Jennifer R. Durant, busy career woman, wife, and mom of two, made a drastic career change. In the lexicon of ministry, God called her to be an Episcopal priest, and Jennifer answered. Several years later, in the final weeks of seminary, Durant’s world changed dramatically again, when the persistent weakness in one of her hands was diagnosed as ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s disease).

In Sparrow, completed with her husband, Matthew, Durant recounts her battle and brings the reader with her on her spiritual journey through her priesthood and ministry which, despite her illness, continued to her death-with the aid of a speech box, she preached her final sermon on the Sunday before her death. Durant leads readers forward through the confusion of our caffeine-fueled and perpetually exhausted world to discover, as she did, a renewing sense of God-given purpose and sacred light which even the darkest of circumstances cannot extinguish, a place where even in silence, God is present, whispering through us.

An inspiration to any who suffer from a debilitating disease (or know someone who does) and those who provide pastoral care to others. It is a story of God’s redemption and new life.