Book discussion: The Heart of the Family

Lifting up our prayers and suffering

“If it had been possible for her prayer to reach both backwards and forwards in the time that had vanished, and hold and comfort each of her sons in his dereliction, she would have accepted her own, even the whole misery of nothingness that extreme old age can bring, with final and entire willingness. What of it? she would have said, and taken it entirely to her.

" And I do," she said aloud. Waking or sleeping she heard herself speak, meant what she said and willed it. It was as though she were lifting up a great weight from the ground, struggling as she had never struggled before and never would again.

"I do. It is my prayer." With a

flash of knowledge she knew what she had not known before that prayer has nothing to do with time. Her prayer at this moment was lifted…”

🌿 Elizabeth Goudge, The Heart of the Family, ch 19

Welcome to our book discussion for The Heart of the Family.

Here is the video and I have also copied some of my notes below: