Customer Reviews

Amazing Grace for Those Who Suffer: 10 Life Changing Stories of Hope and Healing (Amazing Grace Series)

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In the wake of September 11, 2001 and the recent sniper shootings, this book offers an answer to the question of why God allows suffering.

The 10 real life stories contained in the book do not make for easy reading. I guarantee that they will have you in tears.

They include:

- The story of Janet Moylan who lost her husband and 10-year-old daughter to a freak drowning accident.

- Debbie Harding, a former cheerleader for the New England Patriots that survived breast cancer and her marriage to a drug addict.

- Peggy Stoks, who was molested by her grandfather.

- Mike and Kathie Clarey, parents whose 11-year-old daughter was murdered while on her newspaper route.

- Grace MacKinnon, who faced and overcame her congenital disability.

- Thomas Howard, a teacher and author that suffered from disabling migraines.

- Dr. Kim Hardey, who suffered the death of his 9-year-old son.

- Debbie, a mother that has suffered eight miscarriages.

- Joan Ulicny, whose life was dramatically altered by an accident with a semi-truck.

- Carl Cleveland, a New Orleans lawyer that faced 10 years in prison for unfounded legal charges.

Even more compelling than the stories, however, are how each individual responds to the cross that they were given. Their responses of healing and hope show how good can come of evil.

"Christ had to suffer and die," says co-editor Jeff Cavins. "Salvation isn't just about Jesus' dying: otherwise he could have been sacrificed as a baby. Suffering - even Christ's own suffering - was part of the Father's plan, and we are called to cooperate with that plan."

Most readers of the book will realize how good their lives currently are. Not only does the book offer insight into suffering, but it prepares readers for potential future suffering, and helps them to know how to respond to others that are suffering.

I wholeheartedly recommend this first book in the Amazing Grace series - a kind of Catholic "Chicken Soup for the Soul". It's unlike anything I've ever seen or read before.

This book shows How suffering can bring you closer to God. It is the story of ten people who experience tragedies in their lives,and how they made through with the help of Gods grace. Some of the people knew God before their experiences and they turned to God for strength, others didn't but came to know God through their suffering. This is a powerful book that will touch your heart.

This book is riveting and pierces right to one's heart. In this collection of 10 true stories, written by the very people who suffered severe heartache of one kind or another, everyone should be able to find a situation they can relate to. And they can be greatly helped in finding God in all things, including pain and suffering. It's a long, difficult road from the time a heartache or trauma occurs until our spirits heal. This book would be a great help in sustaining and "walking with" anyone who is making such a journey. I can't recommend it highly enough!

I ordered this book to have some spiritual reading for Lent thinking I could read a story a week. Well, I finished reading it in four days. I cried and I was humbled by the people's sufferings in this book. Very well written and I am going to pass it around. If there is something missing in your life, read this and you will feel so grateful for what you have or if you are suffering a lot, you can identify with these people. My hour of Adoration has so much more meaning now.

imagine EVER feeling ok again -

reading Other People's stories of equally badBadBAD pain and the most difficult circumstances... and how these truly FaithFull people went through it with faith ---

these people are NOT "drinking the koolaid" - they're just good people living through their ordeals with a dependence on God and leaning on the same God they realize has given them every good thing in their lives...

sometimes, some things are not about going to therapy, medications...

it's just about the hard-to-take realities of life - tragedies an d hardships that you realize have struck everyone through the ages... but that doesn't seem to help a whit - except in reading the blow-by-blow, play-by-play descriptions in this book ---

i can't say enough about this book - except that It Helped me to grow up, to accept suffering as part of life alongside all the joy and good things, to realize it's just part of being human in the Family of Man and always has been... and so it had to be all right...somehow...

years ago it occurred to me that in life "although things may be going badly, they are never going wrong"...

this book helped me find the peace about that truism... and i have never felt alone in sorrow or suffering since reading it.

thank you, jeff cavins and everyone, for this insight into what it means to be human ~

One or more of these stories will relate directly to you or someone you know. A book that really hits home.

As I suffer from a Chronic illness, I was looking for a way to make sense of it and to live with it. I found this book to be inspirational and give me some sense of purpose in my everyday pain. I will never be healed physically but it helped heal me mentally and spiritually. I would recommmend this to those who have a chronic illness and want to give some purpose to it.

In the introduction to "Amazing Grace for Those Who Suffer," Jeff Cavins and Matthew Pinto write "Our lives, no matter how good, are often interrupted and complicated by difficulties. For some of us, the suffering is minor; for others, intense suffering accompanies every heartbeat of every day. . . One thing is for sure: Any type of suffering can take a person to the breaking point." The ten people who share their pain in "Amazing Grace" have faced seemingly insurmountable suffering. Janet Moylan watched her husband and daughter be swept out into the ocean, while she could do nothing to save them. Peggy Stoks suffered molestation at the hands of her grandfather. Mike Clarey's eleven year old daughter was murdered while out delivering papers. Dr. Kim Hardey's son Brad was killed by a speeding car. Debbie Harding faced breast cancer and life married to a drug addict. What all these people share, however, is the knowledge that God brought some good out of their suffering (a fact that can only be seen looking back).

Of course, none of us want to suffer, but suffering is part of life on this earth. These ten stories offer lessons in how to suffer, how to understand suffering, and how to continue to trust in God even when we are suffering.

Every story touched my heart. These are the people who walk among us, the living saints. Although they would never admit such that is what makes them so special. My heart overflowed with love for each of these special people and I am glad that they shared their stories.

I didn't find this book inspirational at all. In fact it gave me nightmares. I realize that everyone has their own choices and that the Catholic Church believes that birth control is murder, but the book concentrated so much on women who had miscarriage after miscarriage instead of using birth control until they found whatever was wrong was disturbing. I'd say at least half of the stories, if not more, were about multiple miscarriages. I was also a bit disturbed that in one story after a couple's son dies they immediately try to have a replacement baby because they feel God wants that and if they hadn't used birth control their son would still be alive. I don't follow the line of reasoning. I do not recommend this book to anyone, even a die hard Catholic.