A window into a beautiful, miraculous world.

....Where do I begin? First of all, just to say I would recommend it wholeheartedly and not just to women. From the title and cover it might look as if it is aimed at women but I loved it too.

The Eastern Church to a Western mind can seem at times mysterious with prayers to saints and the use of icons. For me one of the attractions is that it is rooted in history and doesn't waver and just follow the latest cultural ideas. It has the intellectual rigour of the best of Western Christianity but without the dryness. It also has the focus on the miraculous but without the money hungry prosperity preachers. Quite the opposite as Eastern Orthodox elders, monks and nuns shun wealth and seek humility.

There are numerous miraculous accounts in this book related to saintly, ascetic believers which are really inspiring. Constantina is not a nun but spent a lot of time with them. Just as Constantina became part of monastery life without actually becoming a nun, you as the listener also feel part of it...perhaps that is a result of prayers for the book...I don't know.

I wouldn't necessarily want to be a monk, it's for the few but there are so many lessons to learn from nuns and monks and this beautiful book allows you to experience a bit of their world, which is actually very out of this world!

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