Stars at Night: When Darkness Unfolds as Light - Hardcover

D'Arcy, Paula

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1632530422 ISBN 13: 9781632530424

Publisher: Franciscan Media, 2016

Synopsis

“An apprenticeship with the night is an inheritance I would wish for everyone.” Paula D’Arcy was only 27 when a drunk driver killed her husband and young daughter. But in the midst of her crushing despair, and to her complete amazement, she discovered a presence within her that responded to her fearful cries for help. Her anguished heart was met by a great tenderness and wisdom, which she grew to recognize as a transcendent love. Over time—knowing that pain was not the final say and did not have absolute power—she was able to find her way back to the light.

At some point, we all find ourselves navigating a “dark night.” The feeling of being blindsided by life, disoriented, lost and alone, is common to the human journey. Beyond the loss of loved ones through physical death, darkness may arise when we feel disillusioned, or when we confront unexpected illness, both mental and physical. We may face the dark if we suffer the loss of a job, or the loss of faith. It is a shadow lurking in the depth of addiction, and we know it in the times we feel betrayed and when we are abused. The pain of divorce, the realities of aging, the death of our particular dreams... these all evoke the dark. It wears many faces and names. Each experience has the potential to alter the way we look at ourselves and the way we think about life.

In this captivating new work, D’Arcy begins with her own personal experience of loss and brings the reader with her, explaining how the enveloping darkness eventually began to lift, how night slowly became day again, and how she came to recognize the experience as a natural part of life. Anyone who has experienced great loss, or who has felt lost in the darkness, will gain new hope from The Stars at Night.

About this title

About the Author

Paula D’Arcy, author (Song for Sarah, The Divine Spark, Gift of the Red Bird) and retreat leader, travels widely in the United States and abroad. Her work includes workshops and retreats related to spirituality, writing, women’s gatherings, (including women’s initiation and rites of passage), and creating venues where men and women experience an opening of the heart and a change in their way of being in the world. She is also founder of Red Bird Foundation, and serves as adjunct faculty at Oblate School of Theology and Seton Cove Spirituality Center, in Texas.

Review

“Stars at Night is a luminous meditation on the ineffable beauty nestled at the heart of the human predicament. With elegant lyricism and startling insight, Paula D’Arcy mines the jewels of wisdom found across the spectrum of spiritual traditions to guide our way through the darkness of our historical heritage and our personal losses and into a full-bodied encounter with life.” — Mirabai Starr, author, Caravan of No Despair: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation

“Drink in Paula's words They will wrap you in a luminous, black shawl of knowing. Let her take your hand, and dip it into the cool, dark, healing river of life.” — Mary Busby, SAGRADA Sacred Arts, Oakland, California

“Paula is the consummate storyteller of the sacred. She finds it in places we wouldn’t begin to look. In Stars at Night, her fresh stories encourage us to seek meaning and hope in the awareness of the ordinary love around us. Her years of seeking to live and love fully without any blinders has brought forth a richness that names the allure for all of us. It is a compelling read that will bring you to a new place in your own spiritual seeking. Illuminating!  —Victoria S. Schmidt, co-author, Shattered Soul? Five Pathways to Healing the Spirit from Abuse and Trauma and executive director of Theresians International

“There are precious few trustworthy doctors of grief and loss, but Paula D’Arcy is one of them. She has walked through extraordinary tragedy in her own life, has counselled others through their darkness, and writes here about the light can be seen there. Stars at Night offers a guide, a GPS, of how to find your way through grief and struggle.” —Ronald Rolheiser, OMI, author of The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality and president of the oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas

About this edition

• Publisher: Franciscan Media
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1632530422
• ISBN 13: 9781632530424
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192