Absolutely priceless. The woman who has spent thirty years undermining the Church's defense of human life -- and who had the audacity to throw her weight behind a self-identified Catholic presidential candidate who took checks from late-term abortionists -- feels she has something to say about human suffering. Would that they could speak, the souls of the 40 million victims of abortion she ignored throughout her now fading career might have something to say to her.
Sister Joan's battle with "struggle is neither endurance nor denial..." She begins with the chapter, "Struggle of Change" as a private battle! Then she carries us through her process of the Gifts of Conversion, Faith, Courage, Independence, Limitations, Darkness, Surrender, Endurance, Struggle of Scarring... Finally comes the essence of her Old Testament Theme: "Wrestling with God" to her Big chapters into Hope! Most of these chapters have progressed from her private battle becoming the Public Battle in her awesome experience. Thus the chief reason for Prof Walter Brueggemann describing her as "One Fearsome Lady!"
Upon arriving in my second reading of her chapter on "The Gift of Independence, I was caught-up by her graphic short sentences descibing Independence: "We can dream again... We can go on without learning or withering. Isolation erodes spiritual independence... But the truth remains. Nothing lasts! At its healthiest, the human spirit is irrepressible and the human heart seeks hope!" What a tremendous statement of spiritual optimism!
She concludes her key chapter with an agreement, noted in other reviews, that she no longer writes fiction but a great number of other things and has loved every minute of it. As introduction to her hopeful thoughts she quotes the Persian mystical poet Rumi: "I saw God drinking a cup of sorrow and called out,
"It tastes sweet, does it not?'
"You've caught me, Grief answered,
"And you've ruined my business.
How can I sell sorrow
when you know it's a blessing?"
What an astonishing spiritual Revelation of Renewal for Lent... Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood
