This is a story to be read to children, ages 4-8. In the 1950’s Mexican families were farm laborers who migrated through the country following seasonal crops. This Mexican family, picking cherries in Michigan, is stopped by the plight of two poor orphan children whose lives entwined with theirs bring surprising treasures to both.
A continuation of the Martinez family for children ages 9-14. Now teenagers, the children face dilemmas and conflicts not easily solved. Faith in God is tested. Finding lost grandparents threatens the family, and would destroy it except for an unexpected treasure.
This effort took many years of work beginning in the 1970’s when I sat in a bedroom at the farmhouse where the family summered, organizing research papers on the floor, and typing on a secondhand typewriter with bird-sized type. When that draft was finished, I sent it off, ignorantly but hopefully to a publisher. Unknown to me was the turnover that had happened throughout the Catholic publishing world then looking only for the avant-garde, feminist stuff. That original book eventually became four books that even Ignatius Press, always maintaining Catholic reason and sobriety, would not consider from a person with no credentials for such an ambitious undertaking. They remained on the shelf for years with new source-updating and editing. The four are: I – A Scriptural Theology of Woman, II –Woman in the Bible, III- Woman Return to Wholeness, IV- Woman in the Church.
Refer to Knowing Women – Vol I
Refer to Knowing Women – Vol I
Refer to Knowing Women – Vol I
To attempt to write in the manner of C.S. Lewis is futile. Yet, the temptation is great to spin out another story about the realm he first brought into our imagination – the hellish realm ruled over by the Evil One. This story is indebted to The Screwtape Letters, and though it will never reach the writing heights of that book, it was fun trying.
This also was fun to write, again indebted to Lewis’ The Great Divorce, and though it contains a lot of theological stuff, including complicated diagrams, the hope is that some one, or even two readers will try to find out what reunion with God may be all about. Carefully note, the “may.†Lewis himself makes an appearance; may he forgive the intrusion on his afterlife that I have imaginatively attempted. He is after all in good company with Athanasius.
This story developed out of the shock in my soul when the diabolical agonies inflicted on the innocent by the Third Reich tore up my imagination. How could a Christian confront such bestiality, especially the weakest and most vulnerable Christian, a young, defenseless woman? Clarimonde is that young woman, and this is her story.
This book is another attempt to bring some of Genesis to further understanding. There is such richness here – a stupid understatement. I suppose that if all the attempts to mine Genesis’ wisdom about sexuality were placed end to end they would circle the globe. However, in my attempt there is a teeter-totter, that has to be new?