Sister Mary Baruch, O.P.: The Early Years, by Father Jacob Restrick, O.P., is a joyous novel about a nice Jewish girl named Rebecca Feinstein who experiences a conversion to Catholicism and ends up as a cloistered Dominican nun. Rebecca, or Becky as her family calls her, comes from a loving and close knit family whose practice of their faith is about mainstream as far as families go in the United States. They observe their Jewish customs to an extent and have a faith in God but are not overly pious.

The novel details Becky's journey into Catholicism and then into the convent until just before her solemn profession. Because the novel is so filled with the humor, joy, and pathos of just being alive, and because it portrays nuns in their human-ness without any axes to grind and without any halo polishing, the novel is a good one to give to young women who might be discerning religious vocations. Without preaching to them, Sister Mary Baruch shows that ordinary gals have religious vocations and that convents are peopled by ordinary women who have an extraordinary love of God and a singular desire to serve Him above all else. These women don't glow with sanctity nor do they walk on air or have their heads in the clouds. They are down to earth, happy and simple followers of their crucified Spouse. And that is just what they desire to be.

The book is also a good read for anyone who has some animosity toward the Catholic Church because the novel's disarming tone just might help the resistant reader to lay down arms and come to terms with God Who is Love and Who speaks and ministers through His Church. The novel isn't sensational or exploitative. Its aim is not to expose any major flaws in the Church or highlight any great deeds or larger than life saints. The Catholic faith is lived out by the "little people" in the Church, and Sister Mary Baruch would be quick to identify herself as one of those humble folk. For all the "little people" in the pews, Sister Mary Baruch, O.P.: The Early Years will be heartwarming account of their own quiet faith that manifests itself in their own vocations and lives.

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Sister Mary Baruch, O.P.: The Early Years

To learn about a disciplined, Catholic, joyful Rule of Life that can help you draw closer to God while living in your own home, consult the Home Page of the Confraternity of Penitents, linked to in the link box at the top of this page.

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