Poignant testimony of a woman who, in her fight against cancer, chose not to cheat either with herself or with her Christian faith. We will not find here a conventional discourse on suffering, no tongue-in-cheek, but a cry! The one shared by those who find themselves confronted with the abyss of loneliness and helplessness into which illness throws them. When misfortune cannot be shared even with those closest to you, where can you find support? In fidelity to her Protestant roots, Marianne Guéroult relies on the Word which becomes speaking. She explores the need to “reopen the old language”. She thus introduces us to the extraordinarily “revealing” power of texts which decipher us in depth as much as they give us speech.
What this dark journey through illness ultimately reveals to us is that there is no cheap consolation. We do not avoid grieving ourselves or our primitive beliefs. The path is uncertain, stony; we inexorably get hurt. But it still happens that we are met by words that hold us on the edge of the abyss and that make us breathe for a moment. It happens that looks, silences, gestures, however tenuous they may be, suddenly give us hope again.
AUTHOR
Marianne Guéroult is a pastor in the United Protestant Church of France. After a short ministry in the parish of Noisy-le-Grand, she was responsible for the Mosaïc project of the Protestant Federation of France, meeting communities of diverse cultures and theologies. Today, she is a hospital chaplain in Paris. Ministry that she had to put on hold to devote herself “full time” to the fight against the disease.
ISBN: 9782356140968