Today, readers of Patheos, one of the most popular religion websites, were introduced to my new book My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints as the book became the latest to be featured in the Patheos Book Club.
As part of the promotion, Patheos is featuring a new video interview with me (above and on the book club page) in which I talk about how, being a victim of childhood sexual abuse, I wrote My Peace I Give You to help others find the healing I found in Christ through the lives of saints who suffered such abuse.
Along with the video interview, I have a new essay on Patheos about healing sexual wounds with the help of the saints, sharing for the first time about how Blessed Laura Vicuña's witness gave me the courage to tell my own story.
Two Patheos bloggers also weighed in today on My Peace. I was so happy to read Eve Tushnet's jewelry-box analogy:
This is a very personal book. It’s the story of Eden’s own discovery of these saints and their stories, and her use of those stories in order to heal her own wounds. Reading the book is like watching Eden open a jewelry box and draw out each of her most treasured, personal, and beautiful items one by one, because she wants you to have them too.[Read Eve's full review.]Elizabeth Scalia, a k a The Anchoress, draws parallels to physical healing:
Dawn has done something new with a subject that has been relegated to the self-help or explore-your-victimhood bookshelves for a couple of decades; she takes the deeply painful, deeply personal stuff that comes up when you dredge old demons out of the murky waters, and then treats her wounds with the antiseptic of faith and the balm of the saints, in order to bring about healing and something more: real hope for the rest of one’s life. And she shows others how to apply these remedies, too. [Read Elizabeth's full review.]
If you are in or around New York City, I'm coming your way this Thursday night. See my "Author Events" page on Patheos for more details, and please pray for me and those I seek to help as I tour the country sharing the message of My Peace I Give You.
