Segments from twelve psalms set the tone for each of the twelve months of the year. Following the psalms are short daily meditations that develop various themes of the respective psalm. The author suggests that the psalm verse could be said before reading the reflections. This simple “thought for the day” can help bring the psalms into everyday life and prayer.
“This book is truly a book where women (and men) can find an honestly ecumenical, timeless, cross-cultural, and cross-racial group of women of holiness. This book is meant to be a kind of abbreviated liturgical breviary, and accompanying a short biography of each saint are readings and prayers.”
Paula D’Arcy is a writer, retreat leader, and seminar speaker. A former psychotherapist, her ministry grew from personal tragedy. In 1975, she survived an accident that took the lives of her husband and twenty-two-month-old daughter. D’Arcy taps into her own story of bereavement as well as the experiences of others in this revision of a book published in 1990 as When Your Friend Is Grieving. It is about loss and hope; she calls it a compassionate road map for the bereaved. One of the first things grief does is take away your ideas and expectations about the way things are supposed to be in your life. Suddenly all your plans are out the window or put on hold. D’Arcy says that the grieving person has to surrender these images and ideas and let pain teach us what it will. There is no one-size-fits-all” in grief, so each of us has to follow our own special path. That path may include tears, anger, silence, inertia, or an eagerness to talk and do many things. D’Arcy makes it clear that there is no magic timetable to grieving, and the worst thing we can do is try to rush a bereaved person through the process of grief. The grace note is that grief contains the healing we need, and it can become a profound spiritual helper if we keep our hearts open. D’Arcy answers all kind of practical questions about bereavement with material on depression, shock, the body’s response to grief, tips on visiting, honest conversation, things not to say, the gift of touch, the holidays, and ways you can help. She concludes: ‘Grief has been my great teacher and the hardest work I have ever done. It cut me in two, excising my innocence and my illusions. When the scar began to mend, new awarenesses began to replace the illusions. I learned that everyday choices are powerful.’ D’Arcy also cherishes the love that still ties her to her deceased husband and child. It is a love that will last through all time.”
In her eight previous books, Paula D’Arcy has used memoir, parables, fantasy, and meditations to convey the inimitable grace of God and the paths of personal transformation. In this wonderful volume, she gives us four stories about stepping across thresholds in the name of love. For D’Arcy, problems are not something to shrink our hopes or dash our dreams. They are a summons to take a hard look at ourselves and to probe beneath the surface. The idea that we can attain certainty and control in our lives is an illusion. She challenges us to ‘live with mystery, which demands trust and great fidelity to deeper truths, not to external realities.’ For D’Arcy, following all the rules can put a crimp on creativity. We need to move beyond the rules: ‘Beyond the bounds of earthly love is where a greater love begins in earnest.’ In a story about her struggle to discern God’s plan, the author writes about leaving behind her old life in order to step into a new one. She has much to say about how we often sabotage the divine inner source of guidance. In a story about the time she spent with Morrie Schwarts, whose wisdom is chronicled in the bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie, D’Arcy explores the meanings that can accrue in the face of death. In the story of Julia, who fashions a new life after being in prison, the author examines the power of personal growth. The fourth story is about how she and a boy she counsels help each other during times of grief. In a very important passage, D’Arcy proclaims: ‘Don’t push the river says my friend Richard Rohr. Don’t get ahead of your soul. The goal isn’t to get somewhere. The goal isn’t about forcing something to happen. The goal is to be in harmony with the gifts that are already given. The goal is to fall into your life.’ Easier said than done. But in Sacred Threshold, Paula D’Arcy gives us four chances to see afresh the path of surrender to the grace of God.