As you know, I have many favorite writers. I’ve quoted multitudes of them in this blog. Today I’d like to tell you about three more: Amy Ekeh, Kathy Hendricks, and Greg Kandra.

Amy Ekeh (pronounced Ay – kay, a Nigerian name of Igbo origin) is originally from Texas, currently living in Connecticut. She and her husband Ono married in 2000 and are the parents four children ranging in ages from 24 to13. Here are two quotes from her book, Stretching Your Hand Out.

The first concerns the story of the royal official who asks Jesus to cure his son. She says that this official “if often recognized for his faith… But I notice him for his begging… Those who beg in the gospels are direct and authentic… they are gut-wrenchingly honest and astonishing vulnerable. It is the outright vulnerability that I find most beautiful, most redeeming… We won’t change if we aren’t vulnerable. As it turns out, begging isn’t weak–it’s bold. Boldness and vulnerability go hand in hand. May we be so bold as to beg. May we be so vulnerable as to be changed.”

Ekeh writes of the woman suffering from hemorrhages who is cured by touching the fringe of Jesus’ clothing: “reaching for the fringe of Jesus’ clothing is an image worth contemplating… Sometimes stretching for the fringe of the healer’s garment is all we can manage. It isn’t a lack of faith or hope that places us there… at arm’s length from Jesus. Sometimes it’s just where life takes us… We may long for a prolonged, intimate encounter with Jesus of Nazareth. But sometimes–no, always–just a brush with the sacred is enough to change us.”

Kathy Hendricks is a popular speaker, catechetical leader, and author of many books. (She also edited a couple of my books for Twenty-Third publications–for which I am most grateful!) Her latest book is Opening the Heart. The subtitle describes the book more fully: Reflections, Practices, and Prayers to Guide Us Toward Beauty and Gratitude. As Kathy explains, the basic premise of the book is this: “As with the physical heart, the spiritual heart needs safeguarding from toxic elements that keep it in a perpetual state of dis-ease. By opening our hearts to God’s grace and love, we expand our capacity for beauty, mercy, compassion, empathy, joy, gratitude, hope, and other life-giving virtues.”

I wrote a recommendation for her book, praising the book for its engaging style, her reflective questions, her positive and practical suggestions, her inspiring personal stories, and the prayer at the end of each of the 5 chapters. The book’s colored drawings, photographs, and paintings, really enhance the book–for example, her 7-year-old granddaughter’s Valentine’s Day drawing of multi-colored hearts, as well as her husband’s photograph of a heart-shaped rock encased in ice. Father James Martin, SJ, writes, this book is “an absolutely beautiful book.” I agree! Another popular book by Hendricks is Grace in the Wound: Finding Hope in Long Term Grief. You might want to check out all her books at Twenty-Third Publications or on Amazon.

Deacon Greg Kandra started his blog, “The Deacon’s Bench” in 2007. Since then it has garnered millions of readers around the world. Who is this man? Kandra’s background includes nearly thirty years in broadcast journalism, mostly with CBS. He’s the winner of numerous awards in broadcast journalism as well as for the many articles he’s written for a wide variety of publications. In 2007, he was ordained a deacon for the diocese of Brooklyn, NY and he currently lives with his wife in Florida.

But let me give you two samples of his writing. This is from his homily for the Feast of the Holy Family. It’s entitled “Grace Is Everywhere.” “Like every family, the Holy Family had difficulties. There’s a great temptation to idealize them–to turn them into plastic figurines, placed on a shelf. But as much as this family was holy, this family was also human.

“They had to live in the same world we do–with deadlines to meet, bills to pay, problems to confront. More than a few times, their patience and love were tested. This was a family, after all, in which the father had planned to divorce the mother; a family in which the young son, during a trip to the big city, disappeared without telling anyone.”

Deacon Kandra also writes for the publication Give Us This Day published by Liturgical Press. Here’s another brief quote of his: “Think of all the times Jesus used small, overlooked things to explain himself. The widow’s mite… the lost sheep… a pearl. He consistently called on his followers to treasure the tiny, the neglected, the commonlace. Even at his last meal, he gave himself to the world in something as ordinary as bread; now he continues to give himself in a wafer no bigger than a coin. As he does so often, Jesus turns our expectations upside down. (GUTD, Jan. 26, 2024).

For reflection:

Did anything stand out for you in any of these writers or their writings?

Do you have any favorite writers? If so, feel free to share their names and maybe something they’ve written that you would recommend.

Special Announcement:

I posted by first “Sunflower Seeds” on February 13, 2012. In honor of the 14th anniversary of this blog,

I will be raffling off FIVE copies of my latest booklet,”Walking with Mary through Light and Darkness.”

On Monday, February 2, I will tell you how you can enter to win one of those copies. Stay tuned…

Our song is “The Word” sung here by Amy Grant. The words of writers can be powerful and inspiring. But the most important word for our spiritual growth is the Word of God. As the Bible puts it, God’s Word is “a lamp unto my feet… a light unto my heart.”

I invite you to add a comment below to enrich my blog!