cover image My Monastery is a Minivan: Where the Daily is Divine and the Routine Becomes Prayer

My Monastery is a Minivan: Where the Daily is Divine and the Routine Becomes Prayer

Denise Roy. Loyola Press, $14.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-8294-1687-9

As a young woman, Denise Roy seriously considered a cloistered religious life, but ultimately decided to forego the nun's habit in favor of the crazy but joyful world of marriage and motherhood. Now a psychotherapist and mother of four, Roy shares spiritual tips in My Monastery Is a Minivan: 35 Stories from a Real Life, from Loyola Press. ""Most of this book was written either in the middle of the night in my bathroom or in the middle of the day in our living room, where toys and soccer bags and an occasional kid surrounded me,"" she notes. Roy says that it's one thing to think and pray about forgiveness; it's quite another matter to put it into daily practice as a parent. These personal anecdotes are humorous and heartfelt; many parents will applaud her wise decision to find spiritual wisdom in the quotidian realities of washing dishes and tripping over Legos.