CBB Review: The Kiss of Jesus

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of bringing author Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle to my home parish for a day long retreat. Her stay lasted most of the weekend which afforded my wife and I some time to spend with Donna-Marie and her husband. Over dinner Donna-Marie dropped a few hints about her memoir that she was finishing work on. The Kiss of Jesus: How Mother Teresa and the Saints Helped Me to Discover the Beauty of the Cross has finally been released. This book is an intimate portrait of the life of Donna-Marie Marie which is at times jaw dropping,  at others heart wrenching, but always a light of hope for us all.

Without going into too much detail I can say that Donna-Marie’s story is nothing short of amazing. She reveals a life that has contained both heartbreak and triumph. There were abusive relationships, false accusations, borderline poverty, and pregnancy complications. However on the flip side you read about someone touched by Mother Teresa and Father John Hardin. Two modern day Saints that play a pivotal role in Donna-Marie Marie’s life.

I really do not want to spoil the book for you so I will say this. Read……this…… memoir. Donna-Marie’s story is a witness to us all. Faced with adversity and challenge upon challenge she proves that one’s faith in God can see them through anything. In our times it has become far too common for people to throw the towel in on God when things get tough. Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle is an example of hope and strength in the face of life’s adversities. As such I highly recommend this book for the simple fact of example Donna-Marie sets for us all.

There are so many nuggets of spiritual advice hidden between the pages of her story that it is difficult for me to pick out my favorite. I would however like to share the following quotes to give you a sense of what you are in for.

“We were all created to long for God. We can sometimes get lost along the way in seeking Him. We become distracted self absorbed confused and sometimes we try to run and hide afraid of the pain or the suffering we may have to endure. Thanking God that He calls us back. Thank God he comes to find us.”

“God was putting a passionate desire in my heart to share him with others in my writings and talks. It wouldn’t be until many years later that I would begin to share the bits and pieces of my personal life when writing about the faith. Not until this book, The Kiss of Jesus, would I reveal so many of my experiences and the secrets I’ve never shared before.”

“So many people are wounded by family problems, broken relationships, abandonment, abuse, and pain. Whenever I travel I encounter people bearing deep scars, and my vocation to love, which began within my own family, has led to many opportunities to reach out to hurting strangers with the love of God.”

I encourage you to read The Kiss of Jesus and use Donna Marie’s witness of faith as an example for your own life. It was a joy to have met Donna-Marie and it was a joy to read her memoir. I am sure you will agree with me after reading this book when I say thank you Donna-Marie Marie for taking upon this task of documenting your life story. The key she demonstrates to all ids the power of prayer and faith. Following her example we can now all witness the kiss of Jesus and bring it into our own lives.

I close this review with one more quote from the book that I feel adequately sums it up. “By offering our pains, sorrows, difficulties, challenges, and everything to Jesus, we can ask Him to sanctify it all. If we wholeheartedly allow God to “write our lives”, I believe we will possess perfect and abiding peace and joy no matter how crooked our path. Together, let us offer our lives in full surrender and pray: “Behold I come;…I delight to o your will, O my God; your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:7-8).”

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