Tag: memoir

• Sorry, No Catholics Allowed

  At age twenty-six in the summer of 1968, I visit the Bruderhof community in northern Connecticut, stepping through its stone wall and wrought-iron gate into a pastoral world that feels suspended in time.

  RMDell’Orfano

  February 25, 2026

  Autobio

  1968, Anabaptist tradition, bruderhof, Christian communal living, communal property, Connecticut, Deer Spring, intentional community, memoir, New England countryside, pastoral landscape, religious experiment, spiritual searching

• Terror in the Night

  A night of shelter at a remote monastery descends into terror when a fellow traveler appears at the foot of the bed with a knife. What follows is a silent vigil of fear, prayer, and survival beneath the Abbey’s ancient walls.

  RMDell’Orfano

  February 4, 2026

  Autobio

  contemplative life, evil and grace, faith under threat, memoir, monastic life, moral testing, near-death experience, pilgrimage, prayer and deliverance, psychological terror, sacred space, spiritual memoir, trauma and faith, violence and survival