Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by livingpalm1
All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir by John Blase, Brennan Manning
4.0
It's been awhile since I've read anything by this author who has had such a deep influence on my understanding of Gospel grace. Over the past several months, I thought several times of pulling one or more of his titles off my shelf and re-reading. A couple of weeks before my birthday, Brian and I were strolling through a bookstore about ten minutes before it closed. I saw this on an endcap display and snatched it up without thinking twice, deciding it'd be a perfect early-birthday gift for me!
I read it one sitting -- until 2am. Manning's story did not surprise me as much as help me connect all the dots between the bits and pieces of self-disclosure I'd read in his other books. I was sad to hear so much suffering in his life, so much heartache, so many failures. And I was a bit nervous to turn each page, afraid to discover the story that would ultimately discredit all that I'd learned from this alcoholic, de-frocked priest. Instead, each sad story, each disappointing relationship, each new discovery of weakness served only to increase the man's credibility as a ragamuffin -- and now an aging, ailing man -- in need of grace. His stark, naked transparency about his own history as a liar and a drunk made only one thing glaringly true: all is grace, indeed.
I read it one sitting -- until 2am. Manning's story did not surprise me as much as help me connect all the dots between the bits and pieces of self-disclosure I'd read in his other books. I was sad to hear so much suffering in his life, so much heartache, so many failures. And I was a bit nervous to turn each page, afraid to discover the story that would ultimately discredit all that I'd learned from this alcoholic, de-frocked priest. Instead, each sad story, each disappointing relationship, each new discovery of weakness served only to increase the man's credibility as a ragamuffin -- and now an aging, ailing man -- in need of grace. His stark, naked transparency about his own history as a liar and a drunk made only one thing glaringly true: all is grace, indeed.