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Mary's Story
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After 2000 Years of Silence, Mary Tells Her Story
Barbara Swant & Ruth Anderson
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When she is chosen to bear the Messiah who will be the next King of Israel, teenage Mary knows that she has found favor with God. But things go wrong in ways she can never imagine. The story of the mother of Jesus of Nazareth is the story of a woman of first century Palestine, a wife, and a mother, who though two thousand years removed has so much in common with women of today. It is the relationship of a mother and son so much like a mother and son today.
In the story, Mary manages to avoid an arranged marriage, survive a desert escape from the evil King Herod, raise seven children, endure the loss of her husband, and keep her energetic family together as a single parent. But when Jesus challenges the status quo and angers the religious and political authorities, she begins to lose control. She struggles to bring her sons under control. Then when Jesus is arrested during the Passover festival, her dangerous and frantic nighttime race to save him begins. She finds herself helpless against the Jewish authorities acting on Rome’s behalf. When Jesus is turned over to the Romans to meet the same fate as so many political rebels of the time, Mary must watch her own son be crucified. This is the story that she will tell you in her own words. Then she will tell you how she survived her own grief, anger, and remorse. Mary’s Story is a Christian story, a Jewish story, and a mother’s story.
See this catalog CD_DVD for companion CD
Reviews:
Barb Swant and Ruth Anderson have given us a story that can nourish our hearts from Advent through Eastertide…a story that does not gloss over the human dimensions of the suffering, maternal love that sheltered and nurtured Jesus, accompanying him all the way to Golgotha. In vivid memories, interspersed with the pain of her mourning, Mary's Story brings the story of Jesus to life through the words of his mother.
Helen Wells O'Brien, M.Div.Staff Chaplain, Regions and Gillette Children's Hospitals.
This is Mary (called Myriam, her proper Hebrew name), the mother of Jesus, directly addressing the reader. Mary narrates the familiar stories from the Gospels, but as her intimate remembrances, in her own voice. Swant and Anderson have taken the meager personal details of the Gospel stories and fleshed them out in so direct a way that you feel as if you are right there with Mary as a loving mother, experiencing all her emotions, all her joys, her fears, her exhilarations and ultimately her pains, from before the birth of Jesus through her witnessing his horrifying crucifixion at the foot of the cross. This is truly Mary's Story in a way that you have never heard it before.”
Steve Barnett: multiple Grammy™-award winning record producer, composer and arranger
About the Authors
Ruth Anderson graduated from St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, with a degree in music and has done graduate studies in Europe and the Far East. Ruth continues to teach music in the public schools. Barbara Swant received undergraduate and graduate degrees from theUniversity of WI, Eau Claire in English and Psychology. She has now retired from her career as a school psychologist.
Ruth and Barb have composed and written numerous songs and plays, including Mary’s Story, the musical drama which preceded the Mary’s Story novel and CD. The play Mary’s Story ran successfully for six years in regional churches and theaters. Ruth and Barb received the Gospel Songwriter of the Year award at the 2006 Nashville Symposium for the music from Mary’s Story, and selections from the play are now included in Donne en Musica Library in Rome, Italy.
Ruth and Barb live with their families in west central Wisconsin where they enjoy the warm summers, cold winters, and all the activities that the state has to offer. They are active members of their church and often speak to church and community groups on topics related to their work.
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ISBN:
1-933794-39-9
322
Pages
xSize:
6 x 9
Binding:
Perfectbound
Publisher:
Huff Publishing
Quantity in Basket:
None
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