Ms. Hughes writing is sincere, honest, and respectful. This book will help open your eyes. It's a good book and I'm glad to have read it.
Interesting, Engrossing, well-written, thoughtful, helpful, Christianity and it is not surprising that such people search for truth in other traditions. I think this author's experience would be invaluable for people attracted to Hinduism, New Age and the occult. The author spent many years involved in New Age and Hindu spiritualism and can speak with the authority of substantial experience. Excellent read, i would recommend it to anyone interested in the interface between Eastern Religions, New Age and Christianity.
I would also recommend The Gurus, The Young Man and Elder Paisios and Klaus Kenneth's Born to Hate, Reborn to Love. In all three of these books a young person explores Hindu mysticism (as well as the occult and Buddhism in the case of Klaus Kenneth) in great depth before returning to Christian Orthodoxy. Very different people but there are some overarching similarities in their experiences. Each is worth a read.
A moving biography about the process of Christian conversion that takes you into not just the story, but a part of Veronica's soul and its journey to Christ and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWbnkCOkh1A&feature=digest_fri
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Short book review: The Pearl of Great Price by Veronica Hughes
This book tells the story of one woman's movement from the traditional Roman Catholicism of her youth, through various New Age and Eastern spiritual and religious movements, and finally to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Throughout the course of the narrative, the reader is not only told the events that occurred but also let into the emotional, mental, and spiritual world of the author, getting a glimpse of the movements of heart and spirit that eventually lead to embrace Christ and his Church.
Her story is one that many, including myself, who have converted to Orthodoxy in America over the last several decades will be able to identify with, as many of us found ourselves disillusioned with the spiritual barrenness and harshness of Western religion, as embodied in Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity, and so headed East to religions and philosophies like Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism, only to turn again to Christianity as it is embodied in the Orthodox Faith, its fullest and truest expression.
I recommend this book both for those who have come or are coming to Orthodoxy from such a background in Eastern and New Age religions, as well as for those who have close friends and family interested or involved in such movements. I think this book can act as an excellent bridge book and a gateway for those who have fled from the typical Western understandings of Christ to return to Christ, the real Christ.
http://www.piousfabrications.com
Veronica---I loved your book! I want more, more more!!! I think that you, forgive me for saying if I am too forward, really need to write more books for everyone. This is such a huge unquenched as of yet need in our community - to reclaim the once or twice a year Orthodox, the New Agers and anyone else who is really deeply searching for God.
Ariane Trifunovic-Montemuro
www.arianeart.com
"The Lord is the accomplishment of everything good that I think, feel and do." St. John Kronstadt
Amazon.com
5.0 out of 5 stars A seeker's journey through,May 17, 2011
What's remarkable about Veronica Hughes' "Pearl" is its quiet candor, where one usually finds a strident and defensive proselytism.
She describes her previous spiritual explorations with even-handed respect, even when she has found a greater fulfillment in Orthodoxy. Especially interesting is the respectful way she describes her previous relationships in New Age organizations in which she was even a pioneer. This readiness to describe while being reluctant to judge seems to be part of an Orthodox perspective.
She does not call names, but describes events, again, in an even-handed and honest way that is rare in accounts of conversion. She thus honors the search that has led her, and may lead others, to Orthodoxy.
And now that she is fully immersed in Orthodoxy, this reader looks forward to her further adventures in its spiritual landscape for, indeed, every Christian must heed Christ's admonition to seek and to knock so that the truth may answer. For when truth is alive, it does not stand and stagnate. Veronica's account so far promises a similarly quiet candor as she finds the next steps in her journey.
Indeed, her measured perspective will be especially welcome as she goes more and more deeply into this great tradition.
"Dear Veronica: I have read your book. It was as if you had written my own story. I understood every word on a truly deep and personal level...and like you, I came to the same conclusion by the Grace of God. I became Orthodox a few years ago. Glory to Thee, O God, Glory to Thee! Thank you for writing the book, and for helping those of us who have walked this journey to understand it even more. I hope it will also help those who love others who are walking this same way. May God bless you, now and ever and unto ages of ages."
---- Anna S. Jan 3, 2011
Amazon.com, 5 of 5 stars review
Amazing book, unique perspective,
This review is from: The Pearl of Great Price: The Spiritual Journey of a New Age Seeker to the Light of Christ and the Eastern Orthodox Church (Paperback)
When I first starting reading this book, I was thinking, yet another confessional book written by yet another screwed up baby boomer. I have to confess that I began to like this book more and more as I kept reading and I wasn't able to put it down until I finished. The author's journey is worth reading about, especially if you are a woman interested in spirituality and in Christianity. I appreciate that Paula Sivori (the author's real name) could tell us this story with honesty. The book is not as well-edited as I would like especially in the beginning. There are lots of parts where the writing is awkward and amateurish (good editing would have fixed this!) Otherwise, I heartily recommend this book for anyone who has been searching for answers to the meaning of life and questioning God.