The pilgrim who seeks God never travels alone. Not just because Jesus walks with us, the
Holy Spirit is in us, and the Father is watching over us, as supreme as this
is. But we are also not alone because of
the believers who travel along the path with us, even the ones that have passed
on to the other side before us, and the great cloud of witnesses. Never has this truth seemed so real to me
until I read Colleen Campbell’s spiritual memoir My Sisters the Saints. While
I am not a Catholic, I am fascinated by the Christ followers who have lived in
the centuries before me, especially the ones who have traveled close to Jesus
and leave behind examples of how we can become more like Jesus and grow in
holiness.
Colleen Carroll Campbell shares her 15-year quest through
her 20’s and 30’s to understand the meaning of her feminine identity in light
of her Christian faith and culture shaped by modern feminism. She was dissatisfied with answers from both
secular feminists and anti-feminists as she waded through decisions about
career and marriage. However, she found
unexpected friendships with six women in history who offered her grace and
inspiration: Teresa of Avila, Therese of
Lisieux, Faustina of Poland, Edith Stein of Germany, Mother Teresa of Calcutta,
and Mary of Nazareth.
Colleen weaves the story of her difficult life decisions
on college, career, marriage, motherhood, and caring for her father with
Alzheimer’s, with what each of these saints taught her along the way at the
various seasons of her life. Not only
did I feel like Colleen was my own friend as I read her compelling story, I
also felt like she acquainted me with these six women with whom I would also
like to become friends and get to know even more. I wish at the end of the book, she would have
included a list of sources that she had used to become friends with these sister
saints as well.
Any book that draws my heart closer to Jesus and inspires
me to follow hard after Him is worth reading.
This book is definitely one of those.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Image
Publishing in exchange for my honest review.
