The Camel Knows the Way: A Journey by Lorna Kelly

By Lorna Kelly

Book Overview

The Camel Knows the Way is a candid account of an extraordinary journey that pulls the reader into an irresistible, sometimes agonizing and ultimately thrilling quest for God. Lorna Kelly's odyssey... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0966478606
• ISBN13: 9780966478600
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Lorna Kelly
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

An Outstanding Chronicle of Amazing People

This wonderful book tells of Lorna Kelly's spiritual journey to improve her conscious contact with God. While some may seek God in churches or enlightening books, Ms. Kelly went to a different source: Mother Theresa. Her descriptions of the poor of Calcutta make any life in this country seem opulent by comparison, but they are told with un-whitewashed reality and truth. The descriptions of how the sisters there minister to the poor and sick are stories of tremendous courage that could only stem from unwavering faith. Interwoven with her experiences with Mother Theresa, Ms. Kelly describes her own life, her recovery from alcoholism and her unconventional career. The story is not told without excellent humor and more than a bit of gentle sarcasm. I can't recommend this book enough; in the end it has little to do with practicing religion and everything to do with committment to a better world and the faith to make it happen.

This Book Should Be a Movie

When Lorna Kelly asked me recently to read her book about her experiences with Mother Teresa, I initially thought, "Oh, Good Lord, here we go again." Having volunteered with the Missionaries of Charity and read books about Mother, anytime one crosses my path, a silent brainscream fills the room. Most are either heedlessly inflated by existentialist gases. Others have a sad dispirited homework smell to them. And others are not for the sucrose intolerant. But I was more than pleasantly surprised. As a senior editor at Forbes Magazine and a former Wall Street Journal reporter, I know superb writing when I see it. This book is full of it. After a long, dry absence, here, finally, was a book about Mother I couldn't put down. And when I did I had a feeling of unrelieved happiness and peace. The stock of superlatives can't be exhausted about this one. It's got Movie written all over it. What do I mean by that? Finally we have a book about Mother that shows the essence of what she really was about: Being fully human by embracing humanity. But first Ms. Kelly takes you on her 15-year quest for peace and the meaning of life. As Sotheby's first female auctioneer, Ms. Kelly knows of life's pleasantries. She also knows how alcohol can hollow out the spirit and what's it like to endure severe depression. Ms. Kelly's journey takes her from the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya where the Buddha received his enlightenment to the site of the True Cross. She's bathed in the sea of Galillee, prayed at the Western Wall, sat in meditation for months on end, fasted for 40 days, climbed Mount Sinai and spent time on a camel in the desert. All that, she knows, sounds very grand. But it's her firsthand travels and experiences overseas working and being with Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charities where her journey, and the joy, really begins. And Ms. Kelly delivers this journey with a bracing honesty, grace and a knife-sharp wit. I had already heard about Ms. Kelly from the sisters and about her legendary first encounter with Mother Teresa, in which Mother took one look at Ms. Kelly's red nail polish and told her to spend her money on the poor instead, to which Ms. Kelly replied that that's exactly what Judas said to Jesus. (Ms. Kelly might be surprised to know that the way the sisters tell it is that Ms. Kelly is a modern-day Mary Magdalene). In one hilarious sequence in her book, in of all places Kalighat, Mother's first home for the dying, Ms. Kelly writes that her compunction for orderliness makes her want to bellow, "All right, all right, we'll have no more dying today, all this dying simply has to stop!" Ms. Kelly is refreshingly candid. She writes of how she described to one of the sisters that "making love on acid, well, that was something else. It felt as if we were one and that the lovemaking could last forever," to which the sister replied, "Ah what heaven must be like!" She writes hilariously about the a

A Moving wonderful book

I'm keeping this book. Reading this book was an inspiring and spiritual experience. Mother Teresa and those that follow her have always interested me. How can people go into the world of the poor and stick with it. Read the book and find out! It's an eye opener.

Funny, intelligent, entrancing and inspiring.

In _The Camel Knows the Way_, Lorna Kelly invites her readers to join her in her spiritual quest for a closer relationship with God. As she begins her story, the reader learns that she is fascinated with Mother Teresa; so much so that she jets off to Calcutta to be near her. And thus begins her journey of spiritual growth and her unexpected friendship with the awe-inspiring Mother. Ms. Kelly's writing is direct; yet her images are so colorful that they enfold the reader in a world of intense suffering and poverty that is nevertheless surrounded by great joy and spiritual celebration. _The Camel Knows the Way_ amused, distressed and ultimately taught me much about Lorna Kelly, Mother Teresa and myself.