The first half of the book covers Hart’s childhood and family life, her entrance into the acting profession (including starring roles in several feature films alongside A-list stars like Montgomery Clift, as well as a Tony-nominated Broadway turn), her friendships (including her close friendship with Maria Cooper, daughter of actor Gary Cooper), and the development of her spiritual life, especially focused on her growing attraction to the Benedictine monastic life as lived at Regina Laudis. Once a rising star in Hollywood–she gave Elvis Presley his first on-screen kiss-Dolores Hart decided to enter the Abbey of Regina Laudis in 1963, at the age of 24.

Some readers may be familiar with Mother Dolores as the subject of the short film God is the Bigger Elvis, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short in 2012, and was screened on HBO later that year. The Ear of the Heart is the long-awaited autobiography of Mother Dolores Hart, OSB, a Benedictine nun and prioress at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, CT. The Ear of the Heart is an excellent and eminently readable book for anyone interested in monasticism or Hollywood, or anyone wondering why a Hollywood starlet-on-the-rise would turn down fame, fortune, and a line of handsome leading men in order to take up a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience enclosed within the boundaries of a Connecticut farm.

Mother Dolores Hart, O.S.B., & Richard DeNeut, The Ear of the Heart: An Actress’ Journey from Hollywood to Holy Vows.

The ear of the heart by dolores hart