More than I expected!

All I was hoping it would be.

The bookmarks are very nice and reasonable priced. Lovely indeed!

I love this book and carry it around with me wherever I go. It has the most beautiful prayers I ever read in my life!
I try to read one a day, but definitely at least once a week. This book is truly something to be cherished!!!

Bought this used.... and am SO thankful we did! Wish I would have bought this a year ago. Implementing the tools has been a complete game changer for our marriage and our family. I encourage husbands especially to read this and lead your family - your wife will follow!

This was a Christmas present for my 8 year old son. We read it in a few days for bed time stories. He couldn’t wait to read the next volumes and we have loved all of them so far (February and March). The illustrations are beautiful and the stories include just the right amount of detail appropriate for a child. I know the glossary will be a great resource for him as he begins to explore the books more independently.

More time should have been placed on the largest non-Christian religion; Islam. Good stuff with the Christian comparisons though.

My husband safe this was an entertaining read! Even though it's catered to young adults or teenagers, he enjoyed it.

Beautiful!

This book is beautifully different from any other book on infertility that you may have come across, since it draws on the Church’s ancient story of the infertility of Sts. Joachim and Anna, the parents of Mary. Dr Nicole Roccas walks us through the grief, separation, and fervent prayer of this childless couple, bringing us to the moment at which their faith in God comes out of the darkness into the light of thanksgiving, *before* Anna’s pregnancy and Mary’s birth.

In the process, Dr Roccas talks about infertility as a form of asceticism (to which all Christians are called, but in different ways), and this insight is truly inspired. With great sensitivity and understanding, she helps us identify ways in which infertility might cause us to experience guilt and shame: we might feel that this has been dealt to us as a plan B/remedial vocation because of our lack of faith, or we might be bleeding inwardly at the unhelpful comments of family, friends, and fellow parishioners. Dr Roccas very wisely considered these forms of infertility grief from many angles, some belonging to very specific circumstances: she carefully integrates views from husbands and from couples who have suffered miscarriages. She has the openness of heart to bring the infertility grief of married couples into conversation with that of people who are unwillingly single. Another review seems to fundamentally misunderstand an important thread throughout the book: how to respond to others’ misplaced advice/commentary. Dr Roccas always recommends trying to assume the best of other people’s intentions, but provides strategies for protecting oneself against unbearable criticism and points out that many people (and priests) do need to be educated about how best to support childless couples. So, by looking at infertility as an ascetic vocation, Dr Roccas reveals infertility to have the same God-given potential as parenthood, monasticism, and other spheres of human life that are more popularly identified as ‘vocations’.

This book does not promise to be a panacea for the pain of fertility, but its approach is very helpful, especially for dealing with anger and frustration. I received a review copy of this book, and recommend it highly not only for childless couples, but also family, friends, and clergy who would like to support them. The author writes from the standpoint of an Orthodox Christian, but I believe that this book can be read fruitfully by Roman Catholics and people from all branches of the Church. This is because its focus is not on the process of fertility treatment (over which there could be differences of teaching), but on finding meaning in the darkness by looking to the saints and their own walks with God. Above all, it is very helpful to find a book on the subject that does not end with a pregnancy announcement.

This book is at once inspirational, education, and touching. Throughout the book, Princess Ileana answers the question so often put to her by Americans, which was, “What is it like -- to be a princess?” The answer may surprise you. I had personally never considered how much the life of a royal person is a life of duty. The author illustrates in a series of beautiful vignettes how, although she never learned to do domestic chores like cooking or cleaning, it was not because she lived a life of leisure. From her earliest days as the 5th of 6 children, her time and education were dedicated to the service of her people.

As the current Abbess of the monastery, Mother Christophora says in her introduction, “As you read the book, you will gain insight into European history, told from the inside (from the 1920s to 1948). Because of that, this is one book where it is so useful to read the Prologue to this New Edition by V. Rev. Father Remus Grama, who gives a brief history of the events affecting Romania during this time.

With that as a backdrop, Princess Ileana shares with us the human side of this time of great suffering, great sacrifice, and great sorrow. She makes the enormous tragedy personal, by sharing stories of the wounded soldiers that she herself tended to, and her humility is evident throughout. For example, whereas some people might be tempted to excuse any sort of behavior under the trying circumstances of life in a war zone, the author uses the story of a bombing raid to share how she learned a personal lesson about the importance of holding one’s tongue and reserving judgment. She shares other such lessons with candor and grace.

The structure of many of chapters is to introduce us to a physical object, a tiara, a cross, a photograph, and then take us back in time to tell the story of that object in poignant prose. In this way, the Princess gives us a touchpoint for these travels into the history of her country. She is a masterful writer, never forgetting how little Americans know about the events of her country and the time she lived there, and explaining everything beautifully, without condescension, but with such grace. At one point, when the story seemed to be growing so tragic I felt I must take a break, the author must have sensed that the reader would feel that way, and for a moment, she took a break, too, and related some humorous anecdotes.

One of my favorite parts of the book is how Princess Ileana illustrates how, in the words of my husband’s grandmother, “to pray as if everything depended on God, and work as if everything depended on you.” Once, when some seemingly impossible situation arose, and God provided, she “resolved to try harder not to let doubt cripple my work. It is actually a kind of conceit to do so, a feeling that it is our own work we are doing. If we acknowledge it to be God’s work, certainly He is capable of bringing together men of good will who can be His instruments.” But it is also clear that she did not just sit around waiting for God to work. She says, “Once, someone asked me how I got ‘all that’ done. ‘With my feet!’ I replied. And this, in many ways, is true, for things do not drop into one’s lap. One has to go and find them.

When I first picked up the book, it reminded me very much of the autobiography of Maria Von Trapp that I read (and also loved) around 10 years ago, both being initially set in Austria and around the same time, and the written voices of the authors had similarities. However, I Live Again has a much broader scope. Where Maria learned as a new Christian to give her life to God and then to her family, Ileana started from there and with the lifelong quest to give her life to her people. The reader cannot help but ache with her at the loss of the Romania she knew, and we know from the very beginning of the book that it is already gone.

She says in the Afterword, “Human hopes and joys and sorrows have moved me deeply because I have always seen the individual as a human being rather than as an exponent of any creed or belief, and pity has been my strongest emotion toward friend and foe alike.... It has given me an understanding which separates the individual from the evil, instead of presenting the one as the personification of the other.” We need to be reminded of this noble perspective today, in a world so deeply divided. May we all read this book and learn, like Mother Alexandra, to see individuals as human beings!

I’m new to Orthodoxy, and I appreciate the simple approach to the liturgical calendar/year illustrated in this calendar. Easy to read and use—Thank you!

My nephew loved the icons!

I love this book! I use the morning prayers daily, and use the other particular prayers as needed. Thank you!

So glad to find a thoughtful discussion on this sensitive topic. Well written and helpful for me to know best how to support a friend of mine. -Meghan

Beautiful! Exceeded my expectations.

Very good - easy to read and understand - adds context to the scripture providing in-depth insights without bogging down in minutiae

I really love it! Very supportive for those recovering from childhood abuse. A beautiful gem

I haven't finished it yet. Let you know when I'm done. The above star rating is based on an incomplete reading and digesting of the material.

There is much to contemplate. The author did a great job weaving the physics into a story so that I had time to take in the physics. The book has improved my prayer life by helping me recognize and aware of our entanglement with those things we pray about.