Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope Paperback – March 15, 2005

I purchased this book several years ago and it is definitely my most favorite go-to book for times of change and challenge. Love it. Love it. Just ordered another for a friend. The chapters contrast the most poignantly-felt travails of our inner lives with the gift each of these travails or struggles may provide-- if only we are willing to see and recognize its healing power. And although the book does not make light of inner pain, it shows how our very human powers of recovery can squarely meet pain and transform struggles to victorious aliveness. The book is enormously practical and chapters can be read in any order. Even a page or two gives me a welcome lift. Reading for an hour or more feels like an emotional spa. The many-faceted references and examples of how and why a brighter path may follow a dark one are palpable and life-affirming. Thank you Sister Joan!

This book was recommended to me by my spiritual guide and I loved it. My husband died almost two years ago, and there are times when I wonder what it is I'm to do with my life. This book did not have the answer but validated the question. After finishing the book, I immediately gave my copy to a friend struggling through a second round of cancer and bought myself a another copy. This is great reading for anyone seeking a deeper spiritual meaning to their lives but especially for anyone who is working through a question in life.

The book can be a quick read with long learning curve. I've read it several times and find thatreading it in groups of three chapters and then moving forward one chapter at a time to the nextthree is the most productive for me. The book is not for the faint of heart but neither is life. I havebought a number of copies of the book and distributed them to friends and family.Crossing the Jabbok is a journey we all get to take, Joan Chittister provides a road mapand sends you on your way, Many thanks to her.cheers,john beyer

I have reread pages, chapters of this book several times. It is comforting to read and informative on facing different struggles in life. It is both encouraging and enlightening and gives some pointers on how to approach difficult personal and soulful problems.

We read this book for our zoom Adult Faith Formation at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in E. Greenwich, RI. This book stimulated fantastic discussion amongst our 20++ for SEVERAL WEEKS!!! Highly recommend!!!

Loss is a common experience-a job, a friend, a dream. Anyone can benefit from Sister Chittester’s wisdom, gleaned from daily immersion in the monastic psalter and her own innate no-frills common sense. Weaving poetry, other’s experiences, and her own deep loss early in her vocation, she leads us in surrendering whatever we have lost into a stronger self.

One of the best books I have ever read in moving through pain and struggle (not looking behind and becoming bitter) towards where God would have us, how we can gracefully surrender to things in life that just fell us at our knees. This book is such a blessing such as the author will never know during this difficult time in my life.

Because I have been grieving deeply for a close friend and seemed stuck in the grief, my spiritual director suggested Joan Chittister's book to me. Sister Joan uses an example in her life which caused her to struggle with pain. She does not water down the struggles we experience and yet challenges one to go on in spite of the struggles. The book presents thoughts that cause deep reflection and encourages one to make good decisions in order that one's spirit does not die in the struggle.This book came at the right time for me as it has strengthened me and challenged me to be transformed by hope.

Joan Chittister a wonderful writer and this book is really good

This book was recommended to me by a friend who was going through an extremely difficult year; she found it helped her to anchor herself to her deepest values and to find a way through her trials to a new beginning. Exactly a year after her life fell apart, I too had an uncannily similar bombshell, and I ordered the book she had found so helpful. I'm very glad I did.Joan Chittister is a nun who hoped to be a novelist; her disappointment at the loss of the latter vocation was severe and she has used the wisdom she gained through the years to analyse the meaning of struggle, and the reality of hope. Here is the core of her thinking: 'The essence of struggle is neither endurance nor denial. The essence of struggle is the decision to become new rather than simply to become older. It is the opportunity to grow either smaller or larger in the process.'I would recommend this book to anyone who seeks to grow 'larger' through life. We all have struggles of different kinds so we can all identify with some of the issues she raises; this book will help you trundle on, one step at a time, in the knowledge that hope is what eventually turns darkness into light.

What a wonderful book about a difficult subject!

An very inspiring book that helps guide you through the twists and turns of Live, highly recommended

Excellent book by a prolific American nun.