Audiobook:
In Anne’s book we see a beautiful portrayal of God’s love and forgiveness. We follow through a movement from childhood love to estrangement, then on to greater love. As a child Anne loved Jesus and talked to Him as a personal friend. Her faith and trust in Him were deep. To abandon that personal relationship and embrace atheism a few years later was a cause of deep suffering. For 38 years she turned away from her loving God.
A visit to Brazil saw the beginnings of a movement back to the God she had loved in childhood. When she looked up at the giant statue of Jesus Christ in Rio, and saw His arms outstretched, she had a sense that “ this Lord of Lords belonged to her in all His beauty and grandeur”. She realized that God’s love for her was very real. From then on she felt she was pursued by this “Hound of Heaven”.
“Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.” – Francis Thompson.
She returned to the great and ancient Catholic Church of her childhood and was able to talk to her beloved friend again. It was her love and trust in Him that brought her back to believing in Him.
Then there was the movement to greater love. In the summer of 2002 she reflected on a plan of giving her life totally to God. She began to talk to God about the whole question. Then the simplest of solutions occurred to her, “Write for God. Write for Him. Write only for Him”. And so her life as a writer for Christ, a writer consecrated to Christ began.
She pondered deeply on the question of total commitment to Christ. This meant not only loving God but loving all His people – friends and enemies! This was a tremendous challenge. However, she knew that the God who loved her, who had forgiven her, and had waited for her to return , would stand by her and support her always.
Sr.Patricia Bowley S.M.