Book Review - Little Pieces of Light... Darkness and Personal Growth - By Sister Joyce Rupp, OSM

I am preparing a retreat for the Carmelite nuns here in Jackson.  One of the talks I will be giving as a part of this retreat will be about light and darkness, since it is a central experience to our human condition.  Yes, we all experience light and darkness in our lives, don't we?  This is a very profound little book by Sister Joyce Rupp on a very important subject.  I think back to the darkness in my life.  The dark times, the struggle, the difficulty - those times are usually the times of growth in our lives.  The poet Mary Oliver wrote: "Someone I love once gave me a box full of darkness.  It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift."  I remember when a book about Mother Teresa addressed the dark knight of the soul that she experienced in her life.  Many of her critics used this to attack her.  To me, however, this helped me appreciate Mother Teresa even more, to appreciate her ministry and her journey and her steadfastness.  We learn from our journey through the darkness.  It helps us in our compassion and our empathy.