Joan Grundy Releases New Book

This has led truth-seekers to investigate older, more benign religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, just as many have decided to follow their own ethics and morality without attaching a label to it. The 21st century may well come to be known as the era in which secular spirituality blossoms as the old orthodox models fail to maintain their relevancy.

A Deepening Life is the story of one woman's journey away from the tenets of her Catholic upbringing towards a deeper and highly personal religious hybrid that meets her curiosity and spiritual needs as both an intellectual and an educator. And does so without losing sight of the God in which she has faith.

Imagine the inner conflict and turmoil faced by Joan Grundy as she tries to hold onto the Catholicism she loves (as embodied by her beloved seventh grade teacher and inspiration Sister Perpetua) while balancing the unavoidable fact that she is gay and a member of a religion that overtly condemns those who live outside narrow sexual boundaries.

It is in her forties that Joan begins to experience her spiritual crisis. Not only does the Church lose its relevancy for her, but she begins to feel that the just and merciful God she knows is being wielded as a weapon on those who disagree with the teachings of the Catholic Church. As Joan writes (and it serves as both the core of her earlier discontent and her blueprint to deeper enlightenment):

"At its essence the soul longs to be whole and free. In mid-life I felt the tug of my soul calling me to deeper integration and fullness of spirit. Writing this book has been an essential response to this invitation. Often in life, I tried to go up and over, but I followed the call to go down and deeper...and it has made all the difference."

A Deepening Life is not a breezy, Jesus-loves-us catechism about the wonders of God. Joan Grundy has a Masters degree in Theological Studies with a concentration on counseling and it shows in her intellectually rigorous, almost Socratic method of taking a premise and examining it from every angle - as one might do a stone or a gem - to gain an appreciation of its whole before deciding the proper course of action.

Her insights and her plain-spoken but clear-headed writing, as well numerous anecdotes from her own life, are the main virtues of this book. Would that we all had a teacher like Joan Grundy while growing up. Or a Sister Perpetua.

Author Biography: Joan Grundy has enjoyed an educational career spanning more than 30 years, including that of high school administrator. Joan plans to devote more time to reading, writing and public speaking, refreshing her soul along the way with kayaking, cycling, golf and travel. She lives in both Waterloo and Southampton, Ontario, Canada.

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