For those who feel broken, lost, or spiritually depleted, Inner Healing the Franciscan Way offers a roadmap to rediscovering God’s presence and finding restoration and healing.
At some point, we all experience loss or disappointment—when our best efforts and carefully laid plans simply fall apart. As we struggle to put the pieces back together through sheer willpower, the intense loneliness can be crushing. Fortunately, there is another path—the healing and empowering force of the Franciscan Way of life.
Through the lens of her difficult journey through divorce and professional upheaval, Wendy Murray explores the surprising road to spiritual rehabilitation she discovered through Saint Francis of Assisi and his timeless principles of poverty, chastity, and obedience. These monastic virtues, often misunderstood in today’s world, hold the power to refashion every aspect of our lives—physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual—under a new and holy re-ordering that brings us into health and wholeness.
Blending memoir, theology, and practical wisdom, this book is a lifeline for anyone who feels they are sinking under the weight of hopelessness. Inner Healing the Franciscan Way is an invitation to discover that a shattered life isn’t the end of your story, although it may feel that way. It is the beginning of a new story. This is a book for those who dare to believe there is hope, even and especially when life falls apart.
Wendy Murray, author of A Mended and a Broken Heart and Clare of Assisi, Gentle Warrior, spent more than a decade researching Saint Francis and Saint Clare, including time living in Assisi, Italy. An award-winning writer, scholar, and journalist, she was an editor and senior writer at Christianity Today and has contributed extensively to Books & Culture, The Christian Century, and numerous other publications. She holds a B.A. from Hiram College and an M.A.T.S. in New Testament from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary where she currently serves as Associate Director of Accreditation and Communications at Gordon-Conwell and Editor-in-Chief of Ex Fonte magazine. Her books explore faith, history, and spirituality through both journalistic inquiry, theological exploration, and personal reflection.