My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints [Paperback]

Dawn Eden (Author), Agnes Mary Donovan (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 14, 2012

Dawn Eden, internationally known speaker and author of the bestselling The Thrill of the Chaste, shows how the lives of the saints have given her hope and aided her journey of spiritual healing after childhood sexual abuse. One in four American women and one in six American men report having been sexually abused during childhood and My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints provides a much-needed resource for spiritual healing from the isolating effects of these wounds.

Eden uses her own story as a backdrop to introduce numerous holy people--like Laura Vicuna, Thomas Aquinas and Bernard of Clairvaux--who suffered sexual abuse or sexual inappropriateness, as well as saints such as Ignatius of Loyola who suffered other forms of mistreatment and abandonment. Readers seeking wholeness will discover saints with wounds like their own, whose stories bear witness to the transforming power of grace. Eden explores different dimensions of divine love--sheltering, compassionate, purifying, etc.--to help those sexually wounded in childhood understand their identity in the abiding love of Christ.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Eden describes the lives of canonized saints and saints in waiting ... revealing how and why each one offers hope for abuse victims today. By doing so, she breaks through the artificial barriers often placed between us and those mighty representatives of God."-- William Doino, Jr., Inside the Vatican

"Dawn Eden tackles this most difficult of issues with tenderness and grace. She mixes practical advice with inspiration from the lives of the saints, and in doing so reminds us that there are no wounds so deep that the Lord cannot heal them." --Jennifer Fulwiler, Blogger at ConversionDiary.com


"It is my hope that this book may become a resource readily available: in churches, schools, counseling centers, young adult ministries, libraries, and hospitals. I pray that for every reader this book will be an instrument of grace and instruction." --Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, S.V., Superior General, Sisters of Life


"Filled with wisdom and compassion, My Peace I Give You is Dawn Eden's gift to victims of childhood sexual abuse and anyone struggling with hurts inflicted by others. She offers inspiration from saints who were themselves abused but found healing in Christ, through whose wounds we too can be healed." --Rev. R. Scott Hurd, Author of Forgiveness: A Catholic Approach


"A sensitive and poignant effort to offer the gift of healing to some of the most wounded people of our time, with the aid of the wisdom of the great saints. A book that is both moving and useful." --Rev. James Martin, S.J., Author of Between Heaven and Mirth

About the Author

Dawn Eden, a former rock journalist (Mojo, Salon.com) and New York Post headline writer, is the bestselling author of The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On, which is in its eleventh printing. She has spoken about chastity and conversion to thousands of college students and young adults throughout North America and abroad. In 2010, she received her M.A. in theology from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies, where she is currently continuing her studies in preparation for completing a sacred-theology doctorate in Rome.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Ave Maria Press (May 14, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594712905
• ISBN-13: 978-1594712906
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Gender & Sexuality
  • #56 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Child Abuse

More About the Author

Dawn Eden is the author of "My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints" (Ave Maria Press, 2012) and "The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On" (Thomas Nelson, 2006).

Born into a Jewish family in New York City, Dawn lost her faith as a teenager and became an agnostic. During her twenties, in the 1990s, she was a rock historian, interviewing artists such as Elton John, Brian Wilson, and Del Shannon. She went on to work on the editorial staff for New York City newspapers, including the New York Post and the Daily News.

When Dawn was thirty-one, she experienced a dramatic conversion to Christianity that ultimately led her to enter the Catholic Church. Her first book, "The Thrill of the Chaste," became a surprise hit, published in four languages and earning her speaking invitations throughout North America, as well as in England, Ireland, Poland, and at World Youth Day Sydney. (She holds the honor of being the only chastity speaker ever to have been invited back to speak for a second time at Georgetown University.)

Dawn's latest book, "My Peace I Give You," which carries an Imprimatur from Donald Cardinal Wuerl, offers a Catholic spirituality of healing for adult victims of childhood sexual abuse. She holds an M.A. in theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., where she is currently continuing her studies, with an eye toward completing her doctorate at the Angelicum in Rome.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars All that I Hoped it Would Be May 2, 2012

By Margaret M. Myers

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a Catholic adult who was sexually abused as a child, I pre-ordered "My Peace I Give You", waiting eagerly to receive it. To say I was NOT disappointed would be an understatement. If you are a Catholic who was sexually abused as a child, this book is for you. Even if you were not, if you have suffered from other abuse or neglect...indeed, whatever you suffer, there is much that you, too, can learn from this book. And if you are close to someone who was sexually abused as a child, it will give you a greater understanding.

It took me nearly fifty years to understand that my having been sexually abused as a child affected me in more ways than one. Dawn Eden explains, offering both affirmation and hope. She speaks of one man suffering also from his "family's failure to provide him with protection"...and she speaks of our need as children for belonging and identity...and of "the lonely sense of isolation that is the result of having one's self-image disfigured by abuse".

Dawn applies her knowledge of theology and the lives of the saints to the suffering we have in our own lives in ways that I hadn't understood in my forty plus years of being a committed Catholic. Even though I already knew many of the saints whose stories she included, she presented them with fresh clarity and insight.

Dawn does not minimize either our past suffering or the effects of past abuse, as she shares her story and the stories of saints with delicacy and compassion. Yet, at the same time, she shows us God's great love and how he heals us THROUGH our wounds.

My emotions in reading this book were relief in understanding more clearly, and overall, a sense of hope and joy.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb book not only for victims of abuse, but for those who care for them April 21, 2012

By Fr Greg

Format:Paperback

In My Peace I Give You, Dawn Eden provides a crucial work both to help adult victims of childhood sexual (and other types of) abuse, but equally an important account to deepen both the spirituality and love for God in those who care for such victims. This book is a "must read" not only for those who have suffered the traumas and trials of abuse, but also for pastors, doctors, counselors/therapists, families, and friends who care for them and seek to love victims in the most effective and healing way possible. Given the statistics on incidence of abuse, people are bound to know victims of such abuse during the course of their lifetimes, and as such, this book should be encouraged for all adults.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Written with a protective modesty. May 4, 2012

By Margaret Realy

Format:Paperback

Dawn's book is written in a manner that presents an unspeakable evil in such a way that "...protects both [her] own modesty and that of others." (p.170) I recommend that those who assist in the healing of survivors of childhood abuses share this book with them. My Peace I Give You will help the Lightof God find a way into a hard and darkened space.