Judy Hirst

This book first came to my attention when I was on a 'quiet day' retreat a couple of months ago. The vicar leading the retreat had brought along a selection of books for attendees to borrow and read during the day. [Struggling to be Holy] caught my eye because of the title - 'oh, it certainly is a struggle!' I thought. I read the introduction and the first two of the six chapters during the retreat and ended up buying a copy of my own later.

It's not a thick book, only about 120 pages, and nicely succinct. The six chapters, or 'reflections' as they're called, are about bringing our imperfections to God, desire, forgiveness, paying attention, friendship, and success and failure. Hirst draws on her personal experience and that of people she has counselled, as well as stories from Scripture, in each reflection. There are also very well-chosen quotations from novels, poetry, hymns, and other contemporary writers about faith throughout.

One of the things I really like about this book is that it doesn't try to do too much, although its themes are important ones. The main ideas of each reflection could be summed up in a sentence or two; I can easily take them away and mull them over in mind and heart. There isn't a word out of place. The tone of the writing is personal and friendly without being too informal - Hirst's background as a pastoral counsellor is apparent. It's also obvious that she's a woman of broad reading and much experience, but humble: one has the sense that she finds everyone else at least as interesting as herself!

I was thinking about discussing this one in the upcoming book group meeting, and what sorts of questions we might bring up, when to my surprise I discovered that there are discussion questions included for each reflection - they're just tucked away in the back, after the footnotes, in a smaller font than the main text. That seemed a little peculiar as they're easy to miss back there. Perhaps they'd be better placed at the end of their respective chapters; then again, they can be distracting from the flow of a book, so perhaps not.… (meer)