NY Times Best-Selling Author
Happy New Year, Everyone.
“Gabriel’s Inferno” (ebook) is on sale for $1.99 US, for a limited time, across platforms (Barnes and Noble, Amazon, iBooks, etc). This is a sale sponsored by my US publisher, Berkley. You can find the ebook here.
I hope that 2024 is filled with light and goodness. Peace be with you and peace be with the world.
Thank you for reading,
SR
Dear Everyone,
I hope you had a very Merry Christmas, if you celebrate. Yesterday, I read the “Feliz Navidad” reading from Henri Nouwen’s book, and I also read Day 1 from the Twelve Days of Christmas readings. Today, I’ll continue with Day 2.
Fr. Nouwen has a unique way of both challenging and encouraging. He emphasizes community and friendship, but also humility and service. Humility is a virtue that’s absent largely from my culture and from much of history. And yet, it contributes something so important to our own spiritual discipline and to the communities we inhabit.
Fr. Nouwen also emphasized how communities are always populated with those who confound or trouble us. He also writes how a community is a place that takes us in. This latter point really struck me. So often I think of community as a place we create for others, but really, community is the place where we are welcomed, despite our own shortcomings. I am grateful for this reading community.
I welcome your comments and Advent and Christmas reflections. Have a blessed Twelve Days of Christmas,
SR
Dear Everyone,
Yesterday was Gaudete Sunday. “Gaudete” means rejoice in Latin. One of my favourite songs is “Gaudete” performed by the Mediaeval Baebes. You can listen to it here. It’s mentioned in “Gabriel’s Rapture,” chapter 5.
During the course of Advent, we celebrate hope, peace, joy, and love. But as many of you know, it can be difficult to experience joy when one is grieving. I wanted to be sure to acknowledge that and also to point to a couple of resources. “Refuge in Grief” is a website managed by Megan Devine. On it, you’ll find lots of resources, including a Holiday Survival Guide. I also recommend her book, “It’s OK that You’re Not OK.” One of the strengths of Megan Devine’s writing is that she understands grief from experience. She is also a trained psychotherapist and weaves together her professional training with her personal journey. Whether you are grieving or whether you are close to someone who is, these resources might be helpful.
Advent and Christmas point us to Lent and Easter. Christ comes into the world to save humanity, and that process culminates in his death and resurrection. So while Advent and Christmas are a time of hope and joy, they are also a reminder of the things that bring us grief – death, loss, and pain. I was struck by the Scripture of Day 10 in our book, which was a passage from Isaiah 25: “On this mountain the Lord of Hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines …. He will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces …” Here, we have a description that sounds suspiciously like Christmas – a feast for everyone with rich food and well-aged wine. But beyond that, and more importantly, a feast where we are in the presence of God and he has eradicated death. Where we sit together, after the resurrection.
Advent and Christmas point us to Lent and Easter. The suffering of Lent and the grief and death of the crucifixion give way to the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting. Even in the midst of our suffering and grief, there is hope. There is also love and there is peace.
While it isn’t specifically a sacred song, one of my favourite songs about the resurrection is “After the Storm” by the band Mumford & Sons. You can listen to it here. It was profoundly inspirational for me when I was writing “The Roman,” which is the conclusion to the Florentine Series. The novel features my version of a resurrection.
Redemption and resurrection are themes I explore in my writing but they are also topics I spend a lot of time thinking about. And in this season of Advent, those meditations become all the more poignant as I acknowledge empty chairs at the feast. But I know we shall feast together again one day. “There will come a time, you’ll see, with no more tears ….”
Peace and joy be with you all,
SR.
Dear Everyone,
I’m so pleased to announce the debut of “Gabriel’s Redemption” part 3 only on Passionflix. This is the final instalment of “Gabriel’s Redemption,” and coincides with the ten year anniversary of its publication.
I am so grateful to Tosca Musk, Giulio Berruti, Melanie Zanetti, and the entire cast and crew. I’m also grateful to Redd Carter for writing a beautiful new song for the film.
You can subscribe to Passionflix using code GRED3 and receive a discounted subscription for $3.99 US/month for the first three months. This code is valid now and until December 31st. When you use the code, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Advent is the season of hope. I am hopeful for the future and looking forward to where my journey will take me next. I hope you will join me.
Thank you for reading and thank you for watching,
SR.
Dear Everyone,
Today marks the tenth anniversary of the publication of “Gabriel’s Redemption.” I am so grateful to my publisher, Berkley/Penguin Random House, and to my editor, Cindy Hwang, who worked with me on the book. I’m also very grateful to Nina Bocci, my publicist and friend, who read and commented on an early draft, along with Kris Babe and Jennifer D. Thank you all.
Thank you, readers, for embarking on this journey with me. I’m so pleased with the Passionflix adaptations of The Gabriel Series. The third and final instalment of “Gabriel’s Redemption” debuts only on Passionflix tomorrow, December 14th. In fact, Redd Carter has written a new song for the film, “New Kind of Love,” which is available on iTunes.
In celebration of the ten year anniversary, I am hosting a giveaway of two signed paperbacks of “Gabriel’s Redemption.” The giveaway is posted to my Instagram and my Facebook author page. You can comment on those posts in order to enter. Open internationally. Good Luck!
Thank you for reading and for watching, and cheers to the next ten years and beyond,
SR
I am honoured to have had all three of my novels appear on the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller lists. I was a Semifinalist for Best Author in the 2011 and 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards. {More About Sylvain}