Customer Reviews

Our Hearts' True Home: Fourteen Warm, Inspiring Stories of Women Discovering the Ancient Christian Faith

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

 

 

One walks through these pages on solid (not rigid) ground. Feeling close kinship with people of the past 2000 years of history, people who have suffered in ways we pampered Americans can only imagine, gives one hope -- for surely our utopia cannot last. I was particularly blessed by realizing that the majority of churches of today, with their health/wealth doctrines, and glaring, frantic self-promotions, are not the sole choices in the American supermarket of Christian religions.

"Our Heart's True Home" is just as warm and inspiring as the title proclaims. Unfortunately, the pinkish cover and the female-oriented subtitle may be a bit off-putting to men. Unfortunately, because the contents are heartfelt accounts the can inspire folk of either gender!

The chapters of "Our Heart's True Home" are honestly told chapters of how over a dozen people left new age practices, Judaism, Catholicism, and various Protestant denominations and found peace and joy in the Holy Orthodox Church.

My wife read this book when we were getting disenchanted with our mainstream Protestant denomination, and found it not only moving but also a reality check of what life is like for the Orthodox. In many ways, this is the great value of this book. Being Orthodox involves a lot more commitment of time, lifestyle, and physical effort than other Christian communions. The curious and the seekers will find the foretaste valuable.

Well, my wife badgered me into reading this opus and I found it relevant and enjoyable as well, so I recommend it for women AND men.

No, this isn't a book of theology or a real apologetic, and readers should not expect that. I'm also taking one star off because this book is not really of much interested for the incurious or even for most 'cradle Orthodox'.

However, at least in America, Orthodoxy is moving from a Church of mainly immigrants, to a church combining third-generation Americans and increasing numbers of converts. This book is for those joining those ranks.

I thought the book was good. Too short, maybe, and a LOT of women whose husbands are now Orthodox priests. As a converting woman, who knows my husband is not likely to become Orthodox (much less a priest!) I would have appreciated more in the way of stories with a little conflict(?) or struggle in the move-because I know I am getting some!

One EXCELLENT thing I noticed and notice while learning more about the church is that 'heresy' or no, other church denominations and experiences are pretty much valued and respected. All of these women had spiritual experiences that THEY valued before coming into orthodoxy and which led them to it-usually by taking the next step in the positive path they had already begun as Christians. I thought it very respectful and positive-for all that they did leave their former churches, and sometimes not in the best of circumstances. Still, they were part of a journey, and I found that the journey was honored.

I really liked this book. I was initially drawn to it because it was suggested for those considering entering into the Orthodox Faith. As a Protestant who lived with a Greek Orthodox family and went on a pilgramige to an Orthodox monastery, now years later these experiences were comming back to me to warm my heart, whilst in a church which initially satisfied, but has failed to do so in the long run.

This is a book of stories from women from different faiths who have found their home in Eastern Orthodoxy... their different backgrounds, their experiences in previous faiths, how they came to be interested in Orthodoxy, what eventually called to them to have them convert. But I found something I could relate to in each and every story, and they all helped to point me towards this Faith.

This book gave me a feeling of being able to relate to so many other women from different experiences, who ended up in the Orthodox Church, as I did. I found something I could relate to in each and every story. So it was very affirming during a time when I was making a very big decision. As a woman entering into Orthodoxy, it is a really good book. (It has been said, as a put down, that Orthodoxy is a man's faith, but I don't agree.) It gives a lot of perspective on why people leave other faiths, and what it is like from an experiental perspective, rather than a theological basis for the change.

I recommend this book to any woman who has an interested in the Ancient Faith of Orthodoxy.

Our Hearts' True Home is an anthology of inspirational stories written by fourteen different women who learned to embrace the Orthodox Christian faith. Each woman's struggle has been uniquely different, yet all share a common experience with God's love and mercy. Black-and-white photographs of the authors intersperse this heartfelt, passionate, and devoted anthology, which awakens compassion and spiritual empathy in the reader.

I never really have understood the Filique question and personally I don't really care. Supposedly the Father, the Son & the Spirit are all One so maybe I will care to ask that question after I die and maybe I won't care. They are a bit biting on it, but then it DID separate the Catholics and us during the Great Schism and continues to divide us as other things come into play.

These women tell of their personal journies and in accepting Orthodoxy also take on a culture. Being a former Fundamentalist then Athiest then Orthodox chic, I identify with them. In accepting Orthodoxy, you accept it as the One and Only Faith. We have documents in existence that prove our heritage and customs and since we feel that it is right, we live it.

It's not Hell & Damnation, just personal accounts of women who live the Faith. I wouldn't reccommend it as a "must read" because there are so many more books that I find more stimulating, books that deal with cooking during Lent with the 15 products that we are allowed to eat (an exaggeration, but if you are Orthodox you will understand!) to understanding our history.

Look at the cover of this book-- the little heart and the feminine colours-- you can tell a book by it's cover and it won't apeal to the scholar in most people. It is a "lite read" that I enjoyed while convelescing during an illness and if you have time on your hands and a few dollars, it is not a bad choice.

Quick! Where do you stand on the filioque question? (That is, does the Spirit proceed from the Father and the Son, or just the Father?) If you get it wrong, this book brands you a heretic. In fact, the contributors brand a lot of things heretic: Catholicism, the Episcopal church, Protestantism, confirmation separate from baptism, not fasting properly, and so on. According to this book, if you dare to say women are equal to men, you are a "purveyor of immorality." One woman talks about feeling superior to everyone in other churches; another excoriates anyone who uses the term "sacraments" instead of "holy mysteries." It is a pity that a denomination as old and honorable as the Orthodox Church should be represented by this kind of hostile and unloving rhetoric. I seem to remember that the Samaritans (a different sect from the Jews of Galilee) fared a lot better in Christ's estimation than the Pharisees. For myself, I believe I'll go back to "purveying immorality" and leave these ladies to their self-appointed holiness.