Customer Reviews

Money As Sacrament: Finding the Sacred in Money

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Once I started this book, I could not put it down. With each part of Adele's journey, I took a deeper look into my own life's journey and my relationship with money. Do we ever make peace with money? If so, how? These are questions I never really thought of before. But when reading this book, I felt compelled to answer them. And these answers --- and the path I took to find them --- are making a profound difference in how I am leading my life.

This book came to me at the perfect time in my life! I am 43 years old, and on my own for the first time in my life, following the end of a 21 year marriage in which my husband and I played the traditional roles of male/provider and female/homemaker. I was very uneasy and quite frustrated at the financial place I was in. In addition, the topic of money is not one that many of my friends felt comfortable talking with me about, especially now that we were coming from different perspectives.

Reading Adele's wonderful book was a blessing to me in 3 ways: it was full of good information and lessons, it changed the way I view money in my life, and I realized that many other women have been in similar, or worse situations, and they have found their way. It really lessened my fears and concerns, and helped me to trust that everything is as it should be. This is a much needed book on a very important topic.

This book is a breath of fresh air for anyone struggling to have a healthy relationship with money in their life. The book is a compilation of stories of how various women have dealt with their money challenges of proverty and prosperity throughout their lives. The most helpful lesson I learned from this was thinking of money as something available to serve your life...rather than serving money itself. Azar-Rucquoi does an excellent job of showing that God wants an abundant life for all of us - and the real solution is to trust Him in whatever financial circumstances we find ourselves in. It was an enjoyable read and I applaud the author for her unique and relevant way of handling a very elusive subject.

A lively and interesting compilation of the stories of over 50 women and their very varied experiences with and perceptions of money. Interspersed with the author's own unique account (from salesperson in her family's grocery store as a young girl, to years in a convent, and then managing her own inheritance later in life) it is a thought-provoking read, and may well change the way you think about money.

Adele Azar-Rucquoi has touched a soft spot in the life of women.

Women seldom discuss money in the manner that the author guides its readers and/or workshop participants.

This book should be a must-read for women. The reader is challenged to comfront the role money plays in their lives. When was the last time any of us ever did that?

The author's life experiences (and there are many) make the reading light and interesting.

I would love to see her discussing Money as Sacrament with Oprah. It would be interesting to see how money fits in her life.

A great book with a unique angle for an old taboo: money.

I gave this book 4 stars because the author (or her editor) delivers good writing and I did not have to force myself to keep reading. Unlike many books I get these days, I didn't find myself mentally editing whole paragraphs. And it's easy to get swept up in the stories of women and their money.

It's been said that New Age is a religion conceived in prosperity, while other religions help people accept misery and suffering. In a way this book is about creating a spiritual base for appreciating one's own wealth, in the context of a very traditional religion with official messages of "Love the poor and despise the rich."

Adele Azar-Rucquoi delivers two parallel themes. First we learn the story of her own life, a struggle to find meaning in money in an affluent home, with a father who never felt he had enough. Adele's search for spirituality, as well as a comfort level with money, takes her first into the Roman Catholic pre-Vatican church and then into a convent. She loved the religion and the life, yet she marveled that nuns and priests lived a lot better than the poor -- in fact, a lot better than a good part of the world. The real poverty came, she learned, from following the rules, giving up individual possessions and enduring banal conversations at dinner.

Leaving the convent, Adele has socked away (from an illicit teaching job) enough to give herself a good start. Despite her struggles with the meaning of wealth, she has inherited her father's gift for earning money and her brother stands by to help her invest wisely. Through therapy, she gains the strength to ends an affair with a priest that combined finance with romance, at the cost of secrecy.

After a few twists and turns, she ends up with a huge inheritance that once again forces her to confront her money philosophy. In an ending that would not be plausible in a novel, she finds herself happily married to a man who had been homeless for a year, just before they met.

Each chapter begins with an episode from Adele's life, then follows with stories of women at a similar stage in their own lives. Each story held my interest, but the cumulative effect left me wondering when we'd get to the point.

To make the book work, you have to believe that women have unique problems with money, rarely talk about money and cannot achieve a comfort level with money. In the age of Suze Orman, Leona Helmsley, and Mary Kay, those beliefs no longer ring true.

Rather than focusing on money, these stories ultimately deal with bad marriages, misguided romances and rags-to-riches determination. And as someone who works with people in career transition, and who has lived awhile, I found little that was new here. Many stories followed the sequence trauma-therapy-salvation. One woman's husband lost her fortune -- almost a cliche! Another has learned to live for each day, trusting the next phase of her life will be just fine.

So...what do we learn from all this? The exercises at the end of the book were not compelling, especially since there are no ties to the rest of the book. The author has talent and data. She needs to get clear on her message. Does she want to write a self-help book? Develop a memoir of her own life (which calls for a theme)?

Today, Prosperity Programs cloaked in "spirituality" abound on and off the Internet. Today's gurus write, unabashedly, about the path to health and wealth. In this environment, Adele's concern with money seems a little quaint and outdated, somewhat like Thomas Merton's concerns with sins that seem mild today. I think the author has a stronger message waiting, and I hope she finds her voice to share it. I found my enjoyment of this book dimmed by wondering what might have been.

