Light Through The Crack: Life After Loss

From the Arts & Culture section of The Social Edge.com, February 2007: Most Impressive Books of the Year

By KATHY PERRY

My selection is Light Through The Crack by Sr. Sue Mosteller (Doubleday). The weaknesses and vulnerabilities faced in the real life situations of others can resonate with our own experiences of pain, grief, loss and longing. The genius of this book is that Sue Mosteller explores her topic through the narratives of others' stories, correlating the learned insights of those narratives with events in her own life. She shares bits of her own story, and then hands over literary space to highlight the voice of another who speaks of what has been learned through experience of loss, fear, conversion, and hopeful transformation.

These stories are poignant and deeply touching. After each account, Mosteller returns to her own story to purposefully explore and discover possibilities for new insight. The author's method is acted out in the structure of the book as an example, and serves as an excellent template for guiding personal reflection.

Experiencing this writing helped me to reflect seriously on the possibilities for growth and transformation that are present in the human experiences of weakness, limitations, alienation and breakdown. The title says it all: Healing light shines through the cracks of our lives, and in community, we find strength where we first thought there was only weakness. This book is a gift to all, and will serve as an especially helpful resource for those in ministries of spiritual direction, teaching, and counseling.

Kathy Perry is a Master of Divinity student at Regis College in Toronto, Canada.

Sue Mosteller is a Sister of St. Joseph, a long-time member of L'Arche Daybreak and Henri Nouwen's literary executrix.

Book review used with permission.

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