Susan Swetnam
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In The Mysterys Shadow
$14.95Add to cartAs our lifespans continue to grow longer, millions of people every year spend time caring for the elderly and dying-some as professionals, some as volunteers, and some through their loving but demanding care for parents, spouses, or other family members or friends.
In her book In the Mystery’s Shadow, Susan Swetnam draws on her experience serving thousands of ill and dying clients, often in hospice programs, as a certified massage therapist-and also on her experience of caring for her own husband, who died young of cancer. She explains how this sometimes difficult work offers not just the fulfillment of giving comfort to people who need it, but also moments of breathtaking wonder, moments that hint at the untold complexity of being human and affirm our sacred connections with each other. She writes of the hard lessons caregivers learn about themselves, while at the same time knowing the strange and humbling sense of being used in the service of God’s love. Insightfully connecting end-of-life care with the liturgical year, Swetnam invites those who care for the sick and dying, whether professional or volunteer, to stay awake to the sacred implications of their labors.
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Season Of Little Sacraments
$14.95Add to cartThe lament swells every December, as perennial as the jingle of Salvation Army bells: we’ve lost the “reason for the season” in the secular trappings of Christmas preparation. For those aspiring to a reverent Advent but caught up in twenty-first-century to-do lists, A Season of Little Sacraments offers a fresh perspective on the secular-sacred December divide.
Susan Swetnam invites readers along on an ordinary woman’s day-by-day walk through Advent, demonstrating that the very “distractions” accused of taking Christ out of Christmas can become “little sacraments”-occasions for grace to break through and faith to deepen-if approached with mindful reflection. For readers who want to experience a truly sacred Advent without fleeing completely from contemporary society, A Season of Little Sacraments will be a welcome source of nourishment and delight.