{"product_id":"9781467018630","title":"Book of the Beloved","description":"\u003cp\u003eA Christian mystical text containing the revelation made to a young girl in a Benedictine monastery in the mountains of Austria in 1974.  It is a revelation of the extraordinary quality of the love of God communicated, not through light and joy, but through a dark and powerful suffering, which she identified as “the mystery of Christ’s cross.”  \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe original manuscript was faithfully written down as a direct record of this experience. It takes the form of a dialogue or interaction between God as the Lover of the soul, and “Maria” as His Beloved. A major theme is the struggle of the Beloved to overcome the “Yes buts” of human nature in order to be able to say a “perfect Yes” to her Maker. Each dialogue moves through suffering and miscomprehension towards final happiness and liberation, prefiguring the change from death to resurrection.  \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe manuscript remained a puzzle to its writer for eighteen years, at which point she gained an insight into the moment of “self-yielding” which transforms the suffering into bliss.  It was then, whilst staying in an Austrian farmhouse on a mountain-side, that she wrote the poetry which re-interprets the text, as a hymn to “the Star-Love” of ecstatic intensity.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOver thirty years after the original event, realising the experience may also have meaning for others, the writer worked on the manuscripts. During a period of deep reflection at her home in Scotland, she then wrote the commentaries.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eShe hopes that this book, a lifetime’s endeavour, may prove enlightening to others as to the nature of God’s love.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AuthorHouse","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47107503128816,"sku":"9781467018630","price":4.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781467018630_p0.jpg?v=1763689921","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781467018630","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}