As a self-employed writer, I don't have a regular paycheck. It has taught me to be mindful about spending. I've also had to learn not to let that mindfulness become a sense of scarcity in my life. Most of all, I've learned to value my work in the world. Sometimes, when we're enjoying ourselves, we forget that we can still earn money while we're having fun.

Those were just some of the lessons I was dealing with as I read Adele Azar-Rucquoi's book. Money as Sacrament, 10 years in the making, is about making peace with money or, in my words, feeling at home with money. Adele wondered about the spirit in currency (dollar bills say "In God We Trust") and set out on a journey to meet other women and explore their stories in relation to money. She shares her own story, reflected by the stories of the 50 women she interviewed.

Adele's conversational writing style is rather like letters written to the reader. In each, we learn something about the appearance of the interview subject, what the author and she had for lunch, and the setting. The interviews are just the right length, each with a focus to maintain interest.

There is no judgment on Adele's part about the financial circumstances of her interview subjects, except once when Tabatha, an elderly African-American woman, asks Adele for money. While resentful at first, Adele came to accept her role as Tabatha's monthly donor. Her view of Tabatha, she realized, was not being diminished because of Tabatha's request for help. That early phone call was a "call to community".

Among the many situations described in this book, you're bound to find a woman's story that reflects your own. I could identify with Rachel, who decided to take a risk and become a marriage therapist working with couples rather than one partner at a time. Her training took time and money, and her new therapy practice isn't generating money as yet. She would rather take risks than not take on something new and challenging.

Rachel and Adele took on a challenge together when they addressed Adele's church congregation on their mutual work for Middle East peace. Rachel is Jewish, and Adele is Arab-American. "Whether in the wallet or at the pulpit," Adele writes, "whatever is worth having is worth taking risks for. And our holiness lies in the stretch."

The author was raised by immigrant parents who worked very hard to earn and save money. A couple of years in a Catholic private school led her to Catholicism and to taking her vows as a nun. She spent 16 years in a convent, where she was looked after very well. But she wasn't to have her own money. Once out in the world, Adele faced the beliefs about money with which she had been raised. She became "a hyperproductive moneymaker", leaving no space for piety. A church-employed therapist helped Adele to slow down by encouraging her to smell something lovely, like fresh flowers. He told her, "Money is made for pleasure."

When Adele became one of the beneficiaries of her parents' estate following their deaths, she felt guilty for having so much money. As a poor woman, she hated money. As a rich one, she was still confused. A supportive stockbroker introduced her to a peacemaking group that would change her life. The Foundation for Mideast Peace sought to reconcile Arabs and Jews. Once she plunged into the work, she "got straight on what money I wanted to give to good causes".

She took comfort in Marianne Williamson's words in A Woman's Worth: "It is God's will that each of us, every woman, man and child, be happy, whole and successful." Adele came to accept what a priest friend had written about her inheritance: "Whether you take a vow of poverty or take ownership of a Cadillac, it's all about accepting the gifts God puts before you. All is gift."

I never had heard money described as sacrament before, except for watching a former therapist place my check on her altar. I have been struggling ever since to see money in that light. Adele's book is helping me. It is so refreshing to have a book linking money with spirituality.

Adele writes of her marital struggles when she shared her money with her new husband, Jim, who had been homeless. Yet he was better able to spend money than she was. He later received his own large check from a retirement account he had set up while teaching.

The appendix includes "Money Aerobics - Seven Stretches for Your Money Muscles". "Avoid Running" is a big one for many of us who have overspent instead of facing "emotional woes". The book ends with "Further Conversations"--questions to ask yourself about your relationship with money. Answering those questions could fill your own book.

Adele lives with her husband in Maitland, Florida where she spends time square dancing, conducting workshops on prejudice reduction or conflict resolution, signing books and smelling the orange blossoms on her property. To read more about Adele, see her website, here: www.MoneyAsSacrament.com.

by Mary Ann Moore
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Money As Sacrament: Finding The Sacred In Money is a book written by peace activist Adele Azar-Rucquoi especially for women. Encompassing the author's own personal experiences, the candid and informative interviews of more than 50 women are drawn from a variety of backgrounds, and exhibit a thoughtful scrutiny of just what money is and the potential it has. Thoughtful and thought-provoking reading, Money As Sacrament blends the practical and the spiritual into an even whole concerned with balancing needs of the body with needs of the soul.

After (gulp) I got past the title, here's a book that must've been written by a saint! It really doesn't feel like a book at all. More like an extended conversation. And full of wisdom yet none of it foisted on me. I've been accompanying Adele on a leisurely stroll in her beloved Florida, along the way bumping into all these women she's talking to who become intimate friends revealing their innermost concerns & hopes. What an original & lively foray; never thought a book about money could bring me closer to God! When I put it down I was ready to celebrate!

This book is fascinating on two levels. First, the reader can enjoy the life story of the author -- a real journey of growth and change. Second, the reader is led to begin to think about money in a new way. We all spend time thinking about money -- what it can buy, do we have enough, how to invest, etc. This book invites you to think about your relationship to money -- why does it matter to you, how has your family influenced your view, are you in control or does it control you? Very thought provoking and worth while.