Sparrow: A Journey of Grace and Miracles While Battling ALS

by Jennifer R. Durant, Matthew P. Durant

Jennifer R. Durant, busy career woman, wife, and mom of two, made a drastic career change. In the lexicon of ministry, God called her to be an Episcopal priest, and Jennifer answered. Several years later, in the final weeks of seminary, Durant's world changed dramatically again, when the persistent weakness in one of her hands was diagnosed as ALS (aka Lou Gehrig's disease).

In Sparrow , completed with her husband, Matthew, Durant recounts her battle and brings the reader with her on her spiritual journey through her priesthood and ministry which, despite her illness, continued to her death―with the aid of a speech box, she preached her final sermon on the Sunday before her death. Durant leads readers forward through the confusion of our caffeine-fueled and perpetually exhausted world to discover, as she did, a renewing sense of God-given purpose and sacred light which even the darkest of circumstances cannot extinguish, a place where even in silence, God is present, whispering through us.

An inspiration to any who suffer from a debilitating disease (or know someone who does) and those who provide pastoral care to others. It is a story of God's redemption and new life.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 10, 2016

Reviews

[Desi A]

I miss Jennifer so much sometimes, and I grieve that my son is forgetting her (although I can't blame him, he was only 2 when she died). Her book is short but intimate, highly personal but universal. Being a small part of the last years of her life taught me so much about love and about God.

[Anne Whitten]

Beautiful. I knew Jennifer while she was in the Seminary and her daughter Kate was in my Girl Scout troop. I am so grateful to have known this family. This book was a beautiful telling of her journey through ALS. I could see her smile in these pages, and it warms my heart.