Towards Evening: Reflections on Aging, Illness and the Soul's Union with God [Paperback]

Lorenz Books (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 25, 1997

The author's bright outlook and her unwavering faith are an inspiration.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Hope, as she entered her 60s more than 40 years ago, began contemplating her relationship with God. The published author and devout Catholic's observations may offer comfort for others who are aging.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Paraclete Press (April 25, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557251835
• ISBN-13: 978-1557251831
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,544,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Comforting and Inspiring Book, March 7, 2009

By 

James Sommerville (Cedar Rapids, IA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Towards Evening: Reflections on Aging, Illness and the Soul's Union with God (Paperback)

The author of this book is Mary Hope, not "Lorenz Books" as appears in Amazon's heading.

Although I am Protestant and the author of this book is a convinced Catholic Christian, I found comfort and inspiration from it. The book is a series of short meditations written throughout a year of the author's life.

Here are some samples of the author's wisdom:

"As we grow older, we are painfully aware of our inadequacy, and while others, confessors included, think of our life as behind us, we know that since we are on the verge of eternity, it is about to begin."

"We of the 20th Century have been so influenced by the advances in the scientific care of the body, by the wonders wrought by modern surgery and drugs, that our whole attitude to physical suffering in ourselves or others is one of hope for cure. This is doubtless the right approach. Yet, if we bend all our energy toward cure, and tend to forget the uses of pain, we may be weakening our power to bear the unavoidable. the aged who sensibly face the fact that pain is theirs for the rest of their lives, that wearisome effort to cure is worse than the affliction, can school themselves to offer pain in glad atonement, undistracted by any thought of how to rid themselves of it."

In a slum district school in one of the British manufacturing cities the children were having physical examinations One little girl came back to the classroom from the doctor's office, and the Sister in charge asked, "Monica, what did the doctor say about you?" "He said," the child replied, "that I was a poor miserable specimen of humanity." Then, pirouetting merrily, she added, "But he didn't know that I had made my First Communion."

"The young and strong can nurse the sick; but we, feeble and weary, can comfort the sorrowful, for we, knowing sorrow, know sympathy."

Recommended for all serious Christian believers.