Customer Reviews

A Prosperity Love Story: Rags to Enrichment: A Memoir

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Catherine Ponder is absolutely one of my most favorite New Thought writers. Her books are uplifting, affirming and she instills such hope and confidence in oneself that one does come away feeling that one "can do it"!

Ponder's life story is amazing on many levels and she never seemed to give up when life handed her yet another challenge. With her faith and trust in God, she embraced each and every challenge and kept going, climbing even higher in the process.

Meeting Kelly Ponder in her first assigned Unity church in Alabama, it would be another ten years or so before they would fall in love and marry. Their relationship was truly a soul mate union and they fostered each other's growth in tremendous ways, leading Catherine to develop and grow another Unity Church in Austin, Texas. Kelly's unexpected and untimely death was a shock to read, but through the rest of the book, one feels the love and guidance from Kelly to Catherine from the other side throughout her life. Catherine went on to establish more Unity Churches and each one of them has grown and prospered and still continues to this day.

Catherine's life story is so uplifting, so amazing and so lived with faith and trust. Her example to us is quite incredible. I have read 4 of her other books and am thirsting for all the other ones! She writes to the reader and provides so many examples of others putting her affirmations and suggestions into action and experiencing life changing results. Her words of encouragement, her examples of affirming prosperity, as well as her unwavering trust and faith in God are constant reminders to us all that we can do it all as well.

This is truly a prosperity love story on many levels. Catherine Ponder is one amazing lady, and she has blessed us with her many books on achieving all that we want to achieve. Our fear is our limitation to our achieving our success. Catherine lovingly shows us how to get rid of that fear.

A wonderful book from a most wonderful lady! The reader is also treated to pictures of Catherine and Kelly as well as her son. I highly recommend this book to all who are searching. One cannot help but be uplifted after reading a Ponder book! I so eagerly look forward to the next one! Keep them coming, Ms. Ponder, they are so needed!!!

Catherine Ponder's earlier books are the foundation of any new thought library and the basis of many propserity studies. I have read them all and find them both engaging and effective. This, her autobiography is, alas, as disapointing as it is surprising.

The author opens her book as a "Washington Girl", a young woman assigned a clerical job in the nation's capitol as part of the war effort. She writies to a handsome young soldier of her acquaintance and marries him over the objections of her southern family and his liberal and somewhat licentious mother. That marriage lasted only long enough to produce Richard,her only child. She returns to her family, apparently eschewing any effort to collect child support from the child's father and becomes a secretary for a prominent attorney. She then embarks on a program of what she terms "self-improvement" offered by the Unity Church, ultimately becoming an ordained minister.

While assigned to a church in Alabama, she meets the man who is to become her second husband, the handsome and affectionate Kelly Ponder. Eventually, they marry and she moves to Texas to be with him and to begin working on her writing. He dies suddenly and unexpectedly. She how ever, carries on, continuing her pastoral duties , her writing and her seminars. She grows more and more successful, attracting many celebrities with her teachings. She finally marries her third husband who apparently is not really her type physically but wins her with his determination, persistence and generositiy. That marriage ends in divorce, some years after they move to California and start her global ministry.

The book is written in a flat and unemotional style that fails to engage. One gets the impression that Rev. Ponder did not really wish to share the intimate details of her life. However,the ones she chose to share depict a shallow and sonewhat insensitive woman. At one point, she suggests that Kelly, who appears to be her only true love, died because he planned to move to Florida and end her both her pastoral and writing career. She frequently refers to her publisher as a "Yankee" and seems to take umbrage at his suggestions and characterizes them as bias against her Southern background and upbringing. Although claiming that she is not personally interested in celebrity, the reader is treated to paragraphs of the famous people she has met, who have used her books, lived in her neighborhoods or owned the mansions she subsequently purchased. But perhaps most disturbing is her treatment of her son. There is no doubt that she loves him but it appears that he was deposited with her parents for substantial periods of his life. His antics, which range from eavesdropping and selling the overheard information to monitoring the ushers at church, are typified as characteristics of a free spirit as opposed to signs of a troubled personality. She appears to resent people who comment on her expensive clothes and lifestyle. I waas surprised at her protestations and anger when she teaches that poverty is a sin and good people can have great things and should enjoy these great things. Although it appears that Richard becamse a banker there is little mention of him after his high school years.

This is the first and only Ponder book I have not enjoyed. It seems that she really did not want to tell and I really didn't need to know.

For Catherine Ponder fans, this is pure gold! Though we have seen the widom, kindness, and faith of Catherine Ponder in her other works, this book is our first glimpse into her personal life. As usual, Rev. Ponder omits "personal" details--including her maiden name! But we see the development of her gifts as a writer, minister, and pioneer through her eyes -- from a "government girl" in WWII to the founder of her global ministry in Palm Desert.
In her memoir, Rev. Ponder shows her determination, gentleness, and Southern heritage most openly in her recollections of her romance and marriage to Kelly Ponder, now deceased. After she asked for guidance from God, she decided to take her first ministerial assignment in a Unity church in Birmingham, Alabama, where Kelly Ponder lived. "I knew for sure I was on my way into a new life," she says, when she heard the song "Stars Fell on Alabama." It was love at first sight for them both, though it would be 10 years before they married since both were building careers.
"A Prosperity Love Story" will make you laugh, cry, and go to work, all at once.

When I knew Dr. Ponder, she was Catherine Thrower, and she had not yet married Kelly Ponder. She and her son Richard lived in the Unity Church on Highland Avenue in Birmingham, Alabama. They were the Gold Dust Twins, as far as I am concerned, and probably still are!! Richard's favorite saying was Honey, Honey, give me some money!! He never walked when he could run! Catherine always looked like a million. I am sure at that time that she was not paid a lot, but you would not have known it. Sh kept her mind's eye on richness all around her, and it manifested. She absolutely has done every thing she writes about, has proved it. You can too. You will love reading this book.

I enjoyed this book and Catherine comes across as a serious and good person. I was not so surprised to read that she had a full-blown kundalini experience in her thirties (she doesn't call it that, however)because I always had the impression that people who are really good at manifesting have awakened kundalini.
I was surprised, however, how little Catherine uses her own teachings in her private life. In her love life, for example, she appears as completely passive (apart from her first catastrophic marriage). Similarly, it takes her ten(!) years to move from Texas to California.
Nevertheless, an enjoyable and inspiring read of a powerful woman.

Never before have I read anywhere how the power of release and the attitude of being open to new experiences and to new people can create a prosperous life. Quite a different way of learning about prosperity than Catherine Ponder's other books. In it is visible throughout the book that "expecting only the best" (as she says in her book Open Your Mind to Receive)worked for her. She went from a humble beginning to a prosperous life in every respect. One part of the book that I particularly liked was how she allowed her son to grow into a successful adult by allowing him to be free from the possessive and controlling parenting that some fearful and negative parents err in.
Quite an inspiring book in many levels.

The Catherine Ponder autobiography is interesting and shed light on this woman about whom I've heard so much. The book purchased from an Amazon vendor had a few minor marks but more than met my need to read about Ponder.

This is another great book from Catherine Ponder. She writes in a very simple and understandable way. I loved finding out more about her and her life. She has had a very positive impact on my life. Her life story is an inspiration for others to make "riches from rags."