MSI Press Blog

  What is a book jewel? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Starting in August, we will share near-daily, as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that. This month's book jewel is  Blest Atheist  by Elizabeth Mahlou. Amazon review by Debra Gaynor - Elizabeth Mahlou grew up in an abusive home. She tells of her mother stabbing her brother with a knife in the buttocks, and her father throwing a pitchfork and stabbing him with it. Taking an airplane ride had a whole new meaning in this family. The abuse was physical, emotional, and sexual. "The wounds were in the heart and mind and covered parts of the body." Like most bullies, their...

  Elizabeth Mahlou’s Blest Atheist unsettles some readers because it refuses to obey the moral binaries that secular storytelling depends on. She recounts childhood experiences that today would trigger immediate CPS removal: physical abuse, emotional cruelty, and sexual violation ignored by the adults who should have protected her. She describes her own resistance — embarrassing her parents publicly, striking back physically, refusing to be cowed. That fierce ego likely saved her life. And then, later in the memoir, after her conversion, she writes a chapter in which she sees her parents not as monsters but as overwhelmed, under-resourced, emotionally limited people raising eight children in poverty. She does not excuse them. She does not soften the truth. But she sees them through a different lens. She names their fear, their incapacity, their brokenness. In essence, she forgives them — though she never uses the word. For many religious readers — Christian, Jewish, Muslim — thi...

  What is a book jewel? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Starting in August, we will share near-daily, as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that. This month's book jewel is Blest Atheist by Elizabeth Mahlou. Amazon review by Brendan Howard - Elizabeth Mahlou's autobiography and tale of coming to believe in God has a lot going for it. Her candid descriptions of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of relatives gripped this reader in a flood of sympathy and horror. Mahlou's great reserve of optimism and compassion as child and adult seems initially boastful. But in light of her life of childhood trauma, physical...

  Touch is the most intimate of all divine communications. It bypasses words and images, reaching directly into the body and soul. Throughout history, mystics and ordinary believers alike have described moments when they felt physically touched—comforted, healed, or awakened—by a presence they recognized as holy. These experiences vary widely, but they share one trait: they leave peace, not fear.  🌿 The Forms of Divine Touch 1. The Comforting Touch Gentle, parental gestures—like a pat on the head, a hand on the shoulder, or a stroke on the cheek—often come in moments of distress or prayer. They carry reassurance rather than command. St. Thérèse of Lisieux described feeling “a caress from Heaven” when she was overwhelmed by suffering. Others have felt a light pressure on the crown of the head or a hand resting briefly on the back, as if to say, You are not alone. 2. The Healing Touch This is the most dramatic form. It may coincide with physical healing, as in the Gospel accou...