"In her openly personal manner, Paula D’Arcy helps us understand what it means to truly love, how to open our hearts to others and give what is most needed—our authentic selves. She describes her own tragic loss of husband and child in a drunken driving accident, her rise from the grief, and then tells the stories of three others with whom she shared deeply of life and death and grief. Among these were Julia, a young woman courageously trying to make a new life after a prison term, Scott, a teenager locked in feelings that he cannot deal with, and Morrie Schwartz (Tuesdays with Morrie), dying of ALS and searching for meaning in his life. By being completely authentic with them, she learns as much as she gives. 'Acceptance and healing had begun in earnest for me when I became willing to see beauty in exactly what I’d been given. As soon as I stopped holding onto memories, or even to the way I wanted my life to unfold I began taking in how it was unfolding.' The message of love permeates the memoir as we see these relationships develop and grow and become something life changing for each person, including the author. This growing knowledge of how to forgive and love moves Ms. D'Arcy to mend her broken relationship with her father and risk beginning a new life of discovery, leaving behind her home of many years and moving half way across the country to be near a friend who shares her desire to grow in spirit. Sacred Threshold is a little book with a big message—a very good read. "

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.