics, American Franciscan friars and nuns, the surging crowds of Lourdes with their candles and incurable illnesses, and the eccentric seekers that fill every charter flight. Inevitably, too, she finds the "old world" right at home, in the very past she had tried to escape. Finally, on a visit to a monastery near the Lost Coast of Northern California, she is able to settle into the real goal of her search: the silence of prayer. Virgin Time meets head-on the challenges to spirituality raised by contemporary life and responds to them searchingly, honestly, and movingly. Patricia Hampl's new book has unforgettable resonating power.

From the Inside Flap

"A religious cliff-hanger--intimate, compelling, hard to put down."
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Eager to shake off the indelible brand of a Catholic upbringing, Patricia Hample seeks the "old world" of Catholicism. On her pilgrimage she meets others seekers--crotchety English agnostics, American Franciscan friars and nuns, and the seekers that fill every charter flight. Inevitably, too, she finds the "old world" right at home, in the very past she had tried to escape. But what she is looking for confronts her, finally, on a rereat at a monastery near the Lost Coast of northern California in the still, virgin moments of silent prayer....

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0374284407
• ISBN 13: 9780374284404
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 326