I discuss my new memoir on the Eric Metaxas Show

It was a pleasure to share some of the stories from my new memoir Sunday Will Never Be the Same on the Eric Metaxas Show. Among the topics we discussed: Brian Wilson, Harry Nilsson, G.K. Chesterton, and the hidden connection between St. Catherine of Siena and They Might Be Giants.

Journey to a new Dawn

Seeing is believing. It's one thing for someone to read about my life's journey, but it's another thing to actually see me BC/AC — Before Catholicism/After Catholicism.

I opened up my trove of personal videos from my rock and roll past, including clips of me with the Posies and Jeff Probst (pre-"Survivor"), to the good people at Catholic Answers Press. They in turn created this beautiful trailer for my memoir Sunday Will Never Be the Same: A Rock and Roll Journalist Opens Her Ears to God. If you enjoy it, please share it with your friends and family — especially those who refuse to darken the door of a church. As I recently explained in an interview for Crux,

I want Sunday Will Never Be the Same to be the book that Catholics give to friends and family who hate the Church. It’s meant to reach people who can’t even imagine why anyone with a choice, let alone a Jewish rock and roll journalist with the world of New York City nightclubs at her disposal, would want to become Catholic.

Sunday Will Never Be the Same is available through Amazon, Catholic Answers Press, and wherever fine books are sold.

Would you like to host me for a talk? Contact me at the email address at the bottom of my Biography/Contact page.

"God used my love of Sixties pop"

With the Turtles' Flo (at right) and Eddie backstage at the Bottom Line, probably on or around New Year's Eve 1990.

The Catholic news site Crux today features an interview with me about my new memoir Sunday Will Never Be the Same. Here's a taste:

The book has an interesting title. Why did you want to drive home the point that “Sunday will never be the same”? What does your choosing this title reveal about your conversion experience? 

It reveals, first of all, that I love Sixties pop music, for “Sunday Will Never Be the Same” is the title of a classic hit by Spanky and Our Gang. 

The song is part of a genre called sunshine pop that I helped popularize as a rock historian during the late 1980s and 1990s - yes, I started during my teens! I tell about that time of my life in Sunday Will Never Be the Same, partly because it was also a time when God was trying to reach me. But I also discuss it because I don’t think converts such as myself should despise our past loves when those loves weren’t sinful in themselves. 

In my case, God used my love of Sixties pop - including artists like the Zombies, the Kinks, and the Left Banke - to stir up my desire for what songwriter Robyn Hitchcock calls a “Shimmering Distant Love.” The music’s beauty made me hope that there was something transcendent that I could attain to and find happiness. And that is in fact what happened - only not as I originally hoped, which was simply that I would find a husband who liked the same music that I did. 

My memoir’s title is also meaningful because, in times past, Saturday night was the highlight of my week. It was then that I would go out to hear live music, whereas Sundays were for sleeping in. But once I became Catholic, Sunday became a day for communing with Jesus in the Eucharist. So Sunday truly never will be the same for me.

Read the entire interview at Crux.

Sunday Will Never Be the Same is available from Catholic Answers, Amazon, and wherever fine books are sold.

Would you like me to tell my story at your parish, university, or other venue? Write me at the email address at the bottom of my Contact page.

Watch now: I discuss my new memoir on Catholic Answers Live

I'm grateful to Catholic Answers Live for hosting me for a marathon two-hour interview on my new memoir Sunday Will Never Be the Same: A Rock & Roll Journalist Opens Her Ears to God. Since Catholic Answers doesn't permit blogs to display it, watch it on their YouTube channel to see me describe my faith journey and the role that some of the rock musicians I interviewed played in it.

The best interview I've ever done ...

... was last Friday for Tom Curran's podcast, and you can listen to it or download it via his website.

It was clear from the depth and breadth of Tom's questions that he had read my new memoir Sunday Will Never Be the Same from beginning to end. I was happy for the opportunity to speak from the heart about what motivated me to tell my story and what I hope readers will take from it.

My new memoir, Sunday Will Never Be the Same, is now available!

My editor Todd Aglialoro holds one of the
first copies of Sunday off the pressses.

Wonderful news, friends! My memoir is now available in stores and online: Sunday Will Never Be the Same: A Rock Journalist Opens Her Ears to God.

This is the book that readers have been asking me to write for fifteen years, ever since my story as a New
York City rock journalist turned Christian convert began to make the news. And it's an unusual story in that I don't condemn the pop and rock I loved; rather, I talk about how God worked through its beauty to increase my longing for him.

Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout writes:

This is the story of a young woman's journey through the dark minefield of modernity, of a lost soul who searched in vain for joy before finding it in the place where it had awaited her all along. It is a conversion story, written with equal measures of frankness and delicacy. It is also a vivid snapshot of the world of American pop music at century's end. Whatever your faith—or lack of it—you will put down Sunday Will Never Be the Same filled with gratitude for having been given the opportunity to accompany Dawn Eden Goldstein on her pilgrimage from confusion to certainty.

If you're looking to purchase Sunday Will Never Be the Same from Amazon, you may have a bit of a wait, as it immediately sold out there upon its publication, although the site will have it back in stock soon. But it's still available from Catholic Answers, the National Shrine Shops at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and wherever fine books are sold.

I am eagerly looking forward to giving talks about my memoir, and especially to the Washington, DC, launch on April 25 at the Catholic Information Center. Visit my Upcoming Talks page for more information, including how to contact me if you'd like me to speak in your city.

Speaking soon in Connecticut, New Jersey, DC and ... your city?

Friends, please keep an eye on the Upcoming Talks tab of this blog, as I have speaking dates coming up in Connecticut, New Jersey, and my current hometown of Washington, DC. I'm particularly excited about the Washington one, as it's a launch event for my new memoir, Sunday Will Never Be the Same: A Rock and Roll Journalist Opens Her Ears to God.

I'm eager to spread the word about my memoir, so do let me know if you'd like to bring me to speak in your city. See the bottom of my Biography/Contact page for my email address, or write me via Twitter @dawnofmercy.

The treasures of Kanyakumari: My India teaching mission, part 6

I've been meaning to post about the tail end of my three-week teaching mission in India but have been taken up with a number of things, including preparing for the publication of my memoir, Sunday Will Never Be the Same. So, rather than tell how the rest of my time there went, I would like to show you some images and a video capturing my favorite experience of the trip: the visit I made on February 3 with my friend and co-professor Father Gregory Gresko, O.S.B., and our friend Andrea Lemon (who was behind the camera) to the Leprosy Rehabilitation Centre in Kanyakumari.

The Leprosy Rehabilitation Centre is a ministry of the Stella Maris Institute for Development Studies, which is run by the Daughters of Mary. Eighty persons live there — leprosy sufferers and their families.

Although leprosy is treatable and has been virtually eliminated in the Western world, in India there are still many people who become infected with it and suffer serious physical damage before they are able to receive treatment. At the Leprosy Rehabilitation Centre, victims of the disease, who are society's outcasts, are able to receive the medical care that they need while living with family members, each family in its own individual house. Their family members who do not already have the disease are protected from infection because sufferers are no longer contagious once treatment is underway.

A resident of the colony makes a necklace with an assist from the Daughters of Mary.

I thank the necklace maker. She gave me and my companions a number of her beautiful creations, but to me it was she and her fellow residents who were the real treasures. I was deeply moved by their warmth and dignity, even joy. The Daughters of Mary recognize and honor their humanity in a way that is radically different from the way they are treated in the outside world.

On the spur of the moment, we made a brief video for friends and family in which Father Gregory pointed out the new water system for which he had fund-raised. The $1,100 donation enabled residents to have running water in each of their homes. No more do they have to carry pails back and forth up the hill to the water tank.

Although the video's sound is poor, you can see the joy we felt among the residents.

The woman in the pink sari lost her tongue to leprosy. She expresses herself through muffled vocal sounds and through face and body language. The head bobble that she makes in the video is, as one online article notes, a distinctive Indian sign of friendship.

I left the colony deciding to spiritually adopt everyone there, which for me translates into praying for them and helping support them financially. If you would like to support them as well, write the Daughters of Mary at the Stella Maris Institute, info@smids.org.