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Hope Endures

Colette Livermore

$40

Paperback

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English
Heinemann
03 November 2008
An Australian Sister's Story of Leaving Mother Teresa, Losing Faith and Her On-going Search for Meaning

Reminiscent of Lapierre's THE CITY OF JOY, this searing, eye-opening memoir is by an extraordinary woman who served for eleven years as a nun in Mother Teresa's order, working with the world's poor. Ultimately, it is also the story of her journey into disillusionment with the order and her crisis of faith.

Enormously compassionate and unflinchingly honest, Colette Livermore recounts the horrors she saw and tried to remedy in her work with the sisters of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in some of the poorest places in the East - the sprawling, fetid garbage dump of Manila and the crowded slums of urban India. The sheer numbers of desperate people Livermore encountered and helped was huge and humbling, their circumstances devastating; yet these interactions with other souls were not unbearable to her - rather, she drew strength and courage from them, knowing that it was her calling to help all who presented themselves, and to be with them in their suffering.

Untimately, though, she could not bear the rigid administrative culture of the order, and its insistence on unquestioning obedience, which was harmful to the young sisters mentally, emotionally and spiritually, while limiting the good they could do. Beyond her inner struggle to find her right path amid suffering many illnesses herself as a result of her service, Livermore also had to resist pressure from Mother Teresa and other superiors who tried many arguments to keep her from leaving. But leave she did, and went on to become a general practioner and an atheist, while continuing her life's work helping the disadvantaged, building a new life of humanitarian service.

An inspiring story of an incredible woman, HOPE ENDURES is also a critique that asks readers to question blind faith and obedience and discover their own true path to practising goodness in life.
By:  
Imprint:   Heinemann
Country of Publication:   Australia
Dimensions:   Height: 237mm,  Width: 151mm,  Spine: 24mm
Weight:   420g
ISBN:   9781741666533
ISBN 10:   1741666538
Pages:   320
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Dr Colette Livermore joined Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity at the age of seventeen. After serving for eleven years, Colette went to medical school, obtained her medical degree from the University of Queensland, and worked with isolated, Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. She is currently a GP and lives in New South Wales.

Reviews for Hope Endures

""""Hope Endures"" is compelling. Livermore perfectly captures our yearning to want life to fit our spiritual ideals, only to learn it never will. But we cannot help but continue to walk the path. This book is superb."" -- Caroline Myss, author of ""Entering the Castle,"" ""Invisible Acts of Power,"" and ""Anatomy of the Spirit"" """"Hope Endures"" is one of the most fascinating accounts of the spiritual journey I have ever read. It emphasizes the importance of a direct, unmediated approach to the Source, the Absolute, God, however named. The Christian version of ""Infidel"" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, this book is an affirmation for those to whom blind obedience and submission to established creeds do not ring true, and who hunger for something more authentic than dogma. This ringing endorsement of spiritual freedom is more important than ever, in view of the threat posed by religious fundamentalism around the world."" -- Larry Dossey, M.D., author of ""Healing Words"" and ""Reinventing Medicine"" ""This penetrating book unveils the blindness that lurks in many spiritual organizations and traditions, and confronts an issue that still corrupts contemporary religious organizations -- naive belief used to justify ignorance, obedience, and neglect rather than to galvanize social change, improve lives, and foster spiritual connections. As her compelling story unfolds, Ms. Livermore slowly realizes that she and her fellow nuns are being taught to 'spiritualize' their own emotional abuse, and she can no longer submit to it. Like all good stories, this one involves a strong, public personality -- Mother Teresa -- and the clash between extremes of innocence and authority. Reading this clear-eyed book is a good first step toward dealing with the shadow side of spirituality and to opening a door to a brighter, more mature way of being in the world."" -- Thomas Moore, author of ""Care of the Soul""


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