Calmly Plotting the Resurrection

The first excellent review from Louisville in 1999 speaks the wondrously great Truth about Rev. Donna Schaper. After reading her creative sermons, personal stories in Lectionary Homiletics, LectionAid + Preaching Great Texts, I found her also a creative, imaginative teacher of writing! Most of all I add is based on a few of her stand-out Reflections, "Step By Step; The Garden as Parable; The Woman, who named this Book; The Risen Community!"In addition to superb stories, she teaches like another Master Teacher did, through Parable: "Our goal is to calmly plot the resurrection. Bulb by bulb. Dig by dig. Day by day!" Not only a lot of short sentences but hymn titles, like "Day by Day, Balm in Gilead, Beethoven Mass in C..." The woman for whom the book is named, May Sarton calls Katherine White, "the mother superior of garden writers." All good writers are poets! How does busy, Pastor Donna Schaper having large Family, busy husband, Warren, busy writer of Sermons, stories in "The Sacred Journey" The OTHER SIDE, keep-up with such a schedule?? She lives by the Spirit of Resurrection, in the Risen Community of her Fascinating story alongside of Luke 24:41 : "The Catholic priest having the funeral service of a gang member shot by some policemen!" She excels in her busy schedule of being the Mother, Pastor, Teacher, Wife, Writer. I guess that's the secret for her long pastorate in Amherst, Mass, only 4 1/2 years in Community Church of Coral Gables, then back to Amherst as Executive Director of the Western Mass. Women's Fund!I can testify to her deeply moving influence into the lives of 15 writers at Kirkridge Ionian Retreat Center! We became One of many states, many ages, varied experiences as caring students of this caring, charismatic, creative human/divine Instrument of God's Peace and the Spirit of Resurrection! Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood

This book is not for the sweetly devout, but for those who are willing to take the Gospel seriously and apply it to everyday life with gusto. Donna Schaper's daily reflections for the Lenten season read less like a typical prayerbook and more like journal entries from the front lines of life. Her faith is strong, clear, and down-to-earth, and her mesmerizing images will sustain you long after you read them. This is one holy, healthy woman, and she draws the reader into her sacred space with humor, grace, and intelligence. I've read it a dozen times, and always find something new to delight and inspire me. Lent will never feel oppressive again. Alleluia!