THIS IS THE story of Sister Mary Baruch’s deep loves. As we come to know Becky Feinstein (her name “in the world” before becoming a contemplative Dominican nun), we learn about her love for warm bagels and good chocolate, for Broadway theater and good books, for her good friends and her close-knit family, and, of course, for New York City itself. But it is another love—one that comes upon her quite unexpectedly—that gives her story its power: the love of Jesus himself.
This is a story of conversion, acknowledging all of the crises and consolations, both small and large, that come from that. We follow Becky as she first comes to hear the Lord in that “still, quiet place” in her heart and then as she follows that newfound love and encounters its (sometimes bittersweet) consequences.
This book is the fruit of the contemplation and the rich experience of a wise and gifted preacher. Fr. Jacob Restrick’s long service as a chaplain to different communities of Dominican nuns has given him a privileged insight into the experience of this form of intimate friendship with Jesus, and its moments both sublime and ordinary. The reader who accompanies Sr. Mary Baruch on her odyssey is receiving not only the story of a soul but a profound lesson about the spiritual life itself.
—Jonah Teller, O.P.