By Karen Wright Marsh | Amazon.com | 224 pages
Published in September of 2017
SUMMARY: What can we learn from the saints in history? Were they people that were on a higher spiritual plane? Did they know something we do not? In Vintage Saints and Sinners Karen Wright Marsh profiles 25 brothers and sisters of the faith in short digestible chapters telling a humanizing antidote or two about a saint while seamlessly exploring ways the saint pushes her to examine her own life and walk with God.
“I don’t read about the saints in order to imitate them. I read about the saints because they show me something about myself,” Marsh writes.
There will be saints that are familiar, some that are not, and some that inspire. Each reader will identify with different saint(s).
“Which saint is God offering you, to help illumine and burnish your particular gifts, and to help illumine and heal your particular damages?” Marsh asks.
Marsh does a superb job of showing us that the saints were people just like you and me. They dealt with depression, fear, lack of direction, self-doubt, anxiety, and a host of other issues. They did not have it all figured out. What did set them apart was their patient endurance — the ability to keep trying and walking in the faith, even when confused and frustrated.
If you like the writing style of Tish Harrison Warren, then you will savor Marsh’s practical and down-to-earth writing. While not a traditional devotional book, the way it is penned and split into 25 chapters (you do not have to read it chronologically) lends itself to group study or a devotional setting.
KEY QUOTE: “The saints provoke me, disturb me, confuse me–and they sure don’t allow me to sit off to the side, safe as a spectator or a cheerleader. They summon me to choose and to act.”
BONUS: Check out Marsh’s Vintage Saints and Sinners podcast where she talks about the people she wrote about in her book.
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