In God's Womb

Overview

"An author and retreat leader, Gateley has led a fascinating life—an exceptional blend of contemplation and action that has taken her to places as divergent as the Sahara desert and the streets of Chicago, where she created a refuge for prostitutes. In this memoir, she recounts her journey in poetry and prose, beginning with a spiritual experience at age five, when she awoke in the night to see a beautiful shining woman she later concluded was the Virgin Mary. A devout Catholic child, Gateley decided as a teen to give her life to God. After teaching in Africa, she returned to her native England to found the Volunteer Missionary Movement, an organization of lay missionaries. By 1993, Gateley had become a popular speaker, but an incident in which she was photographed holding a chalice at an altar—which, she explains, she did by invitation and not as a priestly act—led to her being barred from some Catholic dioceses. Today, she writes, she increasingly faces exclusion from doing what she most feels called to do. Despite this, her writing is remarkably absent of bitterness, and she manages to end on a hopeful note." --Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --Publishers Weekly

 "Every now and every then, God and circumstances create larger than life people who change the world. Edwina is one of those people. If you doubt it, read this!" --Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, Center for Action and Contemplation "In God's Womb". 

What led Edwina Gateley to serve the poor in Africa, inspire lay people to become missioners on four continents, befriend and minister to women in prostitution in Chicago, go to a hermitage in the Sahara Desert and to a trailer in Illinois to pray, adopt an African-American baby, and without seeking it, become one of todays most popular contemporary speakers and retreat leaders in North America, Ireland and the United Kingdom?

This amazing memoir begins with a childhood mystical experience and continues with the authors responses to the Christ she began to recognize in her brothers and sisters everywhere.

Edwina Gateley is a poet, artist, writer, lay minister, and religious educator. She is the founder of the Volunteer Missionary Movement and of Genesis House in Chicago. Her bestselling books include Soul Sisters and Christ in the Margins.