An heroic journey from sacrifice to a life of fullness and authentic love!

Thank you, magnificent Mary, for this splendid book!! I was also a member of the MCs for a short time and your depiction brought back so many wonderful and sad memories. I was also in the South Bronx under Sr. Priscilla and then a first year novice in Rome at Tor Fiscale when I left after a total of 1 year 9 months. I am still Catholic and it was an old friend who is a priest in his 80s (ex- Jesuit) who recommended your book to me. What a surprise and blessing!

I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. My family was not religious but my father's uncle had been a prominent Congregational minister and was the reason my father left his home in St. Paul, Minnesota for Honolulu. (That and the Hawaiian weather of course.) I was always searching for the meaning of life and studied several religions in my search. At age 30, I became Catholic and joined the MCs in the South Bronx and then went to Rome for the novitiate. I left the MCs after 1 year and 9 months. I then searched, found and joined a more modern religious community in Memphis, TN, and left religious life in 1992.

I truly hope that Sister Prema and the leadership of the MCs recognize the truth of your words and this may actually bring about a more open spirit for all those who continue on this path. But I'm not holding my breath on this one!

Anyone who picks up this book will be mesmerized and will also probably be shocked by the reality of the MC life! I had been warned before I joined that it would be difficult and anti normal ideas of progress but I, like you, wanted to give all to God and the poor. When I was in Rome, I finally realized that God does not work in fear and I had lost the joy of my initial vocation and needed to be free!

I am telling everyone to read An Unquenchable Thirst to experience your heroic journey from sacrifice to a life of fullness and authentic love! (I am a therapist and one of my co-workers has picked up the book and can't put it down. This is what happened to me also.) Thank you so much! I can't imagine the courage you have to write and publish this!!

Susan Erdman, then Sister Dana Malia, is the sister who is standing. This photo was taken in Rome in 1979, when Susan Erdman was a novice with the Missionaries of Charity.

Susan Erdman has a Master's degree in Pastoral Studies from Loyola University in New Orleans and a Master's degree in Social Work for the University of Tennessee. She is an Employee Assistant Program Counselor/Consultant and a member of the Cathedral parish in Memphis, TN.