To Shatter Glass

By Sister Sharon Hunter and Faith Riccio

Poems of pain and forgiveness, for those who struggle to find healing from a childhood marked by addiction

To Shatter Glass is essentially a memoir in poetic form, tracing seventy years of struggle and experience. In her early thirties, at the end of an abusive and childless marriage, Sister Sharon Hunter entered a modern convent. Neither sheltered nor immune from reality, she confronted demons of the past and trauma brought with her, unresolved and in need of healing. Her collection obliterates a common belief that men and women enter religious orders to escape life. Its fifty-six poems vary in style and capture the heart and imagination of those searching for straight answers to difficult questions. It touches on the need to know ourselves, to accept our humanity as defined by God, and to strive toward reconciliation through self-examination and forgiveness. 

To Shatter Glass is an invitation to wholeness for those scarred by family alcoholism. It is written for the quiet and sensitive buried by depression, and for those who may be too afraid to expose their wounds. It is for anyone who has experienced betrayal or the loss of a loved one through tragic circumstances.  

This is the first book in Paraclete's Iron Pen imprint. In the book of Job, a suffering man pours out his anguish to his Maker. From the depths of his pain, he reveals a trust in God's goodness that is stronger than his despair, giving humanity some of the most beautiful and poetic verses of all time. Paraclete's Iron Pen imprint is inspired by this spirit of unvarnished honesty and tenacious hope.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paraclete Press
• Release date: Sep 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781640607156

Sister Sharon Hunter

Sister Sharon Hunter, CJ, is a professed religious of thirty-five years at the Community of Jesus, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Born in 1947 in the farming region of Western Pennsylvania, Sister Sharon was raised a country girl. Her writing, infused with practical, sometimes stark reality, compliments her desire to offer hope in extreme circumstances, beauty in our sufferings, and assurance that light is always with us.  

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