Available Now on Ancient Faith Publishing!
A Sacred Beginning:
Nurturing Your Body, Mind and Spirit During Baby's First Forty Days
Each time I encounter a mother to be, I want to give her a big hug and say, "What an amazing journey you are on! It is so both challenging and wonderful. It will test you and fulfill you! It will bring you to your knees and you will feel so much love you could burst." I want to do this, but I don't. This is her journey and this may not be true for her, just as all these things will be hers to discover.
Instead, I partnered with my good friend, Sasha Rose, to write this book so we can offer support, guidance and love to women as they bring babies into the world. Our book focuses on the early postpartum period, the first forty days of traditional healing for mother and child after birth, but truly it is a spiritual guide for all mothers as they raise their children.
As mothers we have learned that like one’s spiritual life, motherhood is a constant evolution. We’ve read what to expect books for parents, but so little truly prepared us for the depth of spiritual change motherhood offered. As Christian women now deep in the journey of motherhood, we wanted to create the book we needed when first becoming mothers. A Sacred Beginning is a spiritual and practical guide offering the comfort of holding a friend’s hand through one of the most beautiful and difficult transitions of a woman's life.
Countless mothers describe how hard it can be to raise a child in today’s culture while simultaneously struggling to find time to devote moments to their spiritual their lives. We bring the reality of new motherhood and the developing of one’s spiritual life together. We hope to lay a foundation to support mothers throughout their journey, looking at how to build the spiritual stamina needed to raise a child of God in our modern world.
To the pages of our book we bring the prayers of our souls, the lives of the saints, and the prayers of the church. We use the steps of St. John of Climacus' Ladder of Divine Ascent to guide our daily reflections, looking at the virtues and passions he found to be important on the path to God. We offer practical tips, prayers, and the words of saints as well as our own experiences and the thoughts of other mothers during this precious time.
We hope you will journey with us on these forty days, a time set apart to heal, foster love and make space for renewed spiritual growth.