Susan Howatch

One of my guilty pleasures for years have been books by Susan Howatch. I first read some of her big generational family sagas 20 years ago - Cashelmara and Penmarric.

But she started a series about Episcopal priests in England who were spiritual directors and got me hooked. Some of them that I read were "Glittering Images", "Glamourous Powers", and "Ultimate Prizes". I had not read one of her books for at least 5 years and found in the remainer pile "The Heartbreaker" at Barnes and Nobles.

And so I am hooked. But I find myself reading it pretty slowly for me. "The Heartbreaker" is about a "leisure worker" (prostitute) in England who is having sex with men for money and being used and abused by a woman named Elizabeth. He comes into contact with Carta and then the spiritual director Nicholas Darrow. It is in some sense a thriller as you wonder how he is going to get extricated from this life he has fallen into. It is about "splitting off" the physical from the spiritual, about dehumanization and it is about healing.

The healing happens as Gavin, the prostitute, is treated with compassion and respect and love.
At the beginning of the chapters, there are descriptions of pastoral care that often stop me and make me think. Here are some of them.

"The healing ministry is non-judgmental: those involved in it are encouraged to consider and address their own prejudices and stereotyping to avoid projection of their personal internal codes of behavior."

"Our identity is being forged in the crucible of whatever sufferings turn out to be inexticable from the particular journey of each person....into fulness of life."

"The challenge of pastoral care is to identify with suffering people and to offer companionship on their journey."

I have seen how spiritual direction and pastoral care brings healing to people. But the hardest part of it is to get rid of our judgments and allow ourselves to experience the pain that people carry within them. It is easier to judge and analyze people who are suffering than to stand with them in their pain. But that is when the healing happens.

Anyway, good books for me. I recommend Susan Howatch for a good read that makes you reflect on faith and the power of love.