Books don't usually have me in tears in the first sentence, but Searching for Sunday's forward, written by Glennon Doyle Melton, starts, "Whenever I want to scare myself, I consider what would happen to the world if Rachel Held Evans stopped writing." God, I miss her. 

I didn't know her, not really--I was a dedicated reader of her blog, and once I think she responded to a comment of mine, but that hardly counts. Nevertheless, she showed me (and so many other people) a new way to be part of the Church, and we were--are--siblings in Christ. I am so grateful for her life and her work.  We cannot be Christians on our own (as she explains), and how blessed we all are to be Christians with her. 

I think at some point I've read all of her books, but not for many years (and with my memory problems, I can never be sure). But coming to this book now, with the pain of fresh grief healed but the gap where her life was still present in our communities, something in me has come together. 

This book's sections are centered around the sacraments, and so each story she tells and concept she encounters has a physical element to it, a practical way it is present. You might finish reading with more questions than answers, but you will be present in them. You will be thrown into them. You don't have to forgive the Church, but maybe you can find your way back to a (or recognize your current) sacramental life. There is no cure, but there is healing.