A review by sde
River of Fire by Helen Prejean
5.0
First, a qualification. I have been following Sister Helen Prejean since she spoke at my church in Boston over 25 years ago, and have found her very inspiring.
This book chronicles her life before the "famous" part - before she takes on the death penalty as a cause. From her childhood, to her entrance into religious life at age 18, to her higher education, to her taking on social justice issues as part of her ministry. She does not downplay the importance of of her work, but she is humble throughout the book, and she does not gloss over her missteps or naivete.
Although Sr. Helen goes through many tough times, emotionally and spiritually, her joy always shines through in this book. Despite experiences drastic changes in both her own ministry and the Catholic church in general in her life, she continues to approach her life and career with positivity.
I am a post-Vatican II person, so, although I know all about the changes, I did not experience them for myself. Sr. Helen's book does a great job of capturing the excitement and the trepidation of that time. I could just feel her and her fellow sisters practically jumping off the pages with wonder, confusion, and glee during that part of the book. I think I finally somewhat understand what it was like to be part of the U.S. Catholic Church during that time.
The book is a great account of how people can change and grow throughout their lifetimes. Sr. Helen was always a loving person; she had just been sheltered from people different from herself so did not understand the life experiences of, say, those born into extreme poverty. As she says toward the end of the book, "I have a hunch I am going to be waking up till the moment I die." Her wonderful example personifies the reason that I don't like the trend of judging and dismissing people by what they did and thought years before. Everyone changes and grows, but if we dismiss them for previous acts and thoughts, they are actually less likely to be open to change. No one scolded or yelled at Sr. Helen or told her her privilege was showing. She was defensive at first as people described the reality of different kinds of lives to her, but she became open and had a turnaround in her views to become a great advocate for political change in this country rather than shutting herself off from the tumult.
And, once again, she has become an inspiration to me to begin thinking about what more I can do to nudge our structures a tiny bit to give less advantage to those who already have so much.
This book chronicles her life before the "famous" part - before she takes on the death penalty as a cause. From her childhood, to her entrance into religious life at age 18, to her higher education, to her taking on social justice issues as part of her ministry. She does not downplay the importance of of her work, but she is humble throughout the book, and she does not gloss over her missteps or naivete.
Although Sr. Helen goes through many tough times, emotionally and spiritually, her joy always shines through in this book. Despite experiences drastic changes in both her own ministry and the Catholic church in general in her life, she continues to approach her life and career with positivity.
I am a post-Vatican II person, so, although I know all about the changes, I did not experience them for myself. Sr. Helen's book does a great job of capturing the excitement and the trepidation of that time. I could just feel her and her fellow sisters practically jumping off the pages with wonder, confusion, and glee during that part of the book. I think I finally somewhat understand what it was like to be part of the U.S. Catholic Church during that time.
The book is a great account of how people can change and grow throughout their lifetimes. Sr. Helen was always a loving person; she had just been sheltered from people different from herself so did not understand the life experiences of, say, those born into extreme poverty. As she says toward the end of the book, "I have a hunch I am going to be waking up till the moment I die." Her wonderful example personifies the reason that I don't like the trend of judging and dismissing people by what they did and thought years before. Everyone changes and grows, but if we dismiss them for previous acts and thoughts, they are actually less likely to be open to change. No one scolded or yelled at Sr. Helen or told her her privilege was showing. She was defensive at first as people described the reality of different kinds of lives to her, but she became open and had a turnaround in her views to become a great advocate for political change in this country rather than shutting herself off from the tumult.
And, once again, she has become an inspiration to me to begin thinking about what more I can do to nudge our structures a tiny bit to give less advantage to those who already have so much.