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When Fragments Make a Whole
A Personal Journey through Healing Stories in the Bible
Paperback
April 2024
9781782508953
More details
- Publisher
Floris Books - Published
2nd April - ISBN 9781782508953
- Language English
- Pages 224 pp.
- Size 5.5" x 8.5"
$22.95
“This book is a work of imaginative devotion rather than a product of scholarship, and incorporates facts and observations that have been interesting and helpful to me. The stories drawn from my personal life are included as my testimony to the power of the Healing Spirit, which I can only offer from my own point of view. I am convinced that this healing activity, or at least potential, can be found in anyone’s life if one looks in the right way.” — Lory Widmer Hess
In this candid and courageous book, Lory Widmer Hess describes her experience of inner transformation through her exploration of healing stories in the Gospels. In a unique blend of poetry, commentary, and autobiography, she describes how she engaged with and drew inspiration from those stories. Her approach will inspire readers on their own journey of spiritual growth.
During a difficult time in her life, Lory turned to the accounts of Jesus' work on Earth for comfort and inspiration. She wrote poems about the lives of people who had been touched by Christ and, over several years, added personal reflections that explore the difficulties she was facing in her marriage, the challenges of raising a family, and setbacks in her career. Gradually, she learned forgiveness and self-acceptance.
This powerful book shows how we can connect our experiences to the Gospel stories in a creative way that allows us to draw strength from them. At the end of each chapter, the essential meaning of the story is distilled into a simple, contemplative phrase. Readers interested in Christian spirituality will turn to this unique and remarkable book again and again for inspiration and contemplation.
“[When Fragments Make a Whole] is inspiring at many levels: in the artistry of the poems and prose, in the depth of understanding brought to biblical history and the healings themselves, and in the humble description of one person's journey toward healing.... Lory Widmer Hess writes with a deep and painful self-honesty.”
— Signe Eklund Schaefer, author of Why on Earth? and She Was Always There
“Lory takes us on an artistic, inspiring, and informative journey through the trials of her own story, and the healing she found in working artistically with the gospels. It is a treasure of a book in that it contains accessible explanations of deep spiritual knowledge out of anthroposophy, artistic and personal poetry that move the heart, and the testimony of a life lived by one who has earnestly taken up the path of discipleship.”
— Rev. Anna Silber, priest of The Christian Community
“Honest and experiential books grounded in sacred text are rare. With When Fragments Make a Whole, Lory extends to her readers a precious key into the Gospels... It is a book for your own journey, but it is especially a book to catapult you into standing in and with the world-healing that is our task.”
— Kathryn E. Booth, Co-founder of the Alcyon Center
“[When Fragments Make a Whole] is a calm, honest, methodical book that will intrigue anyone interested in thinking through how the Bible is applicable to the challenges of daily life.”
— Bookish Beck
C O N T E N T S:
Preface
Introduction
1. A Man with an Unclean Spirit
2. A Woman with a Fever
3. A Leper
4. An Invalid by the Pool of Bethesda
5. A Man with a Withered Hand
6. A Centurion’s Servant
7. The Young Man of Nain
8. A Demon-possessed Man in the Tombs
9. A Bleeding Woman with a Dying Girl
10. A Gentile Woman’s Daughter
11. A Deaf Man
12. A Blind Man
13. A Boy with Seizures
14. A Woman with a Disabling Spirit
15. A Man with Dropsy
16. Ten Lepers
17. A Blind Man of Jericho
18. Lazarus
Appendices:
1. The Anthroposophical View of Christ and Human Evolution
2. The Healing Stories in the Synoptic Gospels
Notes
Bibliography
Lory Widmer Hess
Lory Widmer Hess grew up near Seattle, Washington. When she encountering Anthroposophy at the age of twenty-six, it set her on a long journey of exploration and discovery that included studies at Sunbridge College, Eurythmy Spring Valley, and the Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Lory has been a book editor for the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America and has worked for a number of anthroposophic organizations, most recently in communities serving adults with developmental disabilities. She currently lives with her family in Switzerland and is in training as a spiritual director. Visit her website and blog at enterenchanted.com.
