Pick Up River Of Fire: My Spiritual Journey Conceived By Helen Prejean Displayed As Leaflet
received a copy of River of Fire from Random House Publishing Group through Netgalley,
One of the most noticable things about this book is the compassion in which it is written,
This is all that happened before Dead Man Walking one of my alltime favorite books,
I am not at all religious but enjoyed it very much, I had the opportunity to hear Sr, Helen Prejean speak and reading this is very similar to hearing her talk, She is wonderful and energized and her call to action her journey towards that call fills me with hope, A warm and candid memoir, River of Fire discusses the first half of Sr, Helen Prejean's life, before she began her work as an antideath penalty advocate, the work for which she is now best known.
It focuses on how Prejean's ideas about faith and vocation gradually shifted, from an insular piety as a young woman to ones which engaged more fully with the complexity of poverty, racism, and other forms of injustice.
Reading Prejean's memoir reminded me that there are things I can admire about those who have religious faith, Reading the strident TradCath reviews of it here, which chastise Prejean for believing in God the "wrong" way, remind me of some of the many reasons why I walked away from Catholicism a long time ago.
Several years ago while serving on the board of Habitat for Humanity I became friends with several Nuns in our community from the Sisters of St.
Joseph. One of these wonderful devoted women Sister Beth LeValley shared with me Sister Helen Prejean's book Dead Man Walking, It was so powerful.
Born to an uppermiddleclass Baton Rouge family, Prejean joined the Sisters of of St, Joseph shortly after high school in the lates, Justyears old, she knew that her mission was to be an “obedient daughter of Mother Church” and find union with God.
What she did not know was that her “Mother Church” would soon change forever, The liberalization policies developed by the Vatican II Council in the earlys not only affected how Prejean saw herself, but also how she understood her place, both in the church and in the world.
She was inspired by the writings of Thomas Merton as am I, The seed of Mertonian wisdom were planted and began to sprout,
Yet it would not
be until thes that Prejean awakened to her true calling to help the poor and socially disenfranchised.
In, she began working as a volunteer educator in the allblack St, Thomas housing project, where she began the prison penpal relationship that would define the next chapter of her life as an antideath penalty advocate.
Prejean chronicles the compelling, sometimesdifficult journey to the heart of her soul and faith with wit, honesty, and intelligence,
The book is Sister Helen's recollections of a life led by the Spirit to places she never dreamed of going.
It challenges all of us to be better at loving God and neighbor and be more open to the journey of faith that puts faith into action, and prayer into practice.
She did not set out to “change the world” but to enter the ascetic life of a nun which proved to be the spiritual foundation that undergirds the difficult ministry she has performed for the lastyears.
She has testified in court and before legislators, speaking in public venues, been portrayed in an Oscarwinning role, all of which bring her great praise and attention.
However, the years of religious devotion, meditation, reflection and study of theology are largely unacknowledged,
Like the best spiritual memoirs, the book challenges each of us to examine how we do or do not put our faith into action and pursue a life of discipleship.
Discipleship demands ongoing conversion. Sister Helen was not immediately convinced of the validity of nuns getting involved in "social justice" efforts after Vatican II, In fact, she describes how she was resistant to it, It seemed as though religious sisters were neglecting what she viewed as their primary vocation, She had been a Sister of St, Joseph for decades before she became involved in social justice,
Sister Helen's journey, is a journey of gradual changes, unexpected encounters, and uncomfortable beginnings, Sister Helen quotes Irenaeus of Lyons stating that: "the glory of God is the human person fully alive, " God does not desire restricted, isolated, selfprotected individuals but women and men alive in all their messiness,
Favorite Quotes:
“I guess when you're not awake, you're not awake, Waking up to the suffering of people who are different from us is a long process, and has a whole lot to do with what community we belong to and whose consciousness and life experiences impact our own on a daily basis.
I have a hunch I'm going to be waking up until the moment I die, ”
“I'm taking a fresh look at the American Dream and who gets to live it and who doesn't, ” "River of Fire is Sister Helen's story leading up to her acclaimed book Dead Man Walkingit is thoughtprovoking, informative, and inspiring.
Read it and it will set your heart ablaze!"Mark Shriver, author of Pilgrimage: My Search for the Real Pope Francis
The nation's foremost leader in efforts to abolish the death penalty shares the story of her growth as a spiritual leader, speaks out about the challenges of the Catholic Church, and shows that joy and religion are not mutually exclusive.
Sister Helen Prejean's work as an activist nun, campaigning to educate Americans about the inhumanity of the death penalty, is known to millions worldwide.
Less widely known is the evolution of her spiritual journey from praying for God to solve the world's problems to engaging fulltilt in working to transform societal injustices.
Sister Helen grew up in a welloff Baton Rouge family that still employed black servants, She joined the Sisters of St, Joseph at the age of eighteen and was in her forties when she had an awakening that her life's work was to immerse herself in the struggle of poor people forced to live on the margins of society.
Sister Helen writes about the relationships with friends, fellow nuns, and mentors who have shaped her over the years, In this honest and fiercely open account, she writes about her close friendship with a priest, intent on marrying her, that challenged her vocation in the "new territory of the heart.
" The final page of River of Fire ends with the opening page of Dead Man Walking, when she was first invited to correspond with a man on Louisiana's death row.
River of Fire is a book for anyone interested in journeys of faith and spirituality, doubt and belief, and "catching on fire" to purpose and passion.
It is a book, written in accessible, luminous prose, about how to live a spiritual life that is wide awake to the sufferings and creative opportunities of our world.
"Prejean chronicles the compelling, sometimesdifficult journey to the heart of her soul and faith with wit, honesty, and intelligence.
A refreshingly intimate memoir of a life in faith, "Kirkus s,