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BooK Review: The Poor Save Us

By Bob Cobert, D. Min., Chaplain, George Washington University Hospital, Washington, DC

Megan Mckenna tells wonderful stories in this book of persons whom she met through her travels, teachings and spiritual retreats who have changed her life. Many were poor but rich in God’s love and presence. These encounters, oftentimes unexpected, Megan describes as blessings, moments of “being caught off guard by God’s eyes looking straight at me, through the eyes of people I met.”

In my work as a hospital chaplain, I have learned the importance of patients’ stories as a place where we can connect. I learn about their joys and struggles, their anxieties and fears about their illness, and their relationship with God. I am amazed how their stories touch and challenge me and my relationship with God. The Poor Saves Us is timely as we need connection more than ever.

BOOK REVIEW BY JUNE SAWYERS

THIS WILL BE REMEMBERED OF HER - STORIES OF WOMEN RESHAPING THE WORLD (August 2010.210p. Eerdmans, $15(9780802864697). In this illuminating work, McKenna discusses three topics that she believes are closely linked: memory, women, and resistance. She has chosen these ideas because each is found at the heart of a story in Mark's Gospel: that of the unnamed woman who anoints Jesus with perfumed oil. This brief tale forms the center of this book's reflections and commentaries as McKenna looks at stories of children and women and their traditions from around the world. "Who and what we remember," she writes, "is a revelation of who and what we are and hope to be." Combining memory with the stories associated with women is a potent idea because traditionally women are the ones who do much of the remembering while their own stories are often forgotten. Thus, many of the stories recounted here comprise acts of resistance and, by their very nature of remembering, acts of political courage. An important and thought-provoking book about women, both sung and unsung, from Iran to the American Southwest and beyond.

Megan McKenna