God Alone is Enough.

That's right, folks....Claudia Mair Burney's new book is out! Her first, non-fic, by the way, and I for one am pretty stoked about it. What's even more exciting is that I have a copy right here in my sweaty little hands, and I'm posting this as part of a blog tour! How fun is that? I'll not be reviewing the whole book...this tour is a chapter by chapter deal. I'll be reviewing Chapter 3. You can find informative reviews of Chapter 1 at http://www.alisonstrobel.com/alison-blog/2010/6/14/god-alone-is-enough.htmland http://kbhyde.wordpress.com/. Chapter 2 reviews can be found at http://rubysdaughterbrenda.blogspot.com/2010/06/god-alone-is-enough.html and http://www.wesuckatlife.com/wordpress/?p=189
So, shall I share with the class?

This lovely new book from Claudia Mair Burney is called God Alone is Enough: A Spiritual Journey with St. Teresa of Avila. And there go half of you ...you're not Catholic and you're not interested in Saint Anyone. Well, let me grab you by the collar and pull you back. This book is about a woman, her spiritual journey to God, away from God and back to God. Don't write her off as Ms. Piety. She struggled with her flesh. She loved, maybe even craved, the attention her beauty brought her. She loved the Lord, wanted to please him and be close to him, yet had trouble concentrating on Him for more than a few minutes at a time. Sound familiar? Ok, how about this...

"Dear Lord, Thank for another beautiful day. You are so wonderful, and your creation is beautiful...You have blessed me with another day....(What day is it, anyway? oh yeah, Thursday...It's Garbage day! Oh man, I'm sure my son isn't even up yet. What time is it???) OH! Sorry Lord, ok...You have blessed me..."

NOW does it sound familiar? Has that ever happened to you? It sure happens to me, and it happened to St. Teresa as well. She struggled with prayer, thought she was a failure at it...but that's not my chapter. My chapter is when Ms. Burney shares with us what she calls "one of the most sublime analogies about prayer ever written." The Chapter is entitled "Make a Garden" and in it we hear St. Teresa tell us about finding a plot of earth that is filled with weeds and barren soil. There's work to be done here if anything is going to grow, y'all. The ground needs to be tilled, weeds need to be pulled and seeds new to be planted. That's hard work folks, and guess what? God has taken care of that for us. All you need to do is show up with the water. What's the end result? A beautiful, lavish, fruitful garden.

That's how it is with prayer. That's how it is with your soul...God does the heavy lifting, we just show up with the water of prayer.

Claudia Mair goes into a bit more detail and expands more on the benefits of water and what happens when we don't have it.... but I won't go into all that. You'll have to read the book for those tasty morsels. You won't be sorry, lovies! ;-)


By the way, as you breeze through the pages of this book, please note the artwork scattered here and there. That is the hand of our talented author! Enjoy those treasures...they are a peek into her soul.

For more blog tour details, visit Ms. Burney at http://ragamuffindiva.blogspot.com/

Tom Petty Tuesday

Ever feel like this?

This is how I feel today. Just so you know.