"What could GOD want? To be represented correctly so others would be free to love Him as He loves us."
 |
Laughing Crying Naked by Adrienne R.C. Carpenter Trafford Publishing
book review by John E. Roper
Over the centuries countless men and women have written of their dramatic and life-changing religious experiences. Some describe encounters with angels; others have seen visions of God or interacted with various saints. Although there are sometimes commonalities among the stories, most have certain aspects that seem to be tailor-made for each individual affected. While many of these first-hand accounts chronicle only one event, the author discusses a total of five unique mystical moments that occurred within a span of twenty-six years which transformed and enriched her spiritual life.
Carpenter grew up in the 1930s and was raised in the Roman Catholic faith. In 1960, while still a young wife and mother of three small children, she suddenly began to feel a presence of someone she initially described as the "Other" which communicated to her as an inner voice. This experience affected her both emotionally and physically, and because of the culture of the time she was diagnosed as having an acute nervous breakdown and was committed to a mental hospital for forty-five days. However, during her time in the hospital she received many spiritual insights and gave words of comfort to several other women. Her subsequent mystical experiences, while spiritually powerful, were more passive and led to both a deeper understanding of her faith and an impetus to eventually share what she was learning with others through writing.
The author writes with a passion born of an intense desire to communicate the spiritual insights she has gained over the last few decades. Some chapters, such as the one on the importance of fairy tales, are quite thought-provoking. The transparency with which she tells of her experiences is refreshing, and her heart for both God and others shines brightly throughout her book.