Life-Giving Wounds

Book excerpt: Over half of the people in the United States will experience the splitting up of their parents, statistics say. Yet no matter how "normal" divorce becomes, it always inflicts a profound wound on families—not only the parents, but the children, whether young or grown. The children of divorce are fractured on the level of their very being: heart, mind, and soul. If left untended, this break could pain them for the rest of their lives, tingeing their relationships, their faith, and their capacity for joy. Life-Giving Wounds offers a path to recovery for adult children of divorce and separation, and a thorough reference for those who love and care for them. Daniel and Bethany Meola draw from their personal experience, theological formation, and academic research—as well as from their work of accompanying hundreds of men and women from broken homes—to provide a compassionate, spiritually rich, and psychologically sound guidebook following the footsteps of the only true healer: Jesus Christ. Readers of Life-Giving Wounds learn to recognize the many ruptures caused by divorce and, more crucially, to find new life by grieving, praying, hoping, loving, forgiving, trusting, and committing to one's vocation. In the Resurrection, God turns suffering into something infinitely beautiful: redemption. This is where we find healing that lasts. Our wounds may remain with us—as Christ's did with him—but they can, like his, begin to givelife